This is a very entertaining spoof of one of those Mission Impossible films or TV shows. To steal a diamond a team of criminals decide to rob the Brooklyn museum of a precious diamond. The twist in this film is that everything goes wrong and they stumble along from one improbable and ridiculous situation after another. They succeed in stealing the diamond which they then manage to misplace. They spend the rest of the film wondering where they lost it and how to steal it yet again.
The film has a very good cast starting with Robert Redford. He was an extremely good looking guy in the classic Hollywood tradition. One of Redford's strengths as an actor was comedy and in his low key deadpan way he was very funny in this film. Redford's big break was in the Broadway play Barefoot in the Park as Paul Bratter. Paramount was smart enough to cast him in the film version of this Neil Simon play and he pretty much stole the movie away from a very manic Jane Fonda playing his wife Corrie Bratter.
The rest of the cast were no slouches in the comedy category. George Segal played Redford's brother in law and he was good in dramatic performances but he also excelled in comedy. Ron Liebelman and Paul Sand were also well cast as the remaining members of the gang. Finally there was Zero Mostel playing Sand's father who is also a shyster lawyer. Mostel was always a very larger than life presence on film but given a good part and a director who knew how to keep him under reasonable control he could deliver the goods.
This film was directed by Peter Yates an Englishman who kicked off his film career with two good crime thrillers Bullitt and Robbery. Yates was a versatile director who didn't get stuck in the crime movie category. He made a lot of different types of films and was fairly successful. Yates keeps the plot moving along from one scene to another while not neglecting the comedy or character moments.
The film was written by ace screenwriter William Goldman from a book by Donald Westlake who specialized in serious and not so serious crime novels.
The running time is 105 minutes.
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