Speaking of Steve McQueen, I just received a new blu-ray print of “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968). The movie was a big risk for both McQueen (who had just done “The Cincinnati Kid,” “Nevada Smith,” and “The Sand Pebbles”) and Dunaway (who had just rocketed to stardom in “Bonnie and Clyde”). McQueen’s wife wanted him to be in a film where he wore a suit, and McQueen liked the character, as well as the prospect of working with director Norman Jewison again, after their good working relationship in “The Cincinnati Kid.”
The screenplay was written by a lawyer from Boston named Alan Trustman, who sent his idea for a story to Jewison. Trustman’s law office overlooked the First Bank of Boston, where Trustman had worked for a summer. Trustman used his knowledge of bank procedures to imagine a well-educated Boston multi-millionaire who concocts a scheme to carry out the “perfect crime,” in which a bank is robbed by five men who don’t know each other and don’t meet until the day of the crime. Trustman wanted Sean Connery to play the lead role, but Jewison and the producers had McQueen in mind. Trustman didn’t think McQueen was right for the role, based on his previous film roles, but he spent a week of long days re-writing the script to better suit the strengths and weaknesses of McQueen’s acting abilities. McQueen is reported to have liked the re-write and to have commented on how the screenwriter seemed to know him well. Trustman went on to write the screenplay for “Bullitt,” and also a few other movies.
The music, written by Michel Legrand, with lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, is perfect for the film, with the song “Windmills of Your Mind” being featured (sung by Nigel Harrison, Rex Harrison’s son). The combining of multiple scenes shown at the same time on the screen was innovative for the day, even though it seems dated now. All in all, this film is even by today’s standards wonderfully made with a huge emphasis on style and mood that was also uncommon at the time it was released. Jewison has said that the style in the movie was at least as rich as the substance. I much prefer the ending of this version, which was also innovative for the time, to the ending of the later version.