{"id":34,"date":"2026-05-26T06:28:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T06:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/?p=34"},"modified":"2026-05-26T06:28:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T06:28:04","slug":"the-thomas-crown-affair-1968-more-than-a-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"The Thomas Crown Affair (1968): More Than a Heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who saw <\/span>The Thomas Crown Affair<\/span><\/i> in cinemas in 1968 would likely have first been drawn to the phrases printed on its promotional poster: \u201cA thrill a minute for a million dollars,\u201d and \u201cMcQueen and Dunaway are partners in crime.\u201d They would then have entered a dark theatre, sat in a red velvet seat, which was soon to become their launching pad into a world of colour and emotion.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s titles open with a captivating, colourful sequence accompanied by Michel Legrand\u2019s nostalgic score \u201cThe Windmills of Your Mind,\u201d a piece that would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1969.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story is about a millionaire businessman named Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) who orchestrates a bank robbery in the city of Boston. Throughout the film, none of his accomplices ever meet him, and they do not even know each other before the heist. The robbery itself takes up nearly one-third of the film, and Crown ultimately succeeds in stealing two million dollars, which he transfers to a bank in Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is the robbery scene poorly and implausibly constructed? Or, as critics later argued, is it unrealistic? Perhaps. Do we really need to see how a wealthy, intelligent thief calls his associates\u2014each waiting in telephone booths across the city\u2014and tells them, \u201cNow\u2019s the time!\u201d? No.<\/span><\/p>\n

But immediately after the initial suspense fades, and once the film fully embraces its genre (crime), the audience realizes that the story is not actually about a bank robbery, but\u2014as the title correctly suggests\u2014about a relationship (The Thomas Crown Affair can indeed be translated as \u201cThe Relationship of Thomas Crown\u201d). A thrilling yet dangerous relationship that keeps the viewer curious until the end: who will win, and who will lose?<\/span><\/p>\n

Norman Jewison, in this film, used the \u201cmulti-image frame technique\u201d for the first time in Hollywood to depict the coordination of five men executing a bank robbery. A technique originally developed and used by Canadian filmmaker Christopher Chapman in his Oscar-winning 1967 short <\/span>A Place to Stand<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the successful robbery, an insurance investigator named Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) is hired to work with Boston police detective Eddie Malone (Paul Burke) to find the thief. Vicki intuitively suspects Thomas Crown as the mastermind and enters his private life to recover the money. This is where the real story begins\u2014the affair of Thomas Crown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the film, Vicki examines Thomas\u2019s private life, which is full of excitement, pleasure, and danger. They dine together, drink wine, race a car along the Massachusetts coastline (who doesn\u2019t love McQueen\u2019s stunts?), sleep together, and spend long hours on the beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, with Detective Malone\u2019s help, Vicki eventually finds the getaway driver of the robbery, who has never seen the mastermind. She sets up a plan to bring Thomas and the driver into the same room, hoping the driver will recognize his voice. The plan fails, but for Vicki, Thomas is not only still the prime suspect\u2014he is now the only mastermind left in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

At sunset, Thomas takes Vicki to his luxurious home. In the library, she notices a chessboard laid out on the table, ready to be played. Thomas asks, \u201cDo you play?\u201d Vicki confidently replies, \u201cTry me!\u201d and the film\u2019s iconic erotic chess scene begins\u2014a scene the director called \u201cthe longest kiss in Hollywood history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Haskell Wexler\u2019s cinematography, with masterful use of shallow focus, practical lighting, and fluid camera movement, elevates the chess scene inside the dark, old library. Combined with Michel Legrand\u2019s dreamlike score, McQueen and Dunaway create one of the most luminous romantic sequences in cinema. The actors\u2019 physical and facial performance, along with the chess game itself\u2014a symbol of their intelligence and strategy\u2014contribute to the scene\u2019s grandeur.<\/span><\/p>\n

Life is satisfying, but over time, sorrow overtakes Vicki. Gradually emotionally involved with Thomas, she becomes worried about the future. Once, on the beach while they are enjoying the sea view, she anxiously asks, \u201cHave you ever brought anyone else here?\u201d revealing how vulnerable she has become compared to the beginning of the relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film ends with Thomas organizing another major heist. This time, he informs Vicki of the plan to ensure she stays with him. Vicki prepares for the day of the robbery, but things do not go as she expects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the film was criticized for its narrative weaknesses, for audiences who view cinema not as a sequence of events but as an emotional experience, <\/span>The Thomas Crown Affair<\/span><\/i> remains timelessly respected.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of an article by Renata Adler, published in June 1968 in <\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i>, the critic invites readers to watch the film. She writes: \u201cThe film opened yesterday at the Astor Cinema, at the intersection of 34th Street and East 86th Street.\u201d As I read this article, unconsciously humming \u201cThe Windmills of Your Mind,\u201d I suddenly wished I had been there: summer 1968, New York, the premiere of <\/span>The Thomas Crown Affair<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who saw The Thomas Crown Affair in cinemas in 1968 would likely have first been drawn to the phrases printed on its promotional poster: \u201cA thrill a minute for a million dollars,\u201d and \u201cMcQueen and Dunaway are partners in crime.\u201d They would then have entered a dark theatre, sat in a red velvet seat, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/untitledfigure.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}