This wonderful caper film manages to balance the right amount of intrigue, suspense and humour, created by the stellar cast including the extremely sexy and seductive Melina Mercouri and the wonderfully talented Peter Ustinov, who was awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role.

A small-time con-man (Ustinov) with passport problems gets mixed up with a gang of world-class jewellery thieves plotting to rob the Topkapi museum in Istanbul. Turkish intelligence, suspecting arms smuggling, gets involved and under pressure the con man rises to heights he'd never dreamed of.