The Thomas Crown Affair
Millionaire businessman-sportsman Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) pulls off a perfect crime by orchestrating four men to steal $2,660,527.62 from a Boston bank, along with a fifth man who drives the getaway Ford station wagon with the money and dumps it in a cemetery trash can. None of the men ever meets Crown face-to-face, nor do they know or meet each other before the robbery. Crown retrieves the money from the trash can personally after secretly following the driver of the station wagon, then personally deposits the money into an anonymous Swiss bank account in Geneva, making several trips, never depositing the money all at once so as to not draw undue attention to his actions.
Independent insurance investigator Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) is contracted to investigate the heist and will receive 10% of the stolen money if she recovers it. When Thomas first comes to her attention as a possible suspect, she intuitively recognizes him as the mastermind behind the robbery.
Thomas does not need the money, and in fact masterminded the robbery as a game. Vicki makes it clear to him that she knows that he is the thief and that she intends to prove it. They start a game of cat and mouse, with the attraction between them evident. Their relationship soon evolves into an affair, complicated by Vicki's vow to find the money and help Detective Eddie Malone (Paul Burke) bring the guilty party to justice.
A reward offer entices the wife of the bank robbery's getaway driver, Erwin Weaver (Jack Weston), to "fink" on him. Vicki finds out that he was hired by a man he never saw, but whose voice he heard. She tries putting Erwin in the same room as Thomas, but there is no hint of recognition on either one's part.
However, while Vicki is clearly closing in on Thomas, using the IRS as leverage against his liquid assets, he forces her to realize she is also becoming hemmed in — by her emotions. When she seemingly persuades him to negotiate an end, his point is proven when a jealous Eddie stubbornly refuses to cut any deal.
Thomas organizes another robbery exactly like the first with different accomplices and tells Vicki where the "drop" will be, because he has to know for sure that she is on his side. The robbery is successful, but there are gunshots and the viewer is left with the impression that people might have been killed, raising the stakes for Vicki's decision.
Vicki and the police stake out the cemetery, where they watch one of the robbers make the drop, and wait for Thomas to show up so they can arrest him. When his Rolls Royce arrives, however, she sees that Thomas has sent a messenger in his place, with a telegram asking her to bring the money and join him — or else keep the Rolls Royce. She tears the telegram to bits and throws the pieces to the wind, looking up at the sky with tears in her eyes. Crown flies away in a jet.
mystery, comedy, boring, romantic