[.ca] The Italian Job (ISBN 6302491940)

Amazon.com essential video:
This little-known cult caper is about as depraved as they come. Michael Caine, ever the enterprising swinger and swindler, has an ingenious plan to steal a huge cache of Chinese gold to be shipped to Turin as collateral for a new Fiat plant. Since the Italy-Great Britain soccer match is being played at the same time, Caine wants to create a diversion in the form of a monumental traffic jam. For financing, he turns to Noel Coward, who directs British criminal enterprises from his jail cell. A motley crew is assembled, including Benny Hill as a computer expert with a fetish for large-breasted women. It's all a nasty and fun parody, with the most memorable robbery-chase sequence in the history of the caper genre. --Bill Desowitz

From Amazon.com:
Internal countercasting is a big plus in this caper comedy: where else are you going to find Benny Hill and Michael Caine in the same movie? Peter Collinson directs those two as well as Noel Coward, Raf Vallone, Rossano Brazzi, and Irene Handl in a story about the effort to steal gold bullion from the town of Turin. Screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin eschews heist film tradition by placing more emphasis on the gang's getaway than on the complex robbery itself. The film's main claim to comic fame is a wild chase scene set against an enormous traffic jam. The rest of the movie is less memorable, but that extended action sequence is well worth the wait. --Tom Keogh

take it as a mood piece and a cult classic:
I gave the remake of this movie a much higher rating, and the main reason is that it simply has a better plot. Michael Cain is wonderful in the original, and some of the other outrageous characters as well as the pretty original plotline together should be the ingredients for an unforgettable film, yet this one leaves you really unsatisfied, maybe because it really never decides what it wants to be: satire, comedy, serious heist movie or thriller, so it ends up being unsatisfying on all accounts. See it for the brilliant chase scene with the mini coopers, and view it also as a sensitive mood piece of 60ies swank.

The Italian Job - Michael Caine:
A wonderful action movie set during 1969 Italy and England. This movie is actually better than the remake. When I first heard that someone had finished making the remake, I tried to find a copy of the original. I remembered seeing it on TV years ago and that it was a great show. The music in the original is super and true to the era. What makes this movie great is the Minis ofcourse, but also Michael Caine. I bought the original. Too bad they never made the sequel that had orginally been planned.

Some Invention and Ingenuity, Some Lackluster Moments:
"The Italian Job" is another movie that begins with a lot of promise and dwindles as the clock rolls on-fortunately capped at 90 minutes or so. The opening sequence, as the credits roll, is a memorable scene that caught me completely off guard. I enjoyed the young Michael Caine's acting. His charm and personality definitely help carry the film throughout its length. The quirky setup of the film is quite inventive, including a job that is not planned from the ground up, but rather inherited after the death of its mastermind. The film itself does not focus upon the heist; rather, it chooses to direct its attention to the getaway. This makes up the extended action sequence of the film, starring the little minis. The chase sequence is quite enjoyable to watch and I waited the entire movie to see it. I particularly liked the inventive end to the chase sequence and the comedy that is woven into the driving. "The Italian Job" does not take itself seriously, and neither do I. The ending, as the documentary implies, is the ultimate cliffhanger. I wasn't sure what to make of it-or whether or not I enjoyed it. I can say that I appreciated its originality and I'm glad the film did not descend into a classic heist ending with everyone patting each other on the back. You'll have to watch it for yourself to decide. As far as comparing it to the remake, you just simply cannot do it. The films are miles apart and have very little in common. I believe that comparing them would be pointless and unfair. See them both-just don't expect a true remake.

REMEMBER STYLE ?:
The original ITALIAN JOB is one of those "little" movies that won't go away as it continues to reap the dividends of having been done with panache and style. Michael Cane's Charlie character is an artist working effortlessly in aloof charm. He's the kind confident character you'll admire like Murphy in CUCKOO'S NEST in spite of the obvious reasons not to. There is seductive music and beautiful scenery and plenty of restrained continental humor. I have no interest in cars, but even I admitt the classic models of the time featured here are beautiful and add to the ambiance of elegance infusing the scenes . The chase is more clever than thrilling although the site of four cars performing on the top of a tall rounded building still makes me shake my head when I see it thinking they must have been mad. Remember, no remote control models or studio set ups were used here. That car jumping from roof to roof is real. Don't come here looking for an action adventure though - it's more adult than that albeit geared for adults of another generation. Director Collinson's influence makes the movie as good as it could possibly have been. The art direction also contributes strongly throughout. Because this version is so good, I am not tempted to see the remake. Why? Basically; it must have been pretty impressive then and it's definately fun now. Sometimes all you want is a little fun with a dash of style.

