I had to save the best for last.
Michael Caine made an early career out of playing slightly incompetent but very confident criminals. Case in point: the fabulous original The Italian Job, from 1969. Not just an excuse for flashy cars and styling Sixties chicks, The Italian Job pits Charlie Croker (Caine) and his mob against the Italian Mafia, as they attempt to steal four million dollars through a traffic jam.
The Italian Job is the film that anyone making a heist movie should study first. It largely avoids explanatory dialogue, but you never feel lost or confused. The surprises, when they come, feel natural. This is not a film that tries to fool its audience. Caine and Noel Coward, as the master criminal Mr. Bridger, orchestrating things from the inside, provide two counterpoints of quintessential Englishness – the brash Cockney upstart, in his wide ties, flashy Aston Martin and swinging bachelor pad – and the staid English gentleman, his jail cell decorated with pictures of the Queen.
My one objection is the lack of a cool female to cut through some of the macho overtones– was Diana Rigg not available? The Italian job itself, set against the backdrop of an England/Italy football match and executed using Mini Coopers, is set up just to prove that English criminals are far more stylish than Italian ones. The heist is not exactly poetic, but the extended chase sequence is, as the Minis outrace and outmaneuvre the Italian Fiats through the city of Turin to the tune of an English football chant. This is a ballet of driving – anyone who has ever wanted to race a Mini should take note.
The ending of The Italian Job is more than famous, but I will not blow it for anyone who has yet to see this masterpiece of British cool. We would all love to know what Croker’s idea was.
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