The Italian Job ***** (1969, Michael Caine, Noel Coward, Benny Hill) – Classic Movie Review 849

Michael Caine stars in one of his most beloved roles as small-time criminal Charlie Croker in the 1969 classic Sixties crime caper film The Italian Job. Noël Coward steals his scenes as crook mastermind Mr Bridger.

‘You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!’ In 1969, the 36-year-old Michael Caine stars in one of his most famous and beloved roles as small-time criminal Charlie Croker in director Peter Collinson’s classic Sixties crime caper The Italian Job.

Charlie meets smooth crook mastermind Mr Bridger (Noël Coward) in prison, then gets out of jail and finds one of his buddies has tried a high-risk job in Italy under the nose of the Mafia. Charlie inherits his plans for the robbery and takes over the job. ‘It’s a very difficult job and the only way to get through it is we all work together as a team,’ he says. ‘And that means you do everything I say.’

Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars and a bus, he plans to steal a $4 million gold shipment from the streets of Turin by bringing the town centre to a standstill, creating the world’s worst mammoth traffic jam, and then escape with the loot. Charlie’s problems are no money, no gang and the Mafia!

It is all huge fun from start to finish, with all the actors on their best form, relishing a script that runs as smoothly as a Rolls-Royce, with a clever, improbable little plot that is topped off with a deliciously cliffhanging climax. The escapist mix of quirky performances, feisty action, amazing daredevil stunt driving, fresh-looking locations and delicious, laid-back, sly humour is perfect.

With its great idea, eccentric characters, nifty plot and priceless dialogue, this jaunty, quintessential Sixties comic caper movie is the best of its kind and still a must-see gem. Just compare it with the Mark Wahlberg 2003 remake The Italian Job to see why.

Benny Hill (the Professor, Simon Peach), Irene Handl (Miss Peach), John Le Mesurier (the Governor) and Fred Emney (the Birkinshaw) head a Brit comedy cast to die for. Tony Beckley plays ‘Camp’ Freddie. (‘Camp’ Freddie: ‘But Mr Bridger, what if the Professor’s not bent?’ Mr Bridger: ‘Camp Freddie, everyone in the world is bent!’) There are even a couple of actual Italian stars in Rossano Brazzi and Raf Vallone. Radio 1 DJ and BBC TV star Simon Dee plays the shirt-maker. Elizabeth Hurley said his ‘Sixties grooviness’ made him the inspiration for Mike Myers’s Austin Powers character in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Coward’s longtime companion Graham Payn plays Keats. ‘(‘You must learn, Keats,’ says Mr Bridger, ‘there are more things to life than breaking and entering.’) Payn lived and died (in 2005) in the Swiss chalet that he shared with Coward in Les Avants.

It is not the sort of film that wins awards, only the public’s affection, but it was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best English-Language Foreign Film.

The Italian Job is directed briskly and capably by the 33-year-old Lincolnshire-born Peter Collinson, whose promising international career was cut short when he died in 1980, aged only 44. As sole screenwriter, Troy Kennedy-Martin deserves a lot of the praise for the film’s success. However, he said: ‘My brother came up with the idea, but his idea was to set in London, around Regent Street. We decided a financial agreement and I took it on. I decided to change it to Turin because it has a computer operated traffic light system.’

It all ends up with a famous ending on a brilliant cliffhanger. ‘Hang on, lads, I’ve got a great idea,’ says Charlie. Alas, we’re still waiting for the sequel. Kennedy-Martin adds: ‘None of us liked the ending at the time. I didn’t even write the final scene in the film. [The producer] Michael Deeley added it after they’d run out of money. Peter Collinson hated it so much he wouldn’t film it and made the assistant director [Scott Wodehouse] do it instead.’

So why wasn’t there a sequel?

Matt Munro sings his hit ‘On Days Like These’.

The cast include: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Maggie Blye, Irene Handl, John le Mesurier, Fred Emney, John Clive, Graham Payne, Michael Standing, Stanley Caine, Barry Cox, Harry Baird, George Innes, John Forgeham, Robert Powell, Derek Ware, Frank Jarvis, David Salamone, Richard Essom, Mario Valogi, Renato Romano, Franco Novelli, Robert Rietty, Timothy Bateson, David Kelly, Arnold Diamond, Simon Dee, Alastair Hunter, Lana Gatto, John Morris, Louis Mansi, Valerie Leon, Frank Kelly, Henry McGee and Stanley Baker.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 849

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