1965 Directed by Charles Crichton
Peter Rayston, has been in and out of prison most of his life. At 30, he is released for the eighth time, after serving a sentence for housebreaking. Immediately, he goes back to his old life, providing for his expensive tastes by executing a series of daring burglaries
UK
UK
An under-appreciated and unusual movie from Britain in 1966. It is part film-noir, part British New Wave, directed by the Ealing veteran Charles Crichton.
He Who Rides a Tiger is a filmic elaboration of the Indian proverb, “He who rides a tiger can never dismount.” It tells the story of a jewel thief who is released from prison but returns to his old ways.
The movie belongs on my Hudsucker Proxy List of Decent Movies with Terrible Titles. Admittedly, though, this movie is a little hard to describe. It is a heist movie, a romance, a character study and a moralistic tale, mixed uneasily into one, so no name could pin it down very well.
It is interesting, though, one…
"He who rides a tiger can never jump off" the ancient proverb, which implies that once you've chosen a path in life it is impossible to change course, was certainly true of one Peter Scott who the press and criminal underworld titled 'King of the Cat Burglars', but who called himself 'a master idiot'. Scott's criminal career stretched from the late 1940s through to the early 1990s, with several periods of incarceration. An habitual criminal, he is perhaps best known for robbing several A-list stars and members of the aristocracy including, it is rumoured, the Queen Mother herself. One of the many Hollywood stars Scott stole from was Sophia Loren whose £200,000 necklace was taken whilst she was in London…
This column originally appeared in The Independent on Sunday:
He Who Rides a Tiger is based on the career of a real-life cat-burglar named Peter Scott. While Scott described himself as a “master idiot”, his portrayal on screen is far more complex.
Tom Bell stars as Peter Rayston, a habitual criminal who has spent his adult life in and out of prison. At the age of 30, he is released for the eighth time and immediately returns to his bad old ways with a series of daring burglaries that fund his expensive tastes.
Legal and financial difficulties beset the production from the outset but it does not show on screen, largely thanks to a compelling central performance from Bell. His…
