Big Deal On Madonna Street

Big Deal on Madonna Street(I Soliti Ignoti) (1958)

Runtime: 106 minutes

Directed by: Mario Monicelli

Starring: Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Memmo Carotenuto, Rossana Rosi, Marcello Mastroianni

From: Several Italian companies

“Donald Duck aprons” was not a sight I was expecting to see.

For the last heist movie I'll view (at least for about a week or two), might as well go with a legendary comedic take on the particular genre. Plenty of films show those daring escapades pulled off successfully... what if the job is done by hoodlums who are fools, in way over their heads? The prize they desire is jewels in a safe. This should definitely be viewed by those that dig these sorts of capers.

This motley crew includes a lousy boxer and a broke photographer who had to sell his camera as his wife is in jail and he has to look after his toddler son. There are double-crosses, plenty of bickering, romances that are sometimes done only for the benefit of the robbery, injuries... there are plenty of chuckles to be had, especially during the attempted heist itself. Just about everything goes wrong there; among other things, they inadvertently make themselves incredibly conspicuous. Rififi (an obvious inspiration; it was made just a few years prior) is easy to use for a comparison; as right as that heist went, the one presented here is bungled beyond belief.

While I recognized only some of the names (Vittorio Gassman, Claudia Cardinale in a small role, and the legendary Marcello Mastroianni before he skyrocketed to stardom) the cast as a whole was pretty solid. Great was the jazzy score from Piero Umiliani that augments so well what is on screen. As there's also gorgeous cinematography from Gianni Di Venanzo, Big Deal on Madonna Street was simply a delight.