Since 'Bullitt' and 'The French Connection', car chases have become almost obligatory in the gangster films...
In 'The Burglars,' Omar Sharif drives a Fiat in hot pursuit of Belmondo through apparently Athens' busy streets, up and down flights of steps, across pavements, anywhere and everywhere; it's great fun, but it holds up the plot for some time of the film and has no real bearing on the story... It appears to have been included only for the purpose of introducing an auto-chase, because when Sharif finally catches up with Belmondo's damaged car, the pair exchange a few words and drive away...
Apart from this failure to further the plot, the chase is very well done indeed, and at times the wildly spinning cars almost seem to be part of an automobile ballet...
Omar Sharif an unlikely choice for a tough policeman plays the part of an Istanbul detective turned crooked... He discovers a plot to carry out a big robbery and at once sees his chance to cut himself in for a slice of the cake... Whether he was determined before is never been evident, but from the moment he decides to blackmail the villains for a good part of money, he becomes a one-man tornado...
There is a scene where he orders his police escort to remain behind while he investigates a cellar alone... The crooks are there all right, but it is not his intention to capture them... He just means to force them to pay up... In cold blood, he shoots one of the gang to prove his point...
France has produced many good screen actors Alain Delon and Jean Gabin, the solid, heavyweight gangster, are two who have become famous... Jean-Paul Belmondo is in a different category... He is tough, he fights hard, and he is a mixture of hero and villain...
In 'The Burglars,' he is certainly crooked, definitely a bit of a hoodlum, yet one cannot help liking him... There's a good deal of the Douglas Fairbanks athlete-type in Belmondo, and this can be seen in the film, particularly in the sequence in which he jumps from buses to cars and back again while being chased by Sharif...
In 'The Burglars,' Omar Sharif drives a Fiat in hot pursuit of Belmondo through apparently Athens' busy streets, up and down flights of steps, across pavements, anywhere and everywhere; it's great fun, but it holds up the plot for some time of the film and has no real bearing on the story... It appears to have been included only for the purpose of introducing an auto-chase, because when Sharif finally catches up with Belmondo's damaged car, the pair exchange a few words and drive away...
Apart from this failure to further the plot, the chase is very well done indeed, and at times the wildly spinning cars almost seem to be part of an automobile ballet...
Omar Sharif an unlikely choice for a tough policeman plays the part of an Istanbul detective turned crooked... He discovers a plot to carry out a big robbery and at once sees his chance to cut himself in for a slice of the cake... Whether he was determined before is never been evident, but from the moment he decides to blackmail the villains for a good part of money, he becomes a one-man tornado...
There is a scene where he orders his police escort to remain behind while he investigates a cellar alone... The crooks are there all right, but it is not his intention to capture them... He just means to force them to pay up... In cold blood, he shoots one of the gang to prove his point...
France has produced many good screen actors Alain Delon and Jean Gabin, the solid, heavyweight gangster, are two who have become famous... Jean-Paul Belmondo is in a different category... He is tough, he fights hard, and he is a mixture of hero and villain...
In 'The Burglars,' he is certainly crooked, definitely a bit of a hoodlum, yet one cannot help liking him... There's a good deal of the Douglas Fairbanks athlete-type in Belmondo, and this can be seen in the film, particularly in the sequence in which he jumps from buses to cars and back again while being chased by Sharif...