Thomas Crown is a mysterious gazillionaire who is frankly bored with his life. What to do when you're a thirty something and have all the resources available. For a lark, plan the perfect crime.
So in The Thomas Crown Affair, Steve McQueen does just that. He recruits four people at random for the crime, none of whom know each other and pull off a really neat bank robbery.
It seems like Paul Burke and the Boston PD aren't getting the job done so the bank brings in Faye Dunaway as an insurance investigator. She does this for a 10% finders fee, not for a policeman's salary. She also doesn't have to follow the rules the way the cops do.
Dunaway is smart and she does figure out it's McQueen who's the mastermind. She baits him in some of the same way that Inspector Slimane baits Pepe LeMoko. Of course she really gets up close and personal in a way that Slimane couldn't. All this really does get to Paul Burke, whose performance is unfortunately overlooked in talking about The Thomas Crown Affair.
It's a battle of hubris between McQueen and Dunaway and the film does keep you in some suspense as to who will win out.
The Thomas Crown Affair garnered won Academy Award for Michel LeGrand's song, The Windmills of Your Mind. It's a stylishly done caper film and I guarantee you won't be able to anticipate the outcome.