Product Details

• Actors: Burt Reynolds, Lesley-Anne Down, David Niven, Timothy West, Patrick Magee
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300213854
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,483 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, sexy heist movie - but still no DVD?, August 25, 2007

By 

Darren Harrison "DVD collector and reviewer" (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rough Cut [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Almost 20 years before Catherine Zeta Jones played a woman out to catch gentleman jewel thief Sean Connery in the Hollywood blockbuster "Entrapment," the same scenario was played out by Lesley Anne-Down and Burt Reynolds - well, almost the same.
This more low key affair, though no less enjoyable, is the type of caper that Cary Grant might have played 20 years earlier and indeed Reynolds gives a serviceable impression of Grant within the opening minutes of the movie that Down disses by referring to it as a "Tony Curtis doing Cary Grant."
I have a soft spot for heist movies, through from the 1960s with it's "Italian Job" and "Oceans 11" through the 1970s with films such as "11 Harrowhouse" and "Diamonds" right up to the last decade with the aforementioned "Entrapment" and remakes of both "The Italian Job" and "Ocean's 11."
I think part of the fascination is in the shear audacity and genius that the criminals put into their schemes, it's part of what makes the "Mission Impossible" movies so entertaining.
So, what about this movie. In it Reynolds plays American gentleman jewel thief Jack Rhodes who is being doggedly pursued by Scotland Yard Inspector Cyril Willis (played wonderfully by David Niven - who himself is no stranger to gentleman jewel thief's having played one in the original "Pink Panther").
In an effort to nab Rhodes before his impending retirement Niven's character Willis blackmails English socialite and kleptomaniac Gillian Bromley (played by the incredibly sexy Lesley Anne-Down of "Sphinx" and "Great Traim Robbery" fame) in a plot to catch Rhodes in the act.
Willis has the reluctant Gillian feed Rhodes information on an upcoming $30 million diamond transfer from London to Antwerp intending to lie in wait of Rhodes.
With an entertaining cast of characters from a Nazi pilot to an African-American air traffic controller, Joss Ackland as a Dutch police inspector and even Pierce Brosnan's then-wife the late Casandra Harris as a flighty partygoer, this movie fairly zips along. It's got a great dry sense of humor and really does deserve a DVD release.
And, as with all good heist movies, there's a wicked twist at the end that caught me so of guard that I was reaching for the rewind button seconds after it happened. Yes, this movie really does satisfy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun, October 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rough Cut [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Burt Reynolds plays Jack Rhodes, an immensely successful diamond thief. He is resolutely pursued by Chief Inspector Cyril Willis (David Niven) of New Scotland Yard who wants to nab him before his retirement.

CI Willis blackmails Gillian Bromley (Lesley Ann Down) in order to get to Rhodes and lure him into a trap using $30 million in diamonds as bait. Rhodes takes the bait, knowing it to be a trap because he easily seduces Gillian, and the battle begins.

You always know that Rhodes will get the diamonds, but the twist which develops which allows this makes for a brilliant ending. Well worth watching.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sexy heist comedy with Reynolds, Down, Niven, December 29, 2004

By 

Joseph A. Admire (Manassas, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rough Cut [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A good chance to see Burt Reynolds in non-"Smokey and the Bandit" mode. Reynolds is Jack Rhodes, a debonair American jewel thief who's pursued by dogged Scotland Yard investigator Willis (David Niven) while pursuing gorgeous kleptomaniac Gillian (Lesley-Anne Down) and a fortune in jewels, which all ends up in a complicated operation to glom the valuables in Amsterdam. Exceptionally diverting!