It Takes a Thief (TV series)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"Look, Al, I'm not asking you to spy, I'm just asking you to steal."
—Noah Bain, It Takes a Thief

It Takes a Thief was an American television series that aired on ABC between 1968 and 1970. It followed the exploits of master thief Alexander Mundy. Facing a long sentence in prison, he's given an offer by Noah Bain (Malachi Throne), the cop who caught him and now the head of the SIA, an American intelligence agency. Mundy will be released from jail if he agrees to provide his unique skills to the government. It starred Robert Wagner as Mundy, and served as a prototype for similar shows, such as White Collar, that also featured a Loveable Rogue.

Not to be confused with the Reality Show of the same name which ran on the Discovery Channel from 2005-2007.


Tropes used in It Takes a Thief (TV series) include:
  • Always a Bigger Fish: Even though Al is a master thief, he readily admits that his father, Alistair, is even better.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill: One of Al's frequent methods of theft. For example, he'll show up saying he's been assigned to evaluate the security around the target of the week. The guards uaually buy this, giving Al the chance to get vital information for that episode's caper.
  • Berserk Button: Normally, Al is cool and unflappable during his missions. However, he doesn't react well when children or his friends are threatened.
    • An example of the former is in the first season episode "The Radomir Minature", when Al actually threatens an enemy agent holding a little girl captive. The latter is shown in the second season story "The Galloping Skin Game", when Al angrily quits the SIA and demands to be sent back to prison when he mistakenly thinks Noah has set up friendly adversary Nick Grobbo to be killed.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: During the first season, when Al isn't on a mission, he's kept under house arrest and constant video surveillance.
  • Catch Phrase: For Al, it's, "Oh, you're beautiful!" He uses it either sarcastically (to Noah or Wally when they force him to do a dangerous caper) or honestly (to 99.9% of the women he meets).
  • Dead Man Walking: In the third season story "Saturday Night in Venice", Al is poisoned by Russian agents and offered the antidote in exchange for an item he'd previously stolen.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Al, especially to anyone from the SIA.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Charlene "Charlie" Brown (Susan Saint James), an equally skilled, though rather kooky female thief/con artist. She shows up in four episodes (two in the first season, two in the third).
  • Downer Ending: The third season story "Flowers from Alexander".
  • Evolving Credits: Each season has a different title sequence, with a variation during the third season for when Fred Astaire was guest-starring. Each sequence included a progressively jazzier arrangement of Dave Grusin's Opening Theme.
  • Expy: The SIA for the Central Intelligence Agency.
  • Family Business: Alastair Mundy (Fred Astaire), Alexander Mundy's father, was also a thief.
    • In one first season episode, Alexander says he's, in fact, a third generation thief.
  • Insane Admiral: In the third-season episode "Situation Red", a USAF Major (played by Earl Holliman) becomes dangerously paranoid due to a bad reaction to (non-anabolic) steroids. He becomes convinced that a Strategic Air Command test is an actual war situation and takes control of the bombers.
  • Loveable Rogue: Mundy was an unabashed con-artist and thief, but was clearly the hero protagonist.
  • Musical Trigger: In the third-season story "To Sing a Song of Murder", the song "One Less Bell to Answer" serves this purpose.
  • Noodle Incident: Even though "Charlie" Brown only appears four times in the series, she and Al refer to several other times they've met/worked together/been friendly adversaries.
  • Punch Clock Villain: Al runs into several of these throughout the series; usually they're his fellow thieves and con-artists, either working for themselves or employed by the bad guys.
    • One example of this is Nick Grobbo (Ricardo Montalban), a high-class fence who shows up a couple of times. While he genuinely likes Al and would prefer that he simply stay out of his affairs, Nick threatens to kill Al if he should try to louse up one of his deals.
  • Put on a Bus: Noah Bain vanishes without explanation, beyond a couple of brief mentions, and isn't seen in the third season.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Actor Malachi Throne left the series after the second season, following a contract dispute. As a result, Noah Bain is Put on a Bus.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Noah Bain varied between this and being a real hard-case, especially during the first season.
  • Reluctant Hero: Mundy only agrees to take the job to get out of jail.
    • Subverted on a couple of occasions. For example, in "The Radomir Minature" Al actually volunteers to rescue a little girl (the daughter of a defecting scientist) being held captive behind the Iron Curtain.
  • Retcon: Originally, Noah was portrayed as the only cop who had ever caught Al, which he used as a way to recruit Al for the SIA. In the third season, after Noah was Put on a Bus, this was changed to where Wally Powers was also a former cop who'd helped Noah bust Al in the beginning.
  • Retool: There were several throughout the series:
    • During the first season, Al was given a big, well-appointed house outside of Washington, D.C. to live in (and be kept under servelliance) when not working. In the second season, he had an expensive batchelor apartment in town (without the surveillance).
    • For several episodes in the third season, Al's base of operations was in Italy, though he'd later move back to the D.C. apartment.
    • The biggest Retool was in the third season when his father, Alistair, arranges for Al to get a full pardon, to be no longer under the threat of prison, and be asked, rather than ordered, to do jobs for the SIA.
  • Scenery Porn: The opening episodes of the third season, filmed and set in Italy, featured a lot of this.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Wally Powers (Edward Binns), who takes over as Al's main SIA boss in the third season, replacing Noah Bain.
  • Worthy Opponent: Noah and Al consider each other this, even after they start working on the same side.
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