Italian Job, The (1969)

Made at the height of the Swingin’ Sixties, The Italian Job is a groovy postscript to the Ealing crime caper comedy tradition of films such as The League Of Gentlemen and Too Many Crooks. Michael Caine, who had already become a pin-up boy for the times thanks to Alfie, stars as Charlie Crocker, a career criminal just out of a three year stint in jail. Under the watchful eye of crime boss, Mr Bridger (Noël Coward) he puts together a team to steal $4m dollars of bullion under the noses of the Turin police using three Minis; one red, one white and one blue, with an Italy versus England soccer game as cover.

Collinson's direction is solid and the film is quite well-made, with Caine, the Carnaby Street fashion, Quincy Jones’s soundtrack, the sort-of theme song “The Self-Preservation Society” and, of course, the oft-aired escape through Turin in the Minis, all helpingto make the film an icon of those less demanding times. Notwithstanding, the film lacks the quintessential Englishness that makes the Ealing films from the previous decade such classics, leaving it too close to Keystone-Kops-go-to-Brighton-Pier style humour (Benny Hill gets to do his buttock fetishising schtick) to have much appeal beyond the nostalgic, or for fans of Brit-pop and "Cool Brittannia", the faux-nostalgic.

 

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