Cinema
Big Deal on Madonna Street
I soliti ignoti
Mario Monicelli · 1958
Synopsis
Rome. Cosimo, a small-time thief, is arrested while trying to steal a car; to get out of prison sooner, he asks his accomplices to find him a “patsy” who will take the blame in his place. The boxer Peppe agrees, but gets only a suspended sentence, and learns the plan Cosimo was preparing: to drill through the wall of an apartment to reach the safe of a pawnshop. The gang comes together, and Dante Cruciani, an old safecracker, supplies them with tools and advice.
Context
The screenplay is by Age and Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi d'Amico and Monicelli, the photography by Gianni Di Venanzo, the music by Piero Umiliani; Franco Cristaldi produced it. Vittorio Gassman plays Peppe, Marcello Mastroianni Tiberio, Renato Salvatori Mario, Totò Dante Cruciani and Claudia Cardinale Carmelina. Monicelli turned the realism of Jules Dassin's heist film on its head by entrusting the job to characters without means. The film was remade by Louis Malle in 1984.
Who it is for
A little under two hours, in Italian. An ensemble comedy, in black and white, about a burglary planned by amateurs.
Prizes and reception
Submitted by Italy for the Oscar for foreign-language film, it has featured since 2008 among the one hundred Italian films to be saved.