The Italian Job 1969

Comic caper movie about a plan to steal a gold shipment from the streets of Turin by creating a traffic jam.

• Director:Peter Collinson
• Genre:Action | Comedy | Crime
• Runtime:99 minutes

Cast

Michael Caine : Charlie Croker
Noel Coward : Mr. Bridger (as Noël Coward)
Benny Hill : Professor Simon Peach
Raf Vallone : Altabani
Tony Beckley : Freddie

The film starts with a driver’s-eye view of a Lamborghini Miura driving through the Italian Alps as the titles roll. Following the car as it negotiates the turns at high speed, the scenery is cut off when the car enters the darkness of a tunnel and subsequently explodes. The viewpoint changes to the other end of the tunnel, where the remains of the ill-fated Lamborghini are pulled from the tunnel, wrapped around the front of a bulldozer, and subsequently pushed off the top of a steep hill.

Some time later dapper mobster Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) is released from prison. He is soon met by a woman (Lelia Goldoni) who is the wife of the victim of the car crash, former friend and fellow thief Roger Beckermann (Brazzi). She gives Croker the plans for a daring robbery that Beckermann was in the midst of planning, which attracted the attention of the local Mafia with fatal results. The plans outline a way to rob a four million dollar shipment of gold from China to banks in Turin, a payment to Fiat for licensing their car designs for production in China.

Croker decides to continue the plan in spite of the risks, but needs to put together a large gang in order to pull it off. In order to fund the attempt, Croker breaks into jail to meet with Mr Bridger (Noël Coward), an incarcerated criminal mastermind who nonetheless runs a gangland empire from within the jail. Croker explains “The Italian Job” and is able to arrange the needed funding. He assembles a group including computer expert Professor Peach (Benny Hill), electronics handler Birkinshaw (Fred Emney) and several getaway drivers. The plan calls for Peach to infect Turin’s lauded computerised traffic control system to create a traffic jam that will prevent the police from recapturing the gold after it is stolen. Three Mini Cooper Ss will provide the escape route for the gold, able to navigate the gridlock in unconventional ways, using a route through Turin devised by Roger. Planning and training for the job takes up the first half of the film. Read more

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