Word: cockneyism
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There is an instant chic, a feeling of sophistication, in visiting auction rooms; decorated with pricey art and antique furniture, they resemble a cockney's dream of ducal halls. Sotheby's main salesroom in London, hung with chandeliers and often lined with valuable paintings, resembles a grand ballroom. Christie's, a few blocks away, has the slightly more venerable atmosphere of a London men's club. However, the principal attraction of an auction house before a sale is that it enables the viewer to make closer and longer observation of art works than he can possibly...
...improbable coincidence, three of the protagonists are students there: David Rostov, a Soviet who will later become an ambitious intelligence officer in Moscow; Yasif Hassan, a Palestinian who subsequently serves as a triple agent for the Egyptians, the Soviets and the fedayeen; and Nathaniel Dickstein, a cockney Jew who migrates to Israel and wins fame as his adopted country's most resourceful...
Connery, Down and Donald Sutherland are three of today's most appealing movie stars. Connery plays the rogue who devises the heist. He is roguish. Down, with her blue-glazed eyes and magnificent body, is delightful, but her part as Connery's adoring partner is not. Sutherland plays the Cockney criminal-type who helps pull off the job, but his accent sounds American even to Americans, bereft of music, charm or higher tones. Everyone else in the cast is ugly or stupid or both...
...accomplice and paramour of the suave con man, Edward Pierce (Sean Connery), who masterminded England's first celebrated train heist in 1855. Miriam served as an all-purpose decoy: to help steal ?12,000 worth of gold ingots, she had to pose successively as a French courtesan, a cockney seamstress and an old beggar. Down turns each impersonation into a polished comic nugget; she swings effortlessly in and out of her various roles. Her scenes as Miriam are just as funny: in the film's best bit, Down turns the act of shaving Connery's neck into...
Louisa's story is modeled on the real-life exploits of Rosa Lewis (1867-1952), a legendary Londoner who started her career as a Cockney skivvy, became for a time a mistress to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), and wound up as the proprietor of the Cavendish Hotel, a slightly raffish establishment catering to the upper crust. Successes like Rosa's require bullheadedness and a certain animal cunning, qualities that Actress Gemma Jones mimes impressively. Her Louisa is a furious wren, an unbreakable China doll with a chin shaped like an eggshell and hard as a rock...