“Lenny Bruce's idea of a tough guy--someone who wears a wool suit without underwear--describes Frank (James Caan), the highlining safebuster in Thief, to a capital T. Having done 11 years in Joliet State Penitentiary for petty theft, Frank's learned never to steal anything small.... (N)either the white heat of his thermal lance...nor the chill of Chicago seems to affect him.... (H)e's a blue-collar professional facilitating white-collar crimes. Although Frank doesn't exactly wear it on his sleeve, he's not heartless. He has a yen for Jessie (Tuesday Weld), a coffee shop cashier who thinks he sells cars to make his dough.... They negotiate a relationship their first night out together....”
Carrie Rickey, Village Voice.
“Modernist film noir at its very best, full of Chicago's rain-soaked waterfronts and dives; the debt to Melville is plain throughout, not just in the extended details of the heists, but in the whole mood. There is a fitting electronic score from Tangerine Dream” --National Film Theatre.