Thief
1981 · 123 min
Directed by Michael Mann. Written by Michael Mann. Starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Willie Nelson.
Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.
Critics 80% · audiences 81% · streaming on Prime Video, Roku Channel, Hoopla · $11 million in the US and Canada on its first run · about 4.1 million tickets sold, 1.8% of the country
What they said about Thief
- 1981
he's going to have to learn how to edit himself, to resist the temptation to allow dialogue that is colorful to turn, all of a sudden, into deep, abiding purple
— Vincent Canby - 1981
one of the most intelligent thrillers I've seen
— Roger Ebert - 1981
If Thief has a weak point, it is probably in the handling of the Willie Nelson character
— Roger Ebert - 1981
Willie has played the character so well that we wanted more. But, then, I suppose it is a good thing when a movie creates characters we feel that strongly about, and Thief is populated with them. It's a thriller with plausible people in it.
— Roger Ebert
How it got made
While developing the script, Mann optioned former cat burglar Frank Hohimer's memoir The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar. He ultimately decided not to use any of the book material in his screenplay, but Hohimer's book received screen credit under the option terms.
Mann made James Caan do research as a thief for his role, and said: I always find it interesting, people who are aware, alert, conscious of what they do and are pretty good at it... People who want to put in 50-60 hours a week and go home and are not really conscious of life moving by, don't really interest me very much... As part of the curriculum designed for an actor getting into character, I try to imagine what's going to really help bring this actor more fully into character. And so I try to imagine what experiences are going to make more dimensional his intake of Frank, so that he is Frank spontaneously when I'm shooting. So one of the most obvious things is it'd be pretty good if [James Caan] was as good at doing what Frank does as is Frank.The character Leo was patterned after Chicago Outfit bosses Felix Alderisio and Leo Rugendorf.
Thief marks the first film appearance of actors Dennis Farina, William Petersen, James Belushi and Robert Prosky. At the time a Chicago police officer, Farina appears as a mob henchman. Conversely, John Santucci (real name: John Schiavone), who plays the role of corrupt cop Urizzi, was a recently paroled thief on whom the character Frank was partly based, and acted as a technical adviser on the film. Another actor in the film, W.R. 'Bill' Brown, was also a former safecracker and associate of Joseph Scalise. Chuck Adamson (Detective Ancell) and Nick Nickeas (Nick) were also Chicago police officers, while Gavin MacFadyen, who plays Detective Boresko, was a journalist who later served as adviser to Mann's 1999 film The Insider.
At the box office
In the U.S., Thief earned a modest $4.3 million. While not a financial success in its initial release, the film has become a reference point in Mann's career, especially with the release of his crime epic, Heat, with which this movie has many similarities.