![]() ![]() He gained a Writer's Guild of America card in 1964 when MGM bought the rights to Scratch a Thief and retained him to adapt it for the big screen. As a novelist, Marko published a string of pulp novels under the alias "John Trinian," many set in and around San Francisco's bohemian North Beach district. Biographical information on Marko remained scant throughout his lifetime only after his death from emphysema in May of this year did it become known that he was born Marvin Leroy Schmoker in 1933 and that he had begun writing fiction upon his release from a prison stretch for a nonviolent crime. Once a Thief was based on the autobiographical novel Scratch a Thief by habitual criminal turned Hollywood screenwriter Zekial Marko. Once a Thief may not be one of the late actor's better-remembered films but it is vintage Palance, a singular portrait of preening villainy humanized through a unique combination of braggadocio and vulnerability. The part is small and clearly in support of headliners Alain Delon and Ann-Margret but Palance is, as ever, incandescent and unforgettable, whether chiding kid brother Delon over his choice of liquor, mothering a henchman who has just had his front teeth knocked out in a fight or speaking rapid-fire Italian with a Chinese undertaker. Palance had just played a crass Hollywood producer hoping to turn the myth of Ulysses into a popcorn muncher in Jean-Luc Godard's Capri-set Contempt (1963) and he was able to import a little of that character's serpentine suavity to the role of Italian immigrant-made-bad Walter Pedak in Once a Thief. She is saved, but Eddie is shot and killed while protecting Vido.Īt the time that he was called back to the United States by MGM to appear in Ralph Nelson's San Francisco-set crime film Once a Thief (1965), Jack Palance had enjoyed several years of a working vacation abroad playing outsized and outlandish characters torn from history, the Bible and pulp fiction: in Berlin for Robert Aldrich's Ten Seconds to Hell (1959), in Yugoslavia for André De Toth's The Mongols (1961) and in Italy for Rudolph Maté's The Barbarians (1960), Vittorio De Sica's The Last Judgment (1960) and Richard Fleischer's Barabbas (1961). Meanwhile, Vido has discovered that Eddie was framed for the previous robbery charges and even though Eddie admits to wounding Vido, the policeman agress to help him rescue Kathy. The robbery is successful but Walter is killed in an attempted doublecross, and Sargatanas kidnaps Kathy to force Eddie to turn over the truck with the stolen goods. Frustrated and angry, Eddie is finally persuaded by his brother Walter and his accomplices, Sargatanas and Shoenstein, to assist in a $1 million robbery. Eddie loses his job as a result of the suspicion, and Kristine is forced to go to work in a cheap nightclub. Believing that Eddie was responsible for shooting him some years ago, Vido arrests Pedak for suspected robbery and murder but is forced to release him when the charges prove false. The threats they encounter take them into startling, brutal worlds where the stakes are high and failure can earn you a bullet in the head.Ex-convict Eddie Pedak and his wife, Kristine, attempt to build a new life for themselves and their daughter Kathy in San Francisco, but police officer Mike Vido is determined to send Eddie back to prison. Working with a former cop, Victor Mansfield (Nicholas Lea), they are part of an elite law-enforcement agency that takes on forces that are too powerful, protected, or difficult for regular law enforcement agencies. From the Director of Face/Off, Hard Boiled and The Killer!Īrt meets action in John Woo’s Once a Thief – a non-stop adrenaline rush of intrigue, romance and explosive danger! A first for television, it brought the unique excitement of Hong Kong films to the small screen, fusing romance, action and humour - all in the signature style of executive producer John Woo, the man who broke down the wall between the action movie and the art film.īrought up to be expert in all manner of criminal skills - using everything from martial arts to superb abilities to con - Mac Ramsey (Ivan Sergei) and Li Ann Tsei (Sandrine Holt) are forced to use their expertise to fight crime. ![]()
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