THE ITALIAN JOB: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Paramount, 1969) Kino Lorber

The chic and sophisticated sixties’ jet-setting caper reached its zenith with Peter Collinson’s The Italian Job (1969), a glib and voguish, inordinately rambunctious and principally enjoyable lark that blends the conventions of an English farce made at Ealing with the more death-defying thrills of a traditional actioner (think James Bond meets Benny Hill). Actually, Hill appears in this movie – however briefly, but memorably. Michael Caine is in familiar territory as Charlie Croker, a vane, arrogant, yet intellectual womanizer out to steal a small treasury from right under the nose of the Mafia. It’s a ballsy move, and, at least on the surface, appears to fly in the face of the edicts and principles – notice I did not say ‘morals and scruples’ - of his otherwise, deft and dynamic self-preservation society. If only for its penultimate stunt work, chasing a trio of Mini Cooper getaway cars literally up and down the sides of buildings, The Italian Job is already one of the most impressive movies ever made. Add to this Caine’s inimitably droll and dangerous bad guy, wed at the hip to Noel Coward’s charmingly effete puppet-master, orchestrating the entire affair from his prison cell no less, plus the sight of the leggy and luscious, Maggie Blye in hip-swiveling minis and go-go boots and - ‘yeow!’ - does The Italian Job have a lot of eye candy to offer the first-time viewer. Permit us to worship at the altar of sixties’ slink and sly, ultra-mod/uber-glam escapism par excellence.

Michael Caine’s early career holds a dubious distinction; the actor, capable of engaging his audience even as the most appalling reprobate or social misfit. If you loved his haughty formalist in the epic, Zulu (1961), and his audaciously indiscriminate cad in Alfie (1966) – and let’s be honest – who didn’t – then Caine’s Charlie Croker in The Italian Job truly is the most unreliable misbegotten on God’s green acres, unrepentant in his devilish deceptions of goodtime sexpot, Lorna (you guessed it…Blye). Not to mention the bevy of ‘birds’ (that’s women of easy virtue for all you non-Brits) Caine loves and then leaves. Caine’s Croker seduces the lanky hanky-panky widow (Leila Goldoni) of his ‘old friend’, Roger Beckermann (Rossano Brazzi) even before her husband’s body is cold in its grave. He then springs Prof. Simon Peach (Benny Hill) – a manifestly irresponsible sexual deviant with a fetish for large women – from his convalescence home, merely to exploit Peach’s impeachable talents for the proposed robbery, breaks into the prison latrine (ballsy? Oh, you bet!) to consult Mr. Bridgers (Noël Coward), and finally, bosses his motley crew of hand-picked misanthropes (none of them dyed-in-the-wool professionals) in his best ‘cock of the walk’ manner, while thumbing his nose at the malicious head of Italy’s crime syndicate, Altabani (Raf Vallone). Whew! This son of a bitch is tough! 

Add to this mix, Quincy Jones’ rakishly exuberant score, beginning with the melodic ballad, ‘On Days Like These’ (featuring lyrics by Don Black and sung with glum grandeur by then popular balladeer, Matt Monro) and concluding with the utterly uproarious ‘Get A Bloomin’ Move On’ (sometimes known as The Self-Preservation Society) and The Italian Job is as sleek and dicey a male fantasy flick as any sixties’ mod-squad could make. Interestingly, Michael Caine was not the first choice to star. Paramount’s Robert Evans wanted hot new find, Robert Redford for the title role. Today, one can no more imagine the blonde/buff Redford pulling off Caine’s brashly charismatic, style-hunger slickster than supplanting Caine himself as the studly romantic ideal, instead of Redford, opposite Meryl Streep in Out of Africa (1985). Like Michael Caine, director, Peter Collinson’s participation on this project was an afterthought. Producer, Michael Deeley settled on the Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire-born scrapper who could simultaneously wield congenial good humor and nastily scalding diatribes at his cast and crew as an afterthought. Collinson’s changeable temperament seemingly balanced on a dime. His career peaked with The Italian Job, a movie not particularly well-received in the U.S., but one that has since acquired a renown cult following. Moreover, Collinson was chiefly responsible for lensing driver, Remy Julienne’s fantastic stunt work, a truly hair-raising chase staged for maximum effect down Turin’s tight streets, and across the narrow and rickety rooftops of its cityscape, the indisputable centerpiece and highlight of this movie.

