"I soliti ignoti" or "Big Deal on Madonna Street" is an Italian Italian-language movie from 1958, so this one is already over 60 years old and of course it is a black-and-white movie. From the rating here on imdb, you can see that people really enjoy it to this day and it is among the more defining films from the then booming Italian comedy genre. Normally these films were in a way that they were more about comedy, but also slightly about drama and wanted to be taken seriously at least to some extent. This one here is really making a difference from that perspective. In my opinion, it is 100% comedy. Yes there is a character dying one one occasion, not a minor or major character as he is hit by a train, but this still never feels one bit like a drama. It is the epitome of a crime comedy and we follow a gang of clearly not very capable crooks as they plan on getting near a big safe and emptying it to lead a happy life free of all financial worries for years to come. Needless to say things don't go exactly as planned. But first thing first. This is based on a short story and the director is Mario Monicelli, who is also one of the writers credited here. This big amount of writers is not a surprise by any means, back then especially for Italian (comedy) films, it was the standard. And these 105 minutes were also a big success awards-wise as the movie managed to get in at the Oscars for the foreign language feature category, which sure surprised me a bit because yeah like I said it is much more about the comedy than anything else, but I suppose the Academy ended up liking these pretty unique crooks. I won't go much into detail here about the cast, but the more I see from old Italy, the more I recognize how stunning all the female actors were back in the day, not only 20yo Cardinale in one of her first on-screen performances still with black hair here. Maybe I was born in the wrong year and country. As for the guys: All of them are really experienced too and are doing a fine job here. The biggest name is maybe Gassmann, who also won a prestigious award for his portrayal. I also ended up liking the old fella quite a bit. He did not talk a lot, but seeing him stand there chew on something was already pretty hilarious. Apart from that, it is all about how incompetent these crooks are. You can easily replace the "ignoti" in the title with "idioti" and it would still be very appropriate (not sure if gramatically though). I won't go much into detail about specific scene, but it is very funny to watch them. The film needs a little but to get going, but the longer it runs, the better it gets in my opinion. The scene with the cat and everything revolving around it (also when they found out he got the key, but protected the girl) was laugh-out-loud funny from beginning to end. And there is much more. It is not important what you like the most: be it dialogue-driven comedy, situational comedy or pure slapstick moments. It is all in here, some more some less. I think the moment the audience in my theater loved the most was what happened when the unlucky guy tries robbing a pawn shop. No more details. experience it yourself. Of course, you need a good set of subtitles if you want to watch this movie unless you are fluent in Italian, but that goes without saying. Oh yeah, the soundtrack was really good too, mostly pretty subtle, but emphasizing the material nicely. I was lucky enough to watch this movie as part of a retrospective on Italian cinema on the big screen and I was glad I took the chance. If you get a similar chance, then go for it and don't miss out. It is certainly worth seeing. A good movie overall with an occasionally great scene even. No need to hesitate for me in giving this one a thumbs-up. Positively recommended and the fact that they made several sequels as well as remade this in America only speaks for itself.
Big Deal on Madonna Street
(1958)
If you plan doing a heist, then this is not one to see. If you are in for some pointless fun, then it very much is.
12 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers