Main Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, Dyan Cannon, Robert Hossein
Release Year: 1971
Country: IT/FR
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
This French-made feature was based on a 1957 Hollywood "B" effort The Burglar. Both films were inspired by the same David Goodis novel. Gallic crime-flick icon Jean Paul Belmondo play a slick jewel thief who steals a valuable emerald. He is stalked by cop Omar Sharif, who when he catches up to Belmondo reveals himself to be a fellow crook, interested only in a piece of the action. Diane Cannon plays the "gun moll" role created by Jayne Mansfield in the 1957 film. Burglars ends with a set-to in a Greek grain elevator, where Sharif is smothered in a cascade of wheat--a climax later borrowed for the American crime thriller Witness (82). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The movie is known for his spectacular car chase and Belmondo's spectacular fall from a construction truck. The movie was shot twice, once in French and once in English, by the same cast.
Plot
Azad (Jean-Paul Belmondo), Ralf (Robert Hossein) and 2 others accomplices rob a suitcase of emeralds from a rich Greek citizen, M.Tasco. When Abel Zacharia (Omar Sharif), the Athenian police chief, surprises Azad's car in front of Tasco's house the night of the robbing, he decides to let Azad and his team go, hoping he could retrieve the diamonds for him. Follows a chase between Azad and the corrupt cop through Athens' streets which culminate to the final scene which will be later borrowed by Witness in 1982.
