The Thomas Crown Affair

The Thomas Crown Affair.
1968 The Mirisch Corporation & United Artists; now owned by MGM.
Starring: Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Jack Weston, Gordon Pinsent, Yaphet Kotto, Fritz Weaver
Director: Norman Jewison
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or part of MGM's Steve McQueen Collection.

Thomas Crown (McQueen) is a young and handsome millionaire responsible for a perfect crime: he had five men rob a bank, and then dump the money ($2.6 million) in a trash can. Crown found the money later, and stored it all in a Swiss bank. Soon after, an independent insurance investigator, Vicki Anderson (Dunaway), begins working on investigating the heist, and after digging deeper, begins to suspect Crown was the mastermind. To get closer, Anderson begins seeing Crown socially, but openly tells him that she's investigating him.

Pretty soon, they both fall in love, and Vicki is in a tight spot, since she is morally obligated to bring Thomas Crown to justice. Things are complicated further after Crown organizes another caper just for the hell of it.

Norman Jewison utilized split screens frequently to show simultaneous actions; this was inspired by the groundbreaking 1967 Canadian short film In the Labyrinth. Also, Sean Connery declined the lead role of this film, a decision he said he would come to regret.

Recommended.