A Touch of Larceny is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Ivan Foxwell & Roger MacDougall from the novel "The Megstone Plot" written by Paul Winterton. It stars James Mason, George Sanders and Vera Miles. Music is by Philip Green and cinematography by John Wilcox.
Plot finds Mason as Naval Commander Max Easton, a one time hero and a playboy who now idles away his time at an Admiralty desk. When an old comrade, Sir Charles Holland (Sanders), arrives on the scene with the beautiful Virginia Killain (Miles) on his arm, Easton wants her for himself. But Holland is well off financially and Easton is not, so he hatches a plan to make the press think he is a traitor to his country, and thus when they write damning articles about him he can sue them for libel!
It's little seen these days and merely a small entry on either the curriculum vitae of Mason & Sanders, but it deserves to have a bigger audience. It's very dry in humour and paced sedately without histrionics or extraneous passages of play (it was BAFTA nominated for Best British Screenplay), this is, in short, a long way from being screwball like! The novel it is adapted from apparently carries a cynical edge (not read it myself you see), and whilst the thematics here in the filmic adaptation; caddish rivalry and manipulation of the press, do lend a fragment of spice to the story, it's mostly played in a playful unobtrusive manner. The joy comes in watching the two wonderful cad lad actors on each side of the bonnie Miss Miles. All parties are doing darn fine work, with Mason dominating the screen with an engaging performance that pours scorn on those who thought he couldn't do comedy.
No masterpiece for sure, and sometimes it comes off as being a little bit odd, but this be a film to savour for the acting, the dialogue and the warm glow that follows when the end does come. 7/10
Plot finds Mason as Naval Commander Max Easton, a one time hero and a playboy who now idles away his time at an Admiralty desk. When an old comrade, Sir Charles Holland (Sanders), arrives on the scene with the beautiful Virginia Killain (Miles) on his arm, Easton wants her for himself. But Holland is well off financially and Easton is not, so he hatches a plan to make the press think he is a traitor to his country, and thus when they write damning articles about him he can sue them for libel!
It's little seen these days and merely a small entry on either the curriculum vitae of Mason & Sanders, but it deserves to have a bigger audience. It's very dry in humour and paced sedately without histrionics or extraneous passages of play (it was BAFTA nominated for Best British Screenplay), this is, in short, a long way from being screwball like! The novel it is adapted from apparently carries a cynical edge (not read it myself you see), and whilst the thematics here in the filmic adaptation; caddish rivalry and manipulation of the press, do lend a fragment of spice to the story, it's mostly played in a playful unobtrusive manner. The joy comes in watching the two wonderful cad lad actors on each side of the bonnie Miss Miles. All parties are doing darn fine work, with Mason dominating the screen with an engaging performance that pours scorn on those who thought he couldn't do comedy.
No masterpiece for sure, and sometimes it comes off as being a little bit odd, but this be a film to savour for the acting, the dialogue and the warm glow that follows when the end does come. 7/10