The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

The Thomas Crown Affair
Directed by Norman Jewison
Written by Alan Trustman
IMDb link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] Vicki Anderson: What do you get for the man who has everything?[/box]

Main selling point seems to be extreme close-ups of two beautiful people engaging in sex scenes that would not have been allowed just a couple of years earlier.  Not my thing.

Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) is an independently wealthy thrill-seeking bank director.  He and his associates conduct a high-stakes robbery of his own bank and nets $2 million dollars.  The bank’s insurer sends its sexiest and craftiest investigator Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) to find and retrieve its money.

The remainder of the movie consists of a cat and mouse game between Thomas and Vicki. She is forthright in her pursuit.  He is generally one step ahead of her.

Despite my love affair with Steve McQueen, I’m not crazy about this movie.  It plays like a heist version of a Bond movie, complete with product placements and rich men’s toys but with steamier sex and no sense of humor.  I love the theme song but also think that Noel Harrison’s  lugubrious rendition of “The Windmills of Your Mind”, used in the movie at least two or three times, is the worst ever.

Michele Legrand and Marilyn and Alan Bergman won the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song.  Legrand was nominated for Best Original Score for his first Hollywood score.

The definitive version