Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Jonathon Dabell Un Uomo Da Rispettare (or The Master Touch, as it is known in the English-speaking world) is a German-Italian crime caper which finds a big Hollywood star in the lead role. This was a common ploy with European films of the 60s and 70s, presumably with the aim of securing a wider market for their film… John Mills, Roger Moore, George Kennedy, Richard Burton, Oliver Reed and many other established talents all lent their names to one or more of these Euro-trash movies at some point or other. Here, the big name in question is Kirk Douglas, playing against type as a career criminal with his eyes fixed on one final score.Just released from a three year jail sentence, thief Steve Wallace (Kirk Douglas) heads back home to reunite with his wife Anna (Florinda Bolkan). Before he gets there, he is accosted by crimelord Muller (Wolfgang Preiss), who tries to persuade Steve to do a job for him – the near-impossible burglary of a million dollars worth of insurance money from a high-tech building in Hamburg. Steve refuses, pointing out that he always did well enough working for himself, and was only jailed in the first place after disastrously attempting to do a job for Muller. However, Steve is secretly intrigued at the prospect of going after this huge prize. He enlists a circus trapeze artist named Marco (Giuliano Gemma) and persuades him to carry out a small robbery at a local pawn shop, carried out at exactly the same moment that he plans to steal the fortune in insurance money. Steve's plan is to take the rap for the pawn shop job – a mere 18 months in jail – while in actual fact he has really carried out the much bigger insurance money robbery. Neither Muller, nor the cops, will realise he is responsible for the bigger crime and the money will be waiting for him when he is released from prison. But can he really trust his new partner in crime? And will his long-suffering wife wait another 18 months to be with her man?Although it contains an intriguing idea – deliberately getting caught for a small crime to disguise a large one – Un Uomo Da Rispettare is generally a lacklustre and disappointing affair. There's a good car chase halfway through and Douglas is in decent form as the villain, but apart from these scant pickings the film doesn't amount to much. The characters are thinly developed and hard to care for; Morricone's score is unexceptional (by Morricone standards, anyway); the robbery itself lacks any true sense of tension due to a confused and under-developed build-up. There are far better examples of these crime caper-style films out there… this one is for genre aficionados and Kirk Douglas completists only.

JasparLamarCrabb A not bad but also not so great heist film. Kirk Douglas is a recently released from prison safe-cracker who, after turning down an offer from the Mob, decides to pull the job himself. He recruits circus gymnast Giuliano Gemma. Mayhem ensues. Douglas and Gemma soon find themselves pursued by mafia goon Romano Puppo as well as entangled in a really goofy love triangle with Douglas's infinitely patient girlfriend (Florinda Bolkan). Director Michele Lupo keeps the pace moving quickly and there's at least one excellent and creative car chase sequence involving Puppo & Gemma. Though an Italian production, most of the filming appears to have been done in Germany. Douglas is fine, not just slumming it in an Giallo quickie. The striking Bolkan gives a terrific performance. The music is by Ennio Morricone and the cinematography is by the great Tonino Delli Colli, who managed to work with everyone in Italy (from Wertmuller and Fellini to Pasolini and Leone).

Cristi_Ciopron Michele Lupo directed this Morricone—scored Eurothriller made after all the precepts of the art; the cast is _prima—Douglas, Gemma and Mrs. Bolkan (a '70s lean supple _cutie _hottie, in case anyone is rude enough to inquire …).Genre—wise, THE MASTER TOUCH is a very straightforward gritty caper. The regular elements of a Eurothriller are on display—streetwise characters, car—chases, fistfights (between Gemma, here a circus acrobat, and his nemesis). A good caper functions on the diversity of the crooks involved—e.g., Gabin and Delon; or, Pitt, Clooney, etc.; or, here, Douglas and Gemma.The score is scarce but very atmospheric—dramatic and creepy, enhancing the suspense. This chilling music is, as mentioned previously, Morricone's.The denouement scene on the waterfront is both exciting, awesome, and iconic, coining some iconic frames for all three protagonists—Douglas, deceived; Gemma, scared; and Mrs. Bolkan, so cool, a genuine noir woman. The names allude to Douglas playing an American, and Mrs. Bolkan, a Hispanic babe, though the action is set in Germany.Gemma was, of course, a '70s Italian (anachronistic) cross between a Pitt and a Willis—anyway, smoother than Willis and less talented than Pitt ….Pals, if you are as addicted to Eurothrillers as I believe you are, then there's no further need to add that these flicks are distinguished by a singular gritty sharpness, their melodrama is sharp and singularly appealing. I have done a few entries here on this genre—movies with Nero, Delon ….

goods116 If you love those 70's films, this has it all. The cars, the clothes, the "modern" machinery that is hokey today, and camera angles, etc. The best part of the film is one of the best car chases on film (perhaps top 10 best ever, really !), with no CGI, quick cutaways, etc., worth watching for this alone. The rest of the heist is pretty standard, but decent, with a complicated ending of course (it never just ends clean in these movies now, does it?). The movie takes place in Germany, although of course all of the text is in English, as if people in Germany speak English as a matter of course in their daily lives. It does not matter though, Hamburg is portrayed as gritty, again, that 70's gritty that we all miss and love to see in films.