A Very British Film Called The Italian Job (1969)

(This post is part of the 11th Annual Rule, Britannia Blogathon hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts)

If ever there was a Golden Age for caper movies, it had to be the Sixties. The decade saw the release of such classic caper films as Topkapi (1964), Gambi (1966), and How to Steal a Million (1966). Among the greatest of the caper movies of the Sixties was The Italian Job (1969). And while the United Kingdom produced a number of caper films during the Sixties, arguably The Italian Job was the most British of them all.

The Italian Job centres on professional thief Charlie Croker (Michael Caine). Newly released from prison, Charlie goes to meet fellow thief Roger Beckerman (Rosano Brazzi) about a job Beckerman had planned in Italy. Charlie instead finds himself meeting with Beckerman's widow (Lelia Goldoni), Beckerman having been killed by the Mafia. Beckerman's widow insists that Charlie go forward with Beckerman's plan, which involves stealing $4 million in gold bullion from a convoy as a payment to Fiat by the Chinese for a car factory. Charlie has to go for financial backing of the heist to crime lord Mr. Bridger (Noël Coward), as well as gather a crew to pull off the heist. Of course, as might be expected, not everything goes off as planned.

The origins of The Italian Job go back to a teleplay that Ian Kennedy Martin had submitted to the BBC. The play centred on a heist that would be pulled off in central London during a traffic jam. The BBC never turned Ian Kennedy Martin's teleplay into a television movie, his brother Troy Kennedy Martin thinks because the BBC thought it would be too expensive to do. Troy Kennedy Martin then bought the teleplay from his brother and changed the location of the heist from central London to Turin, Italy. As to the Martins, Ian Kennedy Martin had been the story editor on the police drama Redcap and had written for such British TV shows as The Saint, The Protectors, and The Troubleshooters. Troy Kennedy Martin was then best known as the creator of the TV Show Z-Cars and written for such shows as Redcap and ITV Play of the Week, and did some uncredited rewriting on the feature film Darling (1965).

From the beginning Troy Kennedy Martin wanted Michael Caine for the role of Charlie Croker. It was after several attempts that he finally caught up with Mr. Caine when dense fog had resulted in all flights being diverted from Los Angeles International Airport to a small airstrip near San Diego. Troy Kennedy Martin was able to interest Paramount in the project, but then head of Paramount Robert Evans wanted Robert Redford for the lead. Troy Kennedy Martin stood his ground and Robert Evans accepted Michael Caine in the role of Charlie Croker.

As to the rest of the cast, the all-important role of Mr. Bridger was offered to Noël Coward almost immediately. Several well-known British actors filled many of the roles, including comedian Benny Hill as Professor Peach, character actress Irene Hnadl as his sister, Fred Emney as Birkinshaw, and actor and author John Clive as a garage owner. Charlie's crew included such actors as Tony Beckley (who had done a good deal of work with director Peter Collinson), George Innes (who had appeared in Billy Liar), Harry Baird (who had already appeared in many films and would appear in The Oblong Box, also from 1969), and Robert Powell (who would go onto appear in Jesus of Nazareth), among others. One notable member of the cast is Stanley Caine, who was the brother of Michael Caine and had also appeared in his brother's movie Billion Dollar Brain (1967).

Four endings were written for The Italian Job, but producer Michael Deeley was not satisfied with any of them. He then came up with the idea of the movie's now famous cliffhanger ending. Over the years many have guessed at how the cliffhanger would have been resolved.

The Italian Job was shot a t a number of different locations. The prison where Charlie had stayed was actually a combination of two different prisons. The interior was Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, Ireland. The exterior was sHM Prison Wormwood Scrubs in west London. The famous chase scene was shot mostly in Turin, with the portion  through a sewer shot in the Sowe Valley Sewer Duplication system in the Stoke Aldermoor district of Coventry. Other locations included the Royal Lancaster Hotel  in London, the Crystal Palace race track, and the Dover Ferry Terminal on the Easter Docks in Dover, Kent. Filming was also done at Isleworth studios in Isleworth, Middlesexand  Twickenham Film Studios in Twickenham, Middlesex.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, The Italian Job is a very British film, despite the fact that much of its action is set in Italy. Indeed, it is hard to get more British than a cast including Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, and Irene Handl, among others. Much of the Britishness of the film comes in the form of Mr. Bridger, who is openly nationalistic. His room is filled with pictures of the Queen and magazines about the Queen, and "Rule, Britannia" or "God Save the Queen" is often playing when he is on screen. In addition to Mr. Bridger, there is also the fact that the heist itself unfolds towards the end of a football match between England and Italy. The escape vehicles of much of Charlie's crew are also very British. They are Mini Coopes in the national colours of the United Kingdom: red, white, and blue. Of course, in many ways the British iconography of The Italian Job should not prove surprising, given to a large degree the movie plays out as the British versus the Mafia.

The Italian Job opened at the Plaza Cinema on June 5 1969. Given its status as a classic today, it might come as a surprise that some critics were not impressed by the film upon its release. In Today's Cinema, Marjorie Bilbow wrote, "Without the super car chase that forms the thrilling climax, this would be little more than a run-of-the-mill comedy thriller...."  In The New York Times, Vincent Canby who reviewed the Spaghetti Western Ace High (1968) and The Italian Job as a double feature, commented, "Both Giuseppe Colizzi's Ace High, an Italian Western, and Peter Collinson's The Italian Job, a British caper comedy set mostly in Italy, are types of movies that have been made before—very often and much better—by other people."

While some critics might not have been impressed by The Italian Job, British audiences loved the film, and it did well at the box office in the United Kingdom. It also performed well in Europe. For whatever reason it did not perform as well in the United States, although it would achieve cult status in the Colonies.  It made its American television debut on June 9 1974 on ABC, and has been gathering American fans ever since.

While critics may have been unimpressed with The Italian Job in 1969 and it may have had an underwhelming box office performance in the United States, it has since become very highly regarded. In 1999 the British Film Institute ranked The Italian Job at no. 35 in its list of  the BFI Top 100 British films. In 2004 Total Film listed it as the 27th greatest British film of all time. In 2011 movie fans voted The Italian Job the greatest British film of all time in a poll conducted by Sky Movies HD. The film currently boasts a rating of 82% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The Italian Job has also permeated popular culture throughout the Anglosphere, with Michael Caine's line,  "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" often quoted. Indeed, Michael Caine even titled his memoir, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: And Other Life Lessons. Critics in 1969 and American audiences in 1969 may not have been impressed by this very British film, but The Italian Job has become an undisputed classic.