The Italian Job (1969)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Troy Kennedy Martin
Directed by Peter Collinson
Starring Michael Caine, Noel Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley

Features:

• Commentary from producer Michael Deeley and Matthew Field, author of The Making of The Italian Job
• Three making-of featurettes
  
• Deleted scene with optional commentary by Field
  
• Trailers
  

Released by: Paramount
Region: 1
Rating: G
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Fans of Caine or the Mini Cooper should own it. Others should rent.

Charlie Croker (Caine) is a criminal's criminal. Smooth, unflappable, and completely without a conscience, he's just ending a stint in prison over a heist that was never adequately solved (at least with regards to where the loot ended up). Within a day of his release from prison, he's reclaimed the aforementioned loot, is living large with a flat full of women, and is planning the most daring heist of his career. Funded by the king of English organized crime, prison warden Mr. Bridger (Coward), the plan is to hit a truck full of gold bullion and snatch it right out from under the noses of the Italian mafia on their home turf. Using technical savvy to disable the traffic controls of Turin, the group plans to hit the gridlocked truck and make their getaway through back alleys and sewers in the highly maneuverable (and teeny) Mini Cooper.

This film's theme of the old guard indoctrinating their heirs apparent in the world of crime works on a second level as we see Sir Noel Coward passing the torch of British acting to Caine. Coward defined what being British on-screen meant for his entire career, and Caine would do the same for quite some time to come, and the two of them on screen together is a thing of beauty. There are other people in the film, to be sure, but there's no denying that this is a Michael Caine picture. He chews up scenery in every shot he's in, and nobody else (other than Coward) can quite keep up with him. Even Benny Hill, no stranger to scene-eating, fades into the background whenever the cocky Charlie Croker strolls into the shot.

This is simultaneously the film's greatest strength and greatest weakness. The whole idea of a team working together to pull off this heist is sort of dashed on the rocks when none of the other characters are more than two-dimensional cutouts standing behind Caine and taking up frame space. The end result is that the chase sequence that comprises the last half of the film is pretty flat, as none of the drivers (other than Caine) mean anything to anybody watching. And there's only so much excitement one can create from a chase sequence that revolves around sub-100 horsepower cars zipping through narrow Italian alleys. As with the more recent remake, I suspect a cartel of Mini executives of having fronted the entire film to show off their cars.

Despite these flaws, if one likes to watch Caine work, there are few films more dedicated to letting him stay in the spotlight. Get Carter, perhaps. The movie is also quite pretty to look at, as the Italian locations are absolutely gorgeous, and the camerawork is good about showing said locations off. This print to DVD is as clear and bright and crisp as the day it first rolled on the silver screen, and the audio is available in either a restored mono original or 5.1 surround. For features, there's a decent commentary from the producer, though I wish they'd gone out and sprung to get Caine on the track as well. With half this cast and crew already moved to the Casting Call in the Great Beyond, you'd hope that people would be interested in getting Caine's thoughts on record before it was too late. There are a few decent production features, and a deleted scene with optional commentary (while the scene absolutely needed to be deleted for pacing reasons, it's highly entertaining in its own right).

This is a solid rental for anybody that likes caper films or chase sequences, and something Caine fans are going to want to own.