Frightening in two ways. A solid cast (Coburn was always watchable) plays a cadre of professional pickpockets and petty thieves who actually live quite high off the takings. Unfortunately, the movie only comes to life when they're at work. Otherwise, it becomes a romantic-triangle soap opera that tries, and fails, to twinkle. The first way the movie is frightening is the way it fails to show any life between the (all-too-brief) pickpocketing interludes.
More frightening is seeing how these people actually work (I'm sure their methods haven't changed a bundle). Back then, it was an inconvenience to replace a drivers license or other stuff . . . but the pickpockets were only after the money. Even credit cards were of limited use then. They never saw the value of a Social Security card. And everyone carried a limited amount of cash because no one had debit cards!
Though an early scene shows these guys are just pickpockets with hearts of gold trying to make a living in tough times, in these days of identity theft, this gang hardly seems cuddly anymore. They are the sort of thieves who these days can cost you all your money, plus your reputation. Shakespeare saw it four hundred years ago, "Good name in man and woman . . . Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him,And makes me poor indeed."
Worth watching for Coburn, and also for seeing just how these thugs can rob you without your knowing it. It's hard to believe people can actually steal your life so easily, but it's done.
More frightening is seeing how these people actually work (I'm sure their methods haven't changed a bundle). Back then, it was an inconvenience to replace a drivers license or other stuff . . . but the pickpockets were only after the money. Even credit cards were of limited use then. They never saw the value of a Social Security card. And everyone carried a limited amount of cash because no one had debit cards!
Though an early scene shows these guys are just pickpockets with hearts of gold trying to make a living in tough times, in these days of identity theft, this gang hardly seems cuddly anymore. They are the sort of thieves who these days can cost you all your money, plus your reputation. Shakespeare saw it four hundred years ago, "Good name in man and woman . . . Is the immediate jewel of their souls: Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him,And makes me poor indeed."
Worth watching for Coburn, and also for seeing just how these thugs can rob you without your knowing it. It's hard to believe people can actually steal your life so easily, but it's done.