The Thomas Crown Affair

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Norman Jewison directs. Haskell Wexler behind the camera. Michel Legrand scores. Ralph E. Winters cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $4.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Made its money back 3.3× over at the box office.
• 358 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 4Directed by Norman Jewison, shot by Haskell Wexler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Michel Legrand. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Editor Ralph E. Winters shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 7Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway and Paul Burke carry the top of the cast.
• 8Marketing tagline: "McQueen and Dunaway... partners in crime.".
• 9IMDB entry: tt0063688 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 10Classified under 10 themes, including "plan", "businessman", "in love with enemy", "boredom".

The technical file

Cinematography

Haskell Wexler

Original score

Michel Legrand

Editing

Ralph E. Winters

Costume design

Theadora Van Runkle

Makeup / hair

Del Armstrong

Sound

Walter Goss

Runtime

102 min · 1h 42m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$4,300,000

Box office

$14,000,000

Return

326% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

70% 🍅 Fresh

Metacritic

66/100

IMDB rating

6.9/10 · 30,142 votes

MPAA

R

Also by

Norman Jewison

• 
  Funny Is Money

  1999 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Picture Windows

  1995 · ★ 10.0
• 
  The Judy Garland Show

  1962 · ★ 9.5
• 
  Fiddler on the Roof

  1971 · ★ 7.7
• 
  In the Heat of the Night

  1967 · ★ 7.7
• 
  The Hurricane

  1999 · ★ 7.4

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2023-06-03
  ★ 7/10

  This is a wonderfully understated, classy heist movie that demonstrates clearly the panache of Steve McQueen as an actor. In the title role, he is a millionaire who presents an outward image of a man who has everything, but privately is meticulously planning and executing a bank robbery that nets him over $2 million. When the insurers bring in their best investigator - the glamorous and sassy Faye Dunaway, she quickly susses out what's what and we have a cunning game of cat and mouse tinged with some unsentimental romance. The Michel Legrand score is superb; the dialogue taut, occasionally witty and Norman Jewison's direction is subtle and attractive leading to the scene at the end that you could never forget. Great stuff.

  Read full review ↓
• tmdb766221952023-09-28
  ★ 4/10

  They don't make 'em like this anymore, and that might be a good thing. McQueen is millionaire Thomas Crown, who hires a bunch of D.B. Cooper look-alikes to knock over a bank and give the money to him. He jets to Geneva with cash in tow, and opens a secret account that he uses to pay off his gang in installments. Fine. Jack Weston plays Erwin, one of the crooks who you just know is going to screw everything up. The Boston police are stumped, led by the lead stumped detective Eddie Malone (Paul Burke). There are no prints, no one seems to be able to give an accurate description of the gang, and the cops are at a dead end. Enter, almost thirty six minutes into this, Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway). Vicki is stylish, comes off as kind of dumb, and the perfect insurance investigator. She and Malone spend about three minutes deducing Crown is behind the robbery. Vicki is in it for the money, she gets ten percent of the more than two million dollars stolen as her salary. Vicki goes to the extraordinary means of kidnapping Erwin's child in order for him to get a large amount of money and prove he had something to do with the robbery. Vicki also makes herself available to Crown, under the watchful eye of Malone's cronies. Crown and Vicki fall in love, or is Vicki taking this investigation into some questionable territory? She lays all her cards on the table, telling Crown she is on to him, and literally ON him. Most of the rest of the film consists of this battle of twits, as one tries to outsmart the other. Finally, Crown comes up with the ultimate test for the unflappable Vicki, offering to rob the bank again and see if she will turn him in or not. This film premiered in 1968, and was the basis for the 1999 superior-in-every-way remake starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. I, too, premiered in 1968, and felt ancient while witnessing what the fashion and interior design worlds were forcing onto my young mod parents. McQueen is cool and confident, Dunaway is cool and confident, and the film is cold and aloof. The viewer does not care one iota for these people, and I think the director senses this. Jewison pulls out every cinematic trick available- thank God as a nation we were able to reject the split-screen process and recognize it for what it was- stupid. The investment made in these two characters is so minimal, I knew every move they would make. Watching this is like watching an episode of "Columbo." The crime occurs, we know who did it, and we are supposed to be entertained by the process of detecting. In this film, the sexual byplay and tension is supposed to be the entertainment, and it is not. The chess scene is cutesy, the long kiss does not seem that long, and is concluded with another of Jewison's tricks. "The Windmills of Your Mind" is one of the worst Best Song Academy Award winners ever. It sounded like it was written in a recording studio bathroom while the singer cleared his throat and the orchestra tuned their instruments. Michel Legrand cannot decide if this film is a Hollywood romance from twenty years earlier, or a modern film defying those old conventions. He is all over the map. In the end, Crown's motive for all of this is that he is bored- I know how he feels. As Dunaway chokes back a sob at the end, and shows the only emotion in "The Thomas Crown Affair," I choked back my popcorn and motioned for the STOP button on the remote.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• TH

  The Mirisch Company

  US

• NO

  Norman Jewison Productions

Key crew

• ProducerHal Ashby
• Art DirectionRobert F. Boyle
• Sound DesignerWalter Goss
• Costume DesignTheadora Van Runkle
• Music EditorTom Downing
• Makeup ArtistDel Armstrong
• EditorRalph E. Winters
• Set DecorationEdward G. Boyle
• CastingLynn Stalmaster
• EditorHal Ashby
• EditorByron 'Buzz' Brandt
• ProducerNorman Jewison
• Hair DesignerJay Sebring
• Executive ProducerWalter Mirisch
• Executive ProducerSteve McQueen
• Second Assistant DirectorWalter Hill
• Key GripMorris Rosen
• Key GripGaylin P. Schultz
• StuntsRoy Jenson
• StuntsJohn Moio
• Stunt DoubleLoren Janes
• Script SupervisorMarshall J. Wolins
• Sound RecordistClem Portman
• Foley MixerRichard Portman

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• plan
• businessman
• in love with enemy
• boredom
• hold-up robbery
• insurance fraud
• heist
• theft
• millionaire
• insurance agent

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere1968-06-19· Boston, Massachusetts
• Theatrical1968-06-26PG· IMDB says PG. Description in BBFC does not describe adult content, other country ratings similar

Also known as

International titles

• The Crown CaperUS
• Thomas Crown and CompanyUS
• El caso de Thomas CrownES
• Афера Томаса КраунаRU
• Thomas Crown ist nicht zu fassenDE