Topkapi

I watched Topkaki (1964) on TCM, an amusing film directed by Jules Dassin. Melina Mercouri, Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley, Peter Ustinov, and Robert Morley star in this 60s glamorous suspense caper. This group of jewel thieves get together to steal an emerald dagger from an Instanbul palace museum.

Topkapi is based on Eric Ambler’s novel, The Light of Day, and inspired countless imitations. Ustinov won an Oscar for his role. 

My two favorite films of Melina Mercouri are Stella and Never on Sunday.

Melina Mercouri was born in Athens, Greece, in 1923. Her first film, Stella, was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival, and it was there that she met Jules Dassin. In 1960, she shared a Best Actress Award at Cannes for her role as the exuberant prostitute in Never On Sunday, a role for which she was also Oscar nominated. The film became an international hit, popularizing Greek bouzouki music, thanks to its popular theme song.

Mercouri became quite devoted to her character. 'I loved her independence, her sense of friendship, her intense need for people to be happy. I loved her Sundays at home. We had done some research in Notaras Street, the red light district of Piraeus. The girls received us graciously and in the most bourgeois manner. There was tea, little cakes and polite conversation. They liked me ... for portraying their profession (prostitution) with dignity.'



Mercouri became an ardent anti-fascist, and lost her Greek citizenship in 1967, after campaigning against the ruling junta in Greece. She spent most of her exile in Paris, returning to Greece after the fall of the government she had protested against. In 1977 she became a Parliament member, ironically from Piraeus, the city of her greatest cinematic triumph in Never on Sunday. She later became culture minister, although she was defeated in her bid to become the mayor of Athens. Dassin and Mercouri remained married until her death on March 6, 1994 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City, from lung cancer. She received a state funeral with Prime Minister's honors at the First Cemetery of Athens four days later.

Elizabeth Lipp may very well be the first female criminal mastermind of the movies. The Light of Day was narrated by Arthur Simpson, but Topkapi is Elizabeth Lipp’s story. She speaks directly to the camera, and swoons over her passion, emeralds. They are 'dazzling, flawless and warm' which might be used to describe her, as well. She is always in charge of the operation, because she knows how to delegate, and she knows how to use her charms. And nobody questions her authority, as she seems the natural leader of this group of criminals, although amateur criminals, with the exception of her colleague, mentor and lover, Mr. Harper.

She calls herself a nymphomaniac and her powers of persuasion are used on every character actor, as well as the other half of the romantic couple, played by Maximillian Schell. He seems a little less interested in sex than the robbery, unless Miss Lipp really focuses on him. Mercouri, with her deep voice yields to no man. A passion for jewels is well within the acceptable female sphere of desire, although, these, threateningly, are embedded in a curved dagger, a symbol of both wealth and (male) power. She doesn’t want a man to give her jewels, she will take them for herself, with the aid of her crack team of thieves.