This film doesn’t have a single serious thought in its celluloid body. And that is Glorious.
I think the reason I responded so positively to this film is how it has a stylization that I suspect was inspired by the spy movies of the previous few years. Throughout this tight little narrative--here’s a guy, he’s going to do a job, and he does it--there are these little touches which indicate we’re in a world that’s like reality, but really isn’t; let’s call it reality-adjacent. We know in real life that robbers wouldn’t color code their outfits to their getaway cars, they’re not answering to a mob boss who literally runs a prison...but here they do! It’s the kind of thing that made
The Avengers my favorite television program.
This film wisely depends almost wholly on the charm and charisma of Michael Caine. He’s the only one with any sort of...character in his character. All the others have schtick--Noel Coward’s crime boss loves England! Camp Freddy dresses really fabulously (and may be gay?)! Professor Peach loves overweight women! Lorna...fills out her brown leather skirt really well(?)--but are mostly there to keep the caper aspects of the film moving. And when their usefulness to the plot is up? Well, the film helpfully and quickly writes them out...Margaret Blye’s Lorna is literally put on a plane when the plot can no longer handle her eye-candy-ness, and Benny Hill’s Professor Peach is hauled away by the cops after goosing a fat woman and is never seen again. The forward momentum of this film’s almost two hour running time is in Caine’s hands and Caine doesn’t drop it. The film moves, moves well, and there isn’t a moment I was getting impatient.
When I mentioned I was watching this film, my mother waxed rhapsodic about the Mini-Coopers. These smallish cars play an important part in the film’s final act, leading the police of Turin on a merry chase through a piazza, on rooftops, underground, in the sewers...all over the place. While it may seem tame compared to the road-bound shenanigans of the
Fast and Furious series, keep in mind that this sequence--which goes on for about twenty minutes--features real cars being driven by real drivers on real locations. There is a stunt where the three mini-Coopers jump over the rooftops of the city that might not look very impressive, but I’m sure was
insanely dangerous in 1969. It’s not for nothing that the producers of the 2003....remake(?)* weren’t really interested in actually doing it until the Mini-Cooper went back into production. Along with Caine, they’re the stars of this film.
I still find the literally cliffhanging ending (you’ll have to see it to understand what I mean) a little puzzling. This was way before the era of the franchise, and there never was the thought of doing a follow-up, so leaving Caine and his cronies there after pretty much hinting at a happy ending is...weird. It doesn’t effect the events that precede it, or throw them into a different light; it just
is.
I may be biased, given my new found love of 60‘s era Michael Caine and that sort of light, fairy tale kind of action-y caper flick that seems to have morphed throughout the ages to become the
Fast and Furious series I hold so dear, but I certainly recommend this film. It’s held up remarkably well.
*--I watched the remake before I saw the original because of my man-crush on Jason Statham, and I wonder why it was even called The Italian Job. It should be called The Los Angeles Job with An Italian Job Tacked Onto The First Act. It’s enjoyable and features a smaller and more fully realized cast, but really doesn’t justify the use of its title.
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