The Italian Job

The Italian Job is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, recently released from prison, who forms a gang for the job of stealing a cache of gold bullion being transported through the city of Turin in an armoured security truck. In addition to Caine, the film's cast also included Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, and Noël Coward; the film was Coward's last before his retirement from acting.

While driving through the Alps, criminal Roger Beckermann is killed when his car crashes into a bulldozer deliberately parked in a tunnel by the Mafia, who then dispose of him and his car by pushing it into a nearby river. Meanwhile, Charlie Croker is released from prison following a sentence for an undisclosed crime and reunites with his girlfriend Lorna to enjoy his first taste of freedom. He then heads for a meeting with Beckermann who had been planning a job in Italy. However, Croker is surprised to meet Beckermann's wife, who reveals that her husband has been killed, but insists that he continue with Beckermann's plans, which had been completed before his death. Croker discovers that Beckermann had conceived a strategic heist that would involve trapping a security convoy in a traffic jam while it travels through Turin, and stealing from it $4 million in gold bullion – a down payment to the Italian government by China for a Fiat car factory near Peking.

The film is best loved for the extraordinary car chase after the robbery, all worked our beforehand by Beckermann. The gold is loaded into three Mini Coopers coloured red white and blue, which escape the city which is paralysed by a traffic jam, also part of the plan, caused by sabotaging the computer-controlled traffic light system. The cars follow a route under and over the city, through underpasses and over the rooftops, exiting to the Autoroute via a sewer and across a weir. They are then spectacularly loaded into the back of a moving bus which takes off across the Alps. However Big William the bus driver loses control on a corner and the bus skids. We are left at the end of the film with the back of the bus hanging in mid-air over a ravine and the crew unable to leave it as it would overbalance.

If you have ever wondered why an actor of Noel Coward's status and time of life would choose to appear in this film then here is the reason. The Director, Peter Collinson's, parents, an actress and a musician, separated when he was two years old; he was raised by his grandparents until from the age of eight until 14 he attended the Actor's Orphanage in Chertsey, Surrey. Noël Coward, who was president of the orphanage at the time, became his godfather and helped him to obtain jobs in the entertainment industry, Coward agreed to appear in The Italian Job to help his godson in his career.

The film was disastrously remade in 2003 featuring the newer BMW Minis