1969 -THE ITALIAN JOB, the original version

One of Michael Caine's famous roles from the the 1960's.  Caine is Charlie Croker a master thief pulling off a gold heist in Turin, Italy.  The plan involves screwing up the city with a massive traffic jam and using Mini Coopers to move the gold around the city.

 

This is a very lightweight film not particularly well directed.   Caine had pretty much polished his Cockney smart ass character by this point.  He has a decent cast to play off of.  Noel Coward, now the grand old man of the English theater is the big shot providing the funding for the heist.  Benny Hill, of dirty old man fame, is of all things the computer expert assigned to screw up the traffic during the heist.

Probably the high point of the film is the goofy car chase with the police pursing the Mini Coopers throughout the city.   The end of the film is also known for it's literal cliffhanger.  Quincy Jones wrote the score which includes "The Self Preservation Society" sung by Michael Caine himself.

 

As I said, the film is not really very well directed but the actors and situations make it some kind of minor classic.

Written by Michael Deeley.

Running time 99 minutes.