User reviews

When watching this movie about jewel thieves pulling off the greatest jewel heist, you have to keep in mind this happened back in 1964; well before modern surveillance and alarm systems.

Robert Conrad and Don Stroud star as the playboy thieves, Allan Kuhn and Jack Murphy. What started small as a way to earn extra money, soon became a lucrative 'business venture' for these thieves. I so loved the fact they were shirtless for most of the movie. Conrad and Stroud's great physiques provide enough eye candy to make you drool. They simply are delicious looking specimen with those beautiful bodies!

'Murph the Surf' is a fun and exciting look at the lives of these jewel thieves. Their high-flying lifestyle became their new norm, and they craved more and more. I must admit, the first two acts were far more interesting than the third act, but in general this was an enjoyable watch.

This film was not easy to find, and compounded with the 3 different titles it had, it basically destined itself to obscurity. "Murph The Surf" does not exactly scream, marquee mangetism. This film manages to wedge its greasy fingers into a few different pies. It bounces from true story mystique to cheap TV drama, and then tries to inject flawed interpersonal relationships into the mix. The lack of story cohesion goes a long way to confuse and disinterest the viewer.

The film is surprisingly well shot, and has a budget that's not evident in other AIP films. The production team went a long way to prove that these two playboys are brazen beyond belief. But the acting ranges between wooden and soap-opera emoting. The story makes these characters impossible to believe; nobody is bashful about the fact that they're jewel thieves, and the life they live only barely scrapes the bedrock of reality. The scene where Murph starts to have second thoughts in the museum is probably the deepest any character in the film gets. It seems fair that the idea was to show how soulless the central characters lives were, however without some subtlety it merely comes off cold. In other words, boring.

There's a pretty good boat chase in the film, and a few worthwhile scenes where your interest is almost heightened, but other than that it's unfortunate and hard to watch.

It's a disposable 70's heist movie, eclipsed by many better ones. I guess there's a reason why this stuff only remains on late-nite pay TV.

This movie is worthwhile for one and only one reason - to see Robert Conrad at the top of his form. Shot just a few years after Conrad had stunned audiences with his extraordinary good looks in The Wild, Wild West, this film has him playing Allan Kuhn, a jewel thief and a gigolo -a perfect role for him. He has many scenes in a hot red bathing suit and others in very tight white cut-offs. His body is remarkably tight and tan throughout, and his performance is scorchingly hot. Check the opening scene of his getting it on with his girlfriend (including a brief look as his bare ass) and the scene with the backrub of one of his clients, among the many highlights. Conrad was in his early forties at the time, and Hollywood has simply never had a sexier star of his age. This movie is hot, hot, hot!

Murph has always said the movie didn't follow his recommendations for the script. Instead of trying to make it a comedy the director Marvin Chomsky should have kept it as an action docu-drama..playing more faithfully to the actual life events of Murph and his partner Allan Kuhn. Having known him personally for 18 years I can say they(Hollywood) need to do a Murph the Surf Part 2..to show the rest of the story which in many ways is more riveting and moving than the first half of his life. As a full time minister the work Murph has been doing in the jails and prisons of this country and around the world are in my book far more significant events than the escapades of a gifted but misdirected youth.

I saw this when it first came out. Very good and entertaining film overall. However, in the movie It presents the idea of the theft was Alan's. It makes Murph a secondary character. That stinks.