Tonight's caper movies

I've mentioned Topkapi a number of times in the past. It's airing again tonight at 10:15 PM as part of TCM's look at heist and caper movies. What I don't think I've mentioned any of those times is that it's only available on an out-of-print DVD, at least, here in the States. Looking at the IMDb information, Topkapi is one of those movies that was distributed by United Artists, so you never really know who's likely to have the rights nowadays. The DVD was by MGM Home Entertainment, and if memory serves they got the rights to a lot of UA stuff after divesting the classic MGM library to Ted Turner. Topkapi isn't quite my favorite, but I do think it's one of those movies that ought to be in print on DVD.

The other one of tonight's movies that's not available on DVD is Cairo, airing overnight at 2:15 AM. The one thing interesting about Cairo is that it's a remake more or less of The Asphalt Jungle, except with the action moved to Egypt and the thieves trying to rob the Egyptian Museum. I'm not of the school that thinks that movies should never be remade, especially as I think there are some good 1930s stories that could use a remake with today's superior audio technology. But just because you can do a remake doesn't automatically mean that you're going to come up with a better movie than the original, and Cairo is proof positive of that.