The Italian Job - 1969
Rating - PG
Director - Peter Collinson
Written by - Troy Kennedy Martin
Starring - Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Tony Beckley
Run time - 99 minutes
The Italian Job is a 1969 Comedy heist movie about a group of criminals who plan a 4 million pound heist in Turin, Italy while escaping in mini coopers.
The main character is Charlie Croker (Caine) who has just been released from prison and meets up with the widow of his friend and fellow thief Roger Beckermann (Rossano Brazzi) who was crushed dead while driving in the Italian Alps by the mafia. She gives Charlie the plans to steal 4 million pounds in gold in Turin, Italy, and then flee to Switzerland.
Charlie breaks back into his former prison to convince the dynamic crime lord Mr. Bridger (Coward) to fund the plan, he rejects at first but accepts after finding out that fiat was building a factory in China from the prison guards (who he has bribed nearly all of to work for him).
Charlie then contacts Professor Peach (Hill) and a team of thieves and drivers. The main plan is that Peach replaces the computer program in the traffic control system in Turin, creating a major traffic jam across the city while the others break into the van with the gold, load up the gold in the cars in a bolted warehouse then escape in the getaway minis. They successfully manage to escape the city and run off the police in a fantastically planned out 15-20 minute scene from when they leave the warehouse to celebrating in the back of the bus the loaded the mini’s in after the police got off their tail and forcing the cars one by one out the back of it rolling out into the Italian Alps.
The film though literally leaves us with a cliffhanger as the bus is left halfway off the side of a cliff as when they crashed, the gold fell to the other side. The film finishes with Michael Caine saying ‘’Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea’’ then it pans out and the credits roll with just the image of the bus halfway off a cliff.
Here’s a piece from a BBC article in 2008, who spoke to Sir Michael and asked what he thought would’ve been the idea
The star says he would have saved them by "switching on the engine", burning off petrol until it righted itself.
"I crawl up, switch on the engine and stay there for four hours until all the petrol runs out," he said.
"The van bounces back up so we can all get out, but then the gold goes over."
I really enjoyed this film much more than I thought I would. It’s fantastically shot and the acting is superb especially from Michael Caine in one of his best and most iconic roles in his career. I think this film is definitely going to become one of my favourite films. This is a classic film for anyone who likes crime movies and also a bit of a laugh along the way.
Score - 10/10
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