Except for an exhilarating race featuring the infamous red, white and blue Mini Coopers careening through Sowe Valley’s Sewer Duplication System in England’s Midlands, and the climactic bus crash, staged along an abandoned stretch of Ceresole Reale, Lago Agnel and the Colle del Nivolet, virtually all of The Italian Job’s iconic sequences are Turin bound. Director, Collinson pieced together the rest of his story’s settings from a potpourri of locations: Ireland’s Kilmainham Gaol Prison and Cruagh Cemetery; Hanworth Middlesex’s Apex House as Turin’s command center, Upper Norwood’s Crystal Palace Sports Centre to stage dry run training sessions, and finally, Denbigh Close, W11 subbing for Charlie Croker’s fashionable London digs. In retrospect, The Italian Job is something of a cross between a wicked lampoon of the Bond franchise (Croker even drives a convertible Aston-Martin, the same model Sean Connery’s suave 007 used in Goldfinger 1964 – albeit, without the hard-top and ejector seat) and a sort of faithless homage to 1967’s superspy spoof, In Like Flynn starring James Coburn.  Producer, Deeley scored a minor coup in securing the services of noted wit, playwright, filmmaker, star and all-around bon vivant, Noël Coward for the plum supporting role of Mr. Bridger, a dandy gangland impresario, who micromanages mayhem from the comfort of his prison cell, while harboring a somewhat obsequious idolization of the Queen. Quincy Jones’ falls back on a few choice bars of ‘Rule Britannia’ whenever Bridger enters the latrine - his private sanctuary, plastered in cutouts of Elizabeth II.

Our story begins with aged Italian sophisticate, Roger Beckermann (Rossano Brazzi – think Marcello Mastroianni in his emeritus years) racing his cherry red Lamborghini Miura around some cliff-side twists and turns high in the Italian Alps. Obviously in a hurry, Roger takes unnecessary risks that place him perilously close to the edge of certain death as the radio emanates Matt Monroe’s languid strains of ‘On Days Like These’. An approaching stretch of tunnel seems harmless enough. If only Mafia kingpin, Altabani (Raf Vallone) were not waiting on the other side with a small army of his goons and a bulldozer hidden in the darkness that effectively causes Beckermann to fatally crash inside the tunnel. Emerging with the crumpled Lamborghini caught in its serrated scoop, Altabani instructs the bulldozer’s driver to throw the smoldering wreckage over the steep mountain side, the car – and presumably Beckermann plummeting down a ravine and into the raging waters of a nearby river, after which Altabani tosses a funerary garland.

Sometime later, dapper mobster, Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) is released from prison and met just beyond its’ gated walls by buxom gal/pal, Lorna (Maggie Blye) who has not so cleverly stolen a rather flashy Rolls-Royce belonging to the visiting Turkish Ambassador. Charlie and Lorna are happy to see each other…well, sort of. Charlie is not exactly the settling down kind, preferring the diversions of many women to the mere company of one…even someone as obviously devoted to him as Lorna. Picking up where he left off before going to jail, collecting his sleek, silver, Aston-Martin from the rental garage, and running up a tab on some high-priced duds to look the part, Charlie is surprised by Lorna with a homecoming party at a local brothel. Later, he has a rendezvous with Beckermann’s widow (Lelia Goldoni) at the Dorchester. Turns out Mrs. Beckmann is not the faithful type either. But she confides in Charlie, her late husband’s plans for the daring heist that unfortunately attracted the attentions of the Mafia and ultimately led to his murder. Viewing a pre-recorded 16mm film reel, Beckmann - already anticipating, and thus explaining to Charlie that he is dead - further details his rather ingenious plan to steal $4 million of Chinese gold made as a down payment to automotive giant, Fiat to build their new manufacturing plant in China. Beckmann’s plan involves breaking into, and sabotaging, Turin's newly computerized traffic control center so all the lights in the city seize at once, thus affording the robbers their subsequent getaway without intervention from the local authorities. It’s an ingenious bit of espionage and it intrigues Croker, though arguably not as much as the money.

