Thief of Hearts

Released the same day as Ken Russell's controversial, ponderous, (un)erotic psychodrama Crimes of Passion, this barely noticed, mostly forgotten little sexy-thriller also dropped. The story follows a woman trapped in a dull marriage who starts an affair with a handsome guy who seems able to read her mind. The guy is Scott Muller (Tony Montana's right-hand thug in the prior year's Scarface). Scott is a cat burglar who, along with his high-society valet partner Buddy (David Caruso), robs the homes of rich married couples. After the job they pull in the film's opening minutes, Scott begins to read a diary he boosted from the home of a beautiful woman named Mickey (Barbara Williams). Reading her intimate thoughts, Scott discovered she's unfulfilled in her marriage to her children's book author husband (Blood Simple’s John Getz). Gaining insights into Mickey's dreams, frustrations, and fantasies, Scott becomes infatuated and sets out to turn her secret thoughts into reality.

Far less sleazy than it sounds, Thief of Hearts marked the directorial debut of Douglas Day Stewart, screenwriter of The Blue Lagoon and An Officer and a Gentleman. These major successes brought him to the attention of producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who had just formed a high-octane partnership with Don Simpson. Simpson/Bruckheimer Films would soon become one of the biggest producing entities of the next 10 years with Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Bad Boys, and The Rock. Thief of Hearts, which the two made between their massive successes Flashdance and Beverly Hills Cop, is the only movie the two made that not only wasn't a colossal hit but flopped with both critics and audiences. It's not exactly a good movie, but it has a lot more going for it than Ken Russell's flaccid sexposé. It's a quintessential example of the Simpson/Bruckheimer maximalist aesthetic applied to a competently crafted screenplay that's not trying to do much more than deliver 100 minutes of entertainment.

While no one in the cast is exceptional, everyone delivers solid performances. Most notable is Caruso, in what might have been the young actor's breakout role had anyone seen this picture. His character is a scrawny little dirtbag who can electrify every scene as soon as he walks in. It's hard to imagine what a major sex symbol this guy would shortly become, considering he looks like a cross between Frankenhooker star James Lorenz and Carrot Top in this movie. The film has a slick '80s look courtesy of cinematographer Andrew Laszlo and Art Director Edward Richardson. (It helps that the woman seduced by the thief of hearts is a San Francisco interior decorator who he hires to redesign his multi-level loft space into an '80s-modern home.) Thief of Hearts was also the first film scored by synth-pop-meister Harold Faltermeyer, who would go on to compose the iconic music for Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Fletch, and Top Gun. The score rocks in a low-rent-Miami-Vice kinda way, chock full of pop tracks performed by Melissa Manchester, E. G. Daily, and Annabella, most of which were composed by Faltermeyer or his Italian electronic synth-pop compatriot Giorgio Moroder. It's laughably silly but a fun film.