Based on a comic novel by acclaimed thriller writer Eric Ambler and scripted by Monja Danischewsky, a writer of Ealing comedies, Jules Dassin (Riffi) returns to the screen with a new heist movie. A jewel thief gathers a group of amateurs without criminal records, each with a different talent, their goal to steal the jewel-encrusted dagger of Mehmed II at the Tokapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. The team face numerous challenges. The dagger is attached to a weight-sensitive alarm, and one of their members is a police informant. The planning and execution of the heist inspired Bruce Geller to create Mission: Impossible, and the scene of a man lowered by wire to snatch the dagger inspired the best scene in Brian DePalma’s M:I 1. Peter Ustinov won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.