People are voting emotionally.

Best movie of this year hands down!

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This film involves a collection of rogues who set out to steal a fabulous jewel encrusted dagger from an Istanbul museum, protected by an "Indiana Jones" style nest of security features and traps, not knowing they are being watched by Turkish undercover agents mistakenly believing them to be terrorists.Filmed on location in Turkey and Paris, this film is a droll sparkling delight, a skillful blending of humor and suspense, with a touch of the exotic, making, at times, magnificent use of Istanbul for its scenic backdrop. Unlike the same director's most famous heist film, the legendary Rififi, Topkapi is light hearted in tone, but its big heist sequence is genuinely ingenious and suspenseful.Aside from the film's physical attractiveness with its color photography, much of its appeal lies with its cast of players, headed by Maximilian Schell as the mastermind behind the robbery, Melina Mercouri, Robert Morley, a spectacularly bizarre and slovenly Akim Tamiroff and, above all, Peter Ustinov as a small time hustler who becomes involved in the scheme. Ustinov's delightfully bumbling everyman (called a "schmo" by Schell when first spotting him) won him his second Academy Award as best supporting actor.

This was the perfect bookend to Rififi, even though that was black & white and French while this one was very much colourful and Pan-European, but both were excellent tense Jules Dassin robbery thrillers.Scintillating plot has jewel heist from the Topkapi museum planned minutely by suave Schell in charge of an eccentric happy-go-lucky gang of thieves including sexpot Mercouri, mechanised Morley, and eventually the crown jewel of the film, Carbuncle (On The Behind Of Humanity) Ustinov. Akim Tamiroff was hardly used but was still unforgettable as the ferociously sentimental drunken cook. Things go wrong but all problems are got round by the brainwork of Schell. Favourite bits from so many: Ustinov's frozen face as the door opens on an ugly guy in the police interrogation room; the vivid humanity on display at the wrestling festival; clambering about in their suits but getting out onto the museum roof and getting into position for the robbery; the ingenious way of lifting the jewels. It's all intricately performed, the letdown being the hurried corny ending (definitely not a Good Idea) – but at least it was still jolly. An even bigger letdown was that there was no sequel!It's fantastic but faulty and bright and breezy but barmy, it led to 7 years of Mission Impossible on TV – which was good too though never as lighthearted as this masterpiece. And the closest this gets to sex is probably the scene with a belly dancer in the background, for violence you would have to make do with the scene of a door being slammed on someone's hands! You really can't go wrong if what you're looking for is 2 hours of inconsequential solid entertainment.

I hope they paid Ustinov by the bucket load. Because he sweats more than any human should be allowed. It's tongue-in-cheek the whole way as a motley gang of thieves steals some big Turkish jewels. No doubt about it, the cast is having fun, especially Mercouri who mugs it up as the gang's, uh, girlfriend. But why shouldn't they be enjoying it. Here they are in scenic Greece and Turkey, no doubt on an expense account, and with all these assorted European types to entertain one another. Looks to me like director Dassin is redoing his classic Rififi (1955), but this time for chuckles. Still, the heist's a real nail-biter, getting across the rooftops of downtown Istanbul or hanging spider-like from a domed ceiling. As I recall, the movie caper was a smash hit back in '64, and still holds up pretty darn well. Just don't let any of that sweat get on you.

For over an hour, "Topkapi" is little more than colorful location footage, nicely presented by director Jules Dassin. You have the assembling of the "heist" team, led by brassy blonde Melina Mercouri (as Elizabeth Lipp). The main recruitment is hapless Peter Ustinov (as Arthur Simpson). He won an "Academy Award" as "Best Supporting Actor" for the year, but both the end credits and screen time agree Mr. Ustinov is the film's leading actor. Probably, they didn't consider Ustinov or his role the "leading man" type... After much ado, we come to the actual robbery - of an jeweled dagger from the "Topkapi" museum. This is the part you should not miss. The robbery - starring Ustinov, Maximilian Schell (as William Walter) and "human fly" gymnast Gilles Ségal (as Giulio) - is excellent.******** Topkapi (9/2/64) Jules Dassin ~ Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell, Gilles Segal