The Italian Job (1969)

QFS No. 176 - The invitation for May 21, 2025
Not to be confused with the 2003 Marky-Mark-starred remake of the same name, the original The Italian Job is your classic heist-crime-caper film. The movie is not Italian, unlike Rome, Open City (1945, QFS No. 174). This particular movie is Super British* as you can tell by the cast – Michael Caine, Benny Hill (what!) and for some reason the playwright Noel Coward.

I’ve never seen the film but have wanted to for many years. The action clips of the Mini Coopers pop up in numerous montages and the like, so I’m looking forward to finally seeing the real thing. Also, who doesn’t enjoy a Michael Caine performance? This is supposedly one of the more memorable ones (of the many many films starring Michael Caine). Unclear whether The Benny Hill Show theme song is part of the chase sequences, but boy that would be pretty spectacular.

Watch The Italian Job and discuss below! 

*This is term I made up but seems like it should be a term.

The Italian Job (1969) Directed by Peter Collinson.

Reactions and Analyses:
The Italian Job (1969) is a film generally remembered and revisited for one major thing – the heist. And, as a film that's about a heist, this makes a lot of sense. If you're making a film about a heist, that heist better be fantastic. Ocean’s Eleven (2001), The Town (2010), The Sting (1973, QFS No. 95) are worth the time spent to watch just for the heist. Fine films in their own right, but the heist is what makes them fun and exciting.

The Italian Job separates itself from those others because there is essentially nothing beyond the film than the heist. It has cemented its legacy as one of the best bad movies out there. And I mean this as praise. All that separates The Italian Job from a Roger Corman film is that in a Corman film, more gratuitous nudity would feature throughout and there would be no lavish set pieces taking place in Italy or through the majestic Alps.

Made at the tail end of the 1960s, there’s a particular 1970s feel to The Italian Job, and not just in wardrobe or style. Setting aside the fact that the film was in fact remade in 2004, the original lacks two of the main hallmarks of modern action film common in the following decade and beyond – character arc and motivation. Take Die Hard (1988, QFS No. 97), the film most credited with revolutionizing or modernizing the action film. Bruce Willis’ John McClain is estranged from his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) and their relationship features prominently as an undercurrent of Die Hard. McClain expresses regret and longing for Holly. Through the struggle of the film and by the end of it, both have fallen back in love and realize they need each other. As for a main character’s motivation in the modern action film, you can see it any of modern movies – revenge, vindication against an old master or nemesis, a chance to retire from the business (as in Midnight Run, 1988, QFS No. 64), coming to grips with the past, and so on.

No such motivations exist for Charlie Croker (Michael Caine), a character that does not undergo a major transformation. Does this matter? Well probably not, given that the film is really only about the extraordinary car chase and pursuit with Mini Coopers and Fiats.

Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) doesn’t appear to have a motivation to rob the Italian gold and goes through no character transformation. He is what he is - a high class thief.

So much of the plot does not add up, especially the storyline of the Mafia who do not, in the end, prevent Italian money leaving Italy for England – which appears to be its main motivation for stopping Charlie’s crew. Who knew the Mafia had so much national pride and patriotism? Kingpin Altabani (Raf Vallone), stops Charlie and his lover-crime partner Lorna (Margaret Blye) from entering Turin with their fancy cars, but doesn’t kill them – only warns them to stay away from Italian money and gold. For good measure, they destroy Charlie’s beautiful sports cars by throwing them over a cliff. And how does Charlie escape with their lives? He threatens Altabani right back, saying that if anything happens to Charlie and his gang, their own boss Mr. Bridger (Noel Coward) will make sure all of the Italian ex-pats living and working in England will suffer the consequences. How this threat (a) actually works and (b) could possibly be carried out is beyond me, but it somehow convinces the Italian mobsters to back off.

Altabani (Raf Vallone) and the Mafia do not kill Charlie and Lorna (Margaret Blye) because otherwise all the Italian ex-pats living in England will be in danger. Obviously.

The Italian Job is a surprisingly nationalistic film, England versus Italy (and by extension, continental Europe). A member of our QFS discussion group first saw the film as an exchange student in England and discovered it’s a deeply beloved film in the United Kingdom for that reason exact reason – not to mention the very British nature of the humor throughout. Not accidentally, the Mini Coopers and their drivers display the traditional colors of the UK’s Union Jack and the day of the heist takes place during a soccer (football) match between the two nations, which is part of the rouse and the planning. The English-made Minis prove to be superior to the Italian made Fiats which are slower and less agile, easily evaded by the Brits in their patriotic cars.

Patriotic uniforms of the United Kingdom-based crew.

The cars feature the patriotic UK colors as well.

There are so many illogical and zany aspects of film, many of which are played for laughs. Is Mr. Bridger in prison or running the prison or kinda both? How did Charlie’s crew have the route scouted so perfectly? What happens to the Mafia? Why is Simon (Benny Hill) so creepy and fond of large ladies? Are the criminals good at their jobs or not good at their jobs? Why would that much gold be transported with so many people and media around? And why do the guards protecting the gold not use their actual firearms when their convey is stopped in the streets and instead only deploy water cannons?

And, the biggest one here – what happens at the end of the film?! How do they get down from teetering over the edge? What happens to everybody! A literal cliffhanger to end the film.

A literal cliffhanger to end the film.

Despite all that, the heist is tremendous fun. The car stunts are legendary – driving atop a stadium, inside a museum, on top of a Fiat factory, through the malls and piazzas of Turin. All done without visual effects, only stunt driving and the effects related to stunt work. It’s an astonishing feat of action and makes you immediately want to go out and purchase a Mini Cooper.

Mini Cooper launching from one building to the next

Driving down the staircase in an Italian palace of some kind.

Driving through shallow water.

Driving atop a stadium and then back down to evade Turin police.

Driving through a mall and swiping a chicken from a diner.

Driving through a giant pipe.

So ultimately, does it matter that the crew is stuck in the bus high in the Alps teetering over the edge? Or that the entire prison cheers gang leader Mr. Bridger upon the “successful” heist – when it’s utterly unclear how he could know – and treats him to a private turkey dinner? Or why would Brits at large be excited about a group of thieves stealing from Italy as if it were indeed a soccer match?

Will Charlie and the gang actually get out of this? We will never know!

No, it doesn’t, not in a film that only concerns itself about the giddy joy of watching tiny powerful cars weave their way through an ancient city, full of verve and grit and gold. What else matters?