Original Gangsters: THE ITALIAN JOB (1969)

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Years before Michael Caine became Batman’s butler, he was a legit movie star with pictures like “Billion Dollar Brain” (1967) and his starring role in “Alfie” (1966). It was in this heyday that Caine starred in the influential heist movie “The Italian Job“. Caine played recently paroled career criminal Charlie Croker, out for a big score.

Let the cool cars of “The Italian Job” that really tell the story.

The opening scene is absolute automotive cinema. Crocker’s criminal associate Roger Beckerman is driving an orange 1968 Lamborghini Miura through the Italian Alps as “On Days Like These” croons over the opening credits. Beckerman has devised a plan to steal $4 million in gold bullion from an armored car in Italy.

The Mafia have found out about the scheme, wrecked the Lamborghini, and killed Beckerman in the process.

Before his death, Beckerman sent a message about his planned heist to Crocker, to entice him to join. Now finding himself as the mastermind of the scheme, Croker conscripts multiple bad guys to join him. Safe crackers, getaway drivers and Professor Peach (played by Benny Hill) as the computer expert, making “The Italian Job” one of the first cybercrime movies ever.

“Fast Five” owes a debt to “The Italian Job” for the blueprint of an ensemble cast huddled in an abandoned factory testing out their getaway cars.

To avoid drawing attention, the British gang travel to Italy separately. While several vehicles are sent by boat, Croker and his group drive through the Alps in their Aston Martin DB5, and pair of Jaguar E-Types. They are ambushed by the mafia, who warn against a plot in their home town.

To hammer home the point, they mafia destroys the three sports cars that were to be used for getaway vehicles.

Undeterred, the conniving criminals continue, and the use British vehicles to carry out the caper. While the gold is being transported through traffic-snarled Turin, the gang ambushes and the armored car’s convoy. They knock out the guards and use a 1965 Land Rover Series II with a tow-truck hoist to drag the armored car into a courtyard where they blow the doors off it, and grab the loot, preparing for the quick getaway.

Having planned their escape to the letter, the gang then dresses up as soccer fans in town for the England vs Italy match, then drive away in a 1959 Thames Personnel Carrier (what we today call a minivan) covered in patriotic UK flags and banners. By hiding in plain sight, the criminals evade detection.

The most famous vehicles are the three specially re-enforced Mini Coopers that carry the gold bullion out of town. By using an ingenious route designed by Beckerman that avoids the stalled Italian traffic, the red, white and blue Mini Coopers evade police and the Mafia by driving down sidewalks, over stairs, through pedestrian streets, and even through sewers.

Once safely out of town, and on the expressway, the Mini Coopers are driven up ramps and into the back of a modified 1964 Bedford VAL 14 bus. The gang then unloads the gold, and unceremoniously dumps the cars over the guardrails on mountain roads to look like traffic accidents.

While the crew celebrates the successful heist, the driver loses control on the twisty road, and comes to a stop with the back of the bus teetering precariously over a cliff. The crew stands at the front of the coach in an attempt to counterbalance the weight of the gold at the rear.

The original ‘cliffhanger’ ending.

The interesting thing about this movie, what a Demaras Racing ‘fast film’ review cannot sue justice to, is how influential this movie was. The chase scene with those three Mini Coopers has been mimicked in countless action movies. Before this film, chases took place on highways and city streets, but “The Italian Job” extended this to tunnels, rooftops, and staircases like in “The Bourne Identity“.

The chase even made it up on the rooftop track atop the Fiat Lingotto factory, leading to the most famous car jump in cinematic history. This is truly a car-cinema classic.

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