After taking up with a trio of birds, Charlie is surprised by Lorna who threatens him with bodily harm. He confides his plans to her, before quietly breaking into prison to consult with Mr. Bridger (Noël Coward), a career criminal who operates the most lucrative gangland empire from the comfort of his prison cell. Their clandestine tête-à-tête inside the latrine disrupts Bridger’s regularity and, after dismissing Charlie’s plan outright, Bridger sends a trio of goons to rough Charlie up for his insolence. Thankfully, Bridger – having reconsidered Charlie’s plan – has also had a change of heart. With Bridger’s complicity, Charlie assembles a troop to pull off the crime. This hits a minor snag when Miss Peach (Irene Handl) informs Charlie and his second in command, Keats (Graham Payne) that her husband, Professor Peach (Benny Hill) has since been institutionalized for committing perverse sex acts with their severely overweight upstairs’ maid. Charlie needs Peach who, among his other attributes, is a computer expert. Not long after springing this randy old sod from the asylum - with promises made about his seducing fat Italian women as part of his compensation - Charlie, Peach and electronics handler, Birkinshaw (Fred Emney) begin their training sessions with a small assemblage of getaway drivers. Packed into two Jaguar E-type sports cars and Charlie’s Aston Martin, this motley crew, along with Lorna, arrives at the same alpine pass where Beckermann met with his untimely end.  Too bad Altabani is waiting for them with his goon squad and the front loader, crushing the two Jaguars and then sending Charlie’s Aston Martin tumbling down the gorge. To spare their certain annihilation, Charlie suggests to Altabani that if any harm comes to them, reprisals will be exacted on every Italian currently residing in Britain.  As a slippery gesture of goodwill, Altabani cordially allows Charlie and his team to live.

Recouping their losses, Charlie secures three Mini Coopers, a VW bus and a larger bus as their new getaway vehicles. Cycling under the cover of night to a nearby power plant, Charlie uses the bicycle to create an outage, temporarily causing the lights to go out inside Turin’s computerized command center – just long enough for Peach to implant the phony memory tape with the virus that will be downloaded into the mainframe and wreak havoc on the traffic signals all over town at approximately the moment the Chinese gold is set to arrive.  Birkinshaw jams the closed-circuit television monitors. On cue, Peach’s software kicks in, creating a horn-honking pandemonium in the middle of the afternoon. Altabani knows exactly who is responsible for this mayhem. In all the confusion, Charlie and his men strike, sending smoke bombs into the panicked crowd and forcing the armored car carrying the bullion into the cloistered entrance of the Museo Egizio, before locking the doors behind it. Working under a tight deadline, Charlie and his men transfer the gold into their Mini Coopers before tearing off through Via Roma’s congested venues, then driving up the curved roof of the Torino Palavela, and later, racing around Fiat Lingotto’s rooftop test track, and finally, down the steps of the Gran Madre di Dio. The race concludes with a harrowing plummet into a large sewer pipe, the trio of Minis narrowly escaping authorities before driving up a ramp into the back of their waiting six-wheeler Harrington Legionnaire-bodied Bedford VAL coach.  It all looks like smooth sailing ahead. Word of Charlie’s daring thievery reaches the prison. Mr. Bridger is given a standing ovation by the rest of the inmates for his complicity in their audacious caper.

Charlie and his men unload the gold into the back of the coach, dumping their Minis one by one over the edge of the Alps.  Too bad for everyone the winding mountain pass to Switzerland proves too narrow for the coach’s driver, Big William (Harry Baird) to navigate. Instead, he loses control, the back end sliding off the edge of a cliff, leaving Charlie and his team precariously dangling – literally, a cliffhanger!  Charlie encourages his men to back into the coach’s cab for leverage. But the gold is weighing down the back of the bus. With each teeter, it slides just a little bit more out of Charlie’s reach. After several failed attempts to crawl to its rescue, Charlie turns to the rest of his crew, suggesting he has come up with another plan. What exactly it is, we will never know. The film ends with everyone still trapped high atop the mountain pass, suggesting to the audience that sacrifices will have to be made – the gold or, perhaps, their lives. This rather inauspicious finale was arrived at only after producer, Michael Deeley became dissatisfied with the four alternate conclusions concocted by screenwriter. Troy Kennedy Martin. In theory, leaving everyone hanging – literally – also left room for the possibility of a sequel. Indeed, Collinson and the writers had prematurely assumed they had a big hit on their hands. So, a sequel was already being discussed. Alas, The Italian Job was not a rainmaker for Paramount. The sequel would have begun with Charlie and his crew still clinging to the edge of the cliff, and, a daring helicopter intervention by Altabani and his Mafia hoods. What was to have followed shortly thereafter remains a mystery. For although The Italian Job did respectable business in Europe, it was an utter commercial flop in the U.S. The sequel was immediately scrapped by Paramount.

