Slick and watchable but badly lacking in narrative tension, this
European heist thriller stars a suave Kirk Douglas as Steve, an expert thief
who has just been released after a three-year prison term that stemmed from an
unsuccessful robbery arranged by a wealthy criminal named Miller (Wolfgang
Preiss). Immediately after leaving jail, Steve is seized at gunpoint by
Miller’s goons, because Miller has a new job for Steve. Unwilling to trust the
man twice, Steve refuses, and subsequently reunites with his beautiful wife,
Anna (Florinda Bolkan). Initially, Anna’s thrilled to have Steve home, but then
she detects that he’s itching to resume his life of crime—which pushes her over
the edge, because the thought of waiting while her husband does another long
stretch behind bars is more than she can take.
Meanwhile, Steve takes on an
apprentice, trapeze artist-turned-thief Marco (Giulana Gemma), and Steve
hatches a scheme to commit Miller’s crime without Miller’s participation,
doubling his potential take but also doubling his risk. Especially with the
added element of a dogged policeman (Rene Kolldehoff), who is determined to
catch Steve red-handed, the basic architecture of The Master Touch should be sufficient to support a proper thrill
ride. Unfortunately, director Michele Lupo and his collaborators are more
interested in style than substance. Major plot threads—such as the detective
angle and the hint of a romantic triangle comprising Anna, Marco, and Steve—are
malnourished, and far too much screen time is consumed by nicely shot but
pointless chase scenes, as well as sleek but tedious montages of Steve
surveiling potential crime scenes and/or preparing equipment for the big heist.
Additionally, Douglas disappears for long stretches,with Lupo padding the
running time through the inclusion of solo scenes featuring Gemma.
As a result
of all of this narrative diffusion, the main thrust of the piece gets obscured
at regular intervals, even though the whole movie is attractively filmed at
various picturesque German locations. (Lupo makes especially good use of Third Man-style Dutch angles.) Still,
the movie pays off well with a zippy action finale, and Douglas provides ample
low-key charm by relying on his innate charisma instead of falling into his
customary ’70s trap of overacting.
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