The Thomas Crown Affair — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Plot

Multi-millionaire businessman Thomas Crown is a handsome, dashing, cultured adrenaline junkie. Out of boredom, he masterminds a five-man heist of $2.66 million from a Boston bank, with the getaway driver dumping the money in a quiet cemetery trash can. None of the men ever meet Crown face to face, nor know or meet each other before the robbery. Crown retrieves the money after secretly trailing the drop. He deposits it into a numbered bank account in Geneva over several trips to avoid suspicion.

Independent investigator Vicki Anderson is contracted by the bank's insurance company to investigate the heist; she will receive 10% of the stolen money if she recovers it. Speculating that whoever planned the robbery was familiar with the bank's routines because he had an account there, and that the stolen money has been spirited to Switzerland, Vicki and the police draw up a list of bank customers who have made several recent trips to Geneva. When she sees Crown's profile on the list, she intuitively recognizes him as capable of orchestrating the robbery, and shortly thereafter guesses the cellular method that he used to organize the robbers.

Growing closer to her quarry, Vicki makes it clear to Crown that she knows he is the thief and that she intends to prove it. A game of cat and mouse ensues, which spurs both a physical and emotional attraction that soon evolves into an affair. This complicates Vicki's vow to find the money and help detective friend Eddy Malone bring the perpetrator to justice.

A reward offer entices the wife of the getaway driver, Erwin Weaver, to inform on him for $25,000. Vicki finds out that he was hired by a man he never saw but whose voice he heard (via a microphone). She tries placing Erwin in the same room as Crown, but there is no hint of recognition on either's part.

While Vicki is clearly closing in on Crown, even using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as leverage against his liquid assets, he forces her to realize the extent of her conflicted emotions. When she seemingly persuades him to negotiate an end, Malone stubbornly refuses to make any deal, leaving her torn between the men, her convictions, and her heart.

Crown 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 goes off like clockwork.

Choosing her loyalty, Vicki and the police stake out the cemetery, where they watch one of the robbers make the drop, then lie in wait to ambush Crown. However, when his Rolls-Royce arrives, he has sent a messenger in his place, with a telegram inviting her to either bring the money and join him or to keep the car as a consolation prize. Reflexively smiling at his eluding her trap, she soon realizes she had revealed her hand yet gained nothing in return. Tearing the telegram to bits, she strews the pieces to the wind, tearfully staring at the sky while Crown escapes unruffled overhead.

Filming

The film was shot primarily on location in Boston and surrounding areas in Massachusetts and New Hampshire:

The Second Harrison Gray Otis House at 85 Mt. Vernon Street on Beacon Hill, Boston, stood in for the Thomas Crown home

The first robbery was filmed at what was then the Beverly National Bank (fictitiously renamed Boston Mercantile Bank for the film) at the North Beverly Plaza, Beverly, Massachusetts

The second robbery was filmed at 55 Congress Street, Boston. The current location is noted as 44 Water Street, the offices of private investment firm, Brown Brothers.

A scene of the car theft was filmed in downtown Beverly across from City Hall

The money dumpings were shot in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Coolidge Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The polo sequences were filmed at the Myopia Hunt Club, 435 Bay Road, South Hamilton, Massachusetts.

The golf sequences were filmed at the Belmont Country Club, 181 Winter Street, Belmont, Massachusetts

The auctions took place in the St. James Ballroom at the Eben Jordan Mansion, 46 Beacon Street, Beacon Hill

Crown drove his dune buggy on Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts

The Schweizer SGS 1-23H glider was flown at Salem, New Hampshire, by Roy McMaster

The meat shop scene took place at Blackstone Street and North Street in Boston's North End

Thomas and Vicki walked in the rain in Copp's Hill Cemetery in Boston's North End

Thomas and Vicki kissed (wearing formal dress) at the top of Acorn Street on Beacon Hill, a narrow, cobblestone lane often called "the most photographed street in America"

Other locations included:

the Allston-Brighton tollbooths (demolished in 2016) on the Massachusetts Turnpike

Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant at 140 Northern Avenue in South Boston's Seaport District

the Boston Common

the old Boston Police Headquarters on Berkeley Street (since renovated as the Loews Boston Hotel)

Cambridge Street and Linden Street, Allston

Copp's Hill Terrace in Boston's North End

the North End Greenmarket

South Station, 700 Atlantic Avenue, Boston

the Tobin Bridge

the Prudential Tunnel portion of the Massachusetts Turnpike going under Huntington Avenue (then-future Massachusetts Route 9) —years before the Westin Hotel in Copley Square and the parking garage on Clarendon Street were built over the toll highway

the then-Dewey Square Tunnel (future Interstate 93), where McQueen emerges on the Massachusetts Turnpike; a feat technically impossible since McQueen drove into the Prudential Tunnel one scene earlier

the Marliave Restaurant rooftop dining area, Bosworth Street, Boston, where Dunaway is shown surveillance photos by Burke of McQueen kissing another woman

the footpath on the Boston side of the Charles River, between the Weeks Footbridge and the Anderson Bridge, with the dome of Dunster House visible in the background on the Cambridge side

Dulles International Airport, Virginia, with signage making it look as if it were in Boston

The Thomas Crown Affair

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The Thomas Crown Affair

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