Viewed today, one cannot imagine more of the same coming of it after the end of The Italian Job. This movie is both an entity and an anomaly unto itself, a queer amalgam of directorial stealth and a testament to sixties’ super-kitsch, destined not to have its own franchise, though irrefutably, meant to possess an afterlife. For one thing, the characters are too thinly drawn. Without Michael Caine and Noel Coward – both striking indelible big screen impressions as variations on their already trademarked selves – The Italian Job completely lacks staying power. The other characters are a non sequitur, just transient, forgettable faces, as undistinguished in their performances.  The action sequences make this movie what it is, glossy, garish, good fun; disposable entertainment made under the auspices of that generation’s ‘let it all hang out’ approach to life, and, with an overriding disregard for personal responsibility thereafter. The audience is not meant to ‘relate’ to these characters or contemplate any deeper meaning. This one’s a ‘fluff and nonsense’ type, merely meant for our blindsided enjoyment. Attempting to make something more of the picture’s premise by reverting to a darker approach to this already implausible scenario, while inexplicably relocating the action to Los Angeles for the 2003 remake, only served to exaggerate the original movie’s superficiality and lack of substance beyond its tantalizing surface sheen.

So, does this mean The Italian Job is a bad movie? On the contrary, it is a rather special one; un-quantifiable at a glance and working its magic for at least its own duration on the screen. Its’ afterlife has largely been predicated on the renewed appeal in Michael Caine who, eighty-nine years young, is still going strong. Bravo! Even if The Italian Job is not his best work, Caine is exceedingly good in it. If in search of depth of either plot or character, then The Italian Job is undoubtedly a huge disappointment. But otherwise, it works. It’s big and shiny noise is capable of riding over the senses like a steamroller, cleverly tricked out in two larger-than-life star personalities - Caine and Coward – without whom the entire enterprise evaporates like a hallucinogenic-induced male fantasy on steroids.  Movies from the late sixties, throughout the mid-1970’s were often guilty of achieving their mileage by stockpiling overly simplified plots with an all-star lineup of one-time, marquee-grabbing headliners and throwing in some mindless action in to propel the plot. Irwin Allen all but perfected this formula with his disaster classics, The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). The Italian Job lacks the pull of the disaster epic to make it truly live on. Its afterlife is noteworthy, but almost exclusively bent on the magnetic pull of Caine’s movie-making legacy. Wipe this slate clean and The Italian Job is a time capsule with whitewashed panache. You’ll love it for what it is. But you may be hard pressed to want to see it again and again.

The Italian Job gets resurrected yet again – this time in 4K, shed of all the cool swag that came with the U.K. 50^th Anniversary Blu-ray box set, but otherwise looking every bit the dog and pony show it ought; alas, with no new extras. This remastering effort is stellar, rock solid and gorgeous. Flesh tones are spot on and colors simply pop off the screen. Fine detail is extraordinary and contrast, perfectly realized. Grain is properly placed. Wow! This couldn’t be better! We get two DTS English tracks – the original mono and a spectacularly re-envisioned 5.1 to give your surrounds some exercise. Paramount and Kino Lorber, the third-party distributor here, have been exceptionally generous with extras. The 4K, scanned from an original negative, gets 2 audio commentaries – previously available: the first, from screenwriter, Troy Kennedy Martin and author, Matthew Field, the other featuring producer, Michael Deeley and Field. The rest of the goodies are all housed on the Blu-ray, also included. Same 2 commentaries, along with 3 documentaries produced in 2002 – The Great Idea, The Self-Preservation Society, and, Getta Bloomin’ Move On. These cover the production of the movie from top to bottom and side to side, with participation from many surviving cast and crew members. There’s also Mini Adventures – a 2009 featurette on the Coopers used in the movie, plus deleted scenes with an optional commentary by Field, and original and reissue trailers. Bottom line: You really couldn’t ask for more here. The 4K represents The Italian Job with stunning clarity and color accuracy. It’s a treat to behold. Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

4K – 5+

Blu-ray - 4.5

EXTRAS

5+