Jimmy Bourne (Rex Harrison) is an art thief, and a really good one at that. Pulling a long recon to steal a painting at a Spanish villa, Jimmy pulls off the job successfully. He gets away unnoticed, handing the rolled-up painting to his partner (and future wife), Eve (Rita Hayworth). Getting it through customs though, Eve loses the tube, forcing Jimmy and his forging art painting partner Jean (Joseph Wiseman), to improvise. It doesn't take long before the truth comes out. A visitor at the Spanish villa, Dr. Munoz (Gregoire Aslan), has pictures that can blackmail Jimmy, Jean and Eve....unless they pull off another art heist for him. Munoz wants the crew to take a Goya painting from the Prado Museum in Madrid. The problem? The painting is large, really large, and won't make for an easy job. The alternative is simple; jail.
Watch enough movies from any genre, and you will become familiar with it and all its conventions, cliches and stereotypes. If you like that genre enough to keep coming back to the well, that's a good thing. Not every heist movie is an extremely dark, cynical story, but the best and more memorable usually are. The job is usually the easiest part with the fallout following the job usually producing more fireworks. From director George Marshall, 'Happy' falls in between unfortunately. Everything from the music to the characters reflects a light, positive, even goofy tone. At the opposite end of the spectrum are some very dark, very surprising twists. If the story had picked one or the other, it could have been significantly better. Don't waver back and forth. Pick a route.
Through the light and the dark, I was most drawn to the casting. Harrison, Hayworth and Wiseman as a small team of crooks pulling an art heist? Count me in. These are three very respectable actors. I don't mean that heist movies don't attract good actors, but seeing actors of this caliber is pretty cool. Harrison as Jimmy is the quiet, gentlemanly thief, always composed, always ready with a contingency plan. Hayworth is okay as Eve, but the character gets on the shrill, worrisome side almost immediately. I didn't buy the chemistry between Harrison and Hayworth either. My favorite part was Wiseman as Jean, an accomplished painter who paints duplicates for Jimmy, usually fighting off his own nerves (some untimely throwing up too) in the process at the job gets closer, or unfortunately...during the job.
Also joining the cast is Aslan, doing what he does best as a menacing, intimidating villain, favoring a walking cane with a rifle in it. Alida Valli plays Duchess Blanca, a well-off, mysterious European woman with her hand in everything. Virgilio Teixeira has a fun and small but key supporting part as Cayetano, a Spanish bullfighter who may be an unknowing participant in Jimmy's job. Also look for George Rigaud, Britt Ekland, Peter Illing and Gerard Tichy in smaller parts.
I did like a lot about this movie. Marshall films in black and white, shooting on-location in Madrid and in Paris. That B&W look gives 'Happy' a throwback, retro visual look. It's a beautiful end product. I also liked the musical score from composer Mario Nascimbene, a mixture of light-hearted music and soft whistling. It leans more toward the light, positive side of the story. When the story turns to the dark, the score doesn't necessarily keep up in the tone department, but I liked the score just the same.
So back and forth between light and dark, the highlight of this heist flick is the actual heist at the Prado Museum. We know how Jimmy and Jean will pull the job, using Jean's forged duplicate to get their hands on Goya's The Second of May 1808. It's a straightforward, pretty simple job that takes advantage of a diversion outside the museum to distract the guards, but like the parts of the movie that do work, it has a certain charm to the developing caper. The bad part? The diversion Jimmy utilizes ends up involving murder, but he doesn't seem bothered by that in the least. When the character background reflects that he's an up-and-up English gentleman only to show no worry about a friend being murdered struck me as odd and out of place. I liked parts of 'Happy' enough, but not enough to really recommend this one fully. Give it a try at Youtube at the link below.
The Happy Thieves (1961): ** 1/2 /****
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