![]() ![]() If we want to steal something, let’s have a thief.” If you let that elitist pragmatism sink in, it opens the possibility of a subversive, satirical critique. The best people for that are thieves and murderers. In the pilot, he glibly summarizes the premise thusly: “Espionage today is mainly larceny and homicide. He’s a chief of the SIA, which is supposed to be the CIA without coming out and saying it. The balding, gruff, almost snarling Bain looks a bit like an angry doorknob. On the day he executes an ingenious escape attempt, he discovers he’s been tapped for service by Noah Bain (Malachi Throne), the ex-cop who arrested him. He plays suave anti-hero Al Mundy, who enjoys a reputation as a world-class thief, a glamorous burglar, a black-garbed dangler from skylights over fabulous jewels in closely-guarded museums, a spinner of combination locks with his ear to the tumblers, not to mention a pickpocket’s pickpocket. The series was a vehicle for Robert Wagner in his niche as a handsome TV-friendly leading man who avoids overly heavy material. The box contains all three seasons plus a few bonuses, and we shall stroll through the summery maze of its garden with our magnifying glass in one hand and pinking shears in the other, a manservant following behind with a tall cool beverage on a silver salver. Some shows come out on DVD a season at a time, or even half a season, but not this one. A product of TV’s schizophrenic late ’60s, It Takes a Thief is a light-hearted escapist adventure that ran on America’s ABC network from January 1969 to March 1970.
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