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The Light Touch

Play trailer Poster for The Light Touch 1951 1h 50m Mystery & Thriller Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 3 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Burglar Sam Conride (Stewart Granger) usually reports to black market kingpin Felix Guignol (George Sanders), but when the crook nabs a priceless painting, he decides to stash the loot and fence it himself. To appease the skeptical Felix, Sam enlists brilliant artist Anna Vasarri (Pier Angeli) to forge a version of the stolen painting. Eventually both Felix and the authorities discover that Sam still has the original painting, so he and Anna are forced to flee for their lives.

Critics Reviews

View All (3) Critics Reviews
A.H. Weiler New York Times The Light Touch, in short, may not be art but it is entertaining. Rated: 3/5 Apr 8, 2008 Full Review TV Guide Though the locales are nicely photographed, this is a pretty dull picture. Rated: 2/4 Apr 8, 2008 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews A clunky art caper story. Rated: C- Feb 24, 2003 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Writer/director Richard Brooks is someone whom I've come to appreciate more and more over recent years. I think I initially became familiar with him over his western like "The Professionals" and "Bite the Bullet," which are both good and solid entertainment, but are not as smart or hard hitting as some of his best films like "Blackboard Jungle," "In Cold Blood," or "Brute Force." This film, "The Light Touch," was his second feature film as a director and is quite good, even if it's isn't as great as some of his classics. The story follows art thief Stewart Granger as a young innocent artist, Pier Angeli, falls in love with him, thinking he's a legitimate art dealer. Granger tried to keep Angeli out of his dirty dealings with crime figure George Sanders, but that's not how drama works. The film features a solid cast, that also includes Norman Lloyd and Mike Mazurki, and some nice on location photography, but the film is rather slow moving and Granger seems to give a rather lifeless performance. I was never all that familiar with Pier Angeli, but she is quite good in the film and reminds me of a young Ingrid Bergman. I think what this film needed was was a director like Jules Dassin to bring more of a clipped pace to this character driven crime story. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Okay caper film would have benefited from stronger leads but George Sanders's droll performance makes up for a great deal. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Light Touch

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Burglar Sam Conride (Stewart Granger) usually reports to black market kingpin Felix Guignol (George Sanders), but when the crook nabs a priceless painting, he decides to stash the loot and fence it himself. To appease the skeptical Felix, Sam enlists brilliant artist Anna Vasarri (Pier Angeli) to forge a version of the stolen painting. Eventually both Felix and the authorities discover that Sam still has the original painting, so he and Anna are forced to flee for their lives.
Director
Richard Brooks
Producer
Pandro S. Berman
Screenwriter
Richard Brooks, Jed Harris, Tom Reed
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre
Mystery & Thriller, Comedy
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 50m