Better Acting Than Some "Chase" films"...:
This isn't *quite* the ultimate "chase" film -- that would be either "Vanishing Point" (for a relatively serious film) or "The Junkman" (for a comedy), but it's one of the better-acted. Michael Caine and Noel Coward anchor the comedy nicely -- Coward's "Mr Bridger", the undisputed head of the British underworld, ruling crime with an iron hand from a comfortable cell in a pirson where the warders and Governor act as his personalk service staff, is a wonderful conceit. Caine's Charlie Croker, very much the smooth fast-talking all-round crook of working-class origins, plays off Bridger wonderfully to get permission to do the job, to the point of appealing to Bridger's obsessive patriotism (God *is* an Englishman) by pointing out that stealing four million dollars in Italy will help the balance of trade. Roughly half the film or a bit more is devoted to getting the gang together (including hiring a computer expert \oplayed by Benny Hill\c who may be the single most over-the-top element in a film that hovers at ot near that metaphorical "top" for most of its unning time.) A recent poll in Britain voted the line "You were just supposed to blow the bloody *doors* off!" as the best all-time movie line (i prefer the similarly-inspired "Think you used enough dynamite, Butch?", but won't quibble); it's certainly appropriate... The gang have to do the job in spite of the Mafia (personified by Raf Vallone) -- after, all, this is their home turf and the Brits are invaders -- and this conflict leads to the horrific destruction of some simply lovely Sixties high-performance cars on a mountain road -- the punchline to the opening credit sequence is particularly painful, because so unexpeced. Use of the original Mini Coopers\o1\c as the getaway cars is inspired; their small size, excellent handling, good turn of speed and the fact that they were currently being built under license by an Italian firm based in Turin, the setting of the heist, all contribute to the fun of the chase. And the efforts of Remy Julienne and his stunt team certainly don't hurt; the knowledge that all of these stunts were done for real, not by computer imagery, is impressive. By 1969 the Mini in all its variants was history in the US, and though it continued in production worldwide for thirty years more, the American market diodn' reward the film-makers as well as they might have hoped, and the sort-of-planned sequel in which we see how Charlie and Co get out of the (literal) cliffhanger that ends this film was never made. Since Amazon is offerenig a two-fer of this DVD and the actually-not-bad (if not great) exercise in BMW product-placement "remake" with Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron, one might do worse than to get both of them and spend an otherwise-unoccupied afternoon comparing them, spoting the little grace-note references to the original inserted into the "remake"'s unrelated plot. (Certainly a more-rewarding afternoon than one would have doing the same with the badly-acted-but-incredible-chase original "Gone in 60 Seconds" and the execrable 2000 "remake"...) The Bottom Line: The better of the two "Italian Jobs" (not surprisingly). \o1\c History: The Cooper and Cooper "S" were high-performance variants of a small car produced by British Motors under the Morris and Ausin names; not all Minis were Coopers. The "S" used a larger, more powerful engine, was banned for emissions rerasons in the US in 1966, the car itself was unable to pass crash-test standards in 1967 and so disappeared from this country. Production continued in England (and in Italy under license, which leads to a gag in the original film) for many years after that, but was finally discontinued. The Mini was the first of the "two-box" subcompacts with transverse engine and front-wheel drive, the direct ancestor conceptually of the VW Rabbit, Honda Civic and so on; none of them, however, used anything like its unique "Hydrolastic" suspension, which was completely hydraulic, with no springs or conventional shock absorbers. It was smaller than those, at somewhere between 1500 and 1800 pounds and using ten-inch wheels. BMW bought the name, and has recently brought out the car they call a "Mini Cooper", much the same shape, but much bigger and more luxurious -- the BMW "Cooper" weighs almost 3000 pounds and uses wheels as large as fifteen inches. Those of us who cherish the original Mini in all its variants are not decieved...