Big Deal on Madonna Street - Criterion Collection (1960)

An all-star cast and jazzy score highlight this charming comedy, a deft satire of classic caper films like Rififi. Big Deal on Madonna Street hilariously details the plight of a sad-sack group of bumbling thieves and their desperate attempts to pull off the perfect heist.

A Comedy of Errors

I might be stretching it a bit to give "Big Deal on Madonna Street" a 5 star rating but I rounded it to the nearest score. I did so because of the understated quality of the humor in the movie. I was rather easily led along the story line which got more and more complicated as each minor difficulty resulted in another misdirection. By the time the movie was in full swing, the twists, turns and obstacles kept things hopping.

The acting and directing were very good. There are some familiar names and a lot of new actors (to an American audience). The beauty of the movie is the seriousness of the players contrating to the inanity of the script. This is a movie that movie lovers ought to see at least once in their lives; just for the fun of it. May 4, 2008

Big Deal on Madonna Street

A brilliant spoof of caper films like Jules Dassin's "Rififi," Monicelli's manic romp is crowd-pleasing in every way, thanks to hilarious performances from Gassman, Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, and the rest of the ebullient cast. Monicelli focuses as much on his sad-sack characters as he does the details of the heist, and it's impossible not to find these inept robbers--who drill a hole through the wrong wall--completely endearing. Mastroianni, as buffoonish photographer turned car thief Tiberio, is a gas, even up against fabled funnyman Toto (as a scene-stealing, semi-retired burglar). Watch, too, for a young Claudia Cardinale. Filmed on location in Italy, "Madonna" was remade as "Crackers" in 1984, minus the uproarious laughs. June 27, 2007

Madcap petty criminal hijinks in postwar Italy

Tall, handsome Vittorio Gassman stars as Peppe, the womanizing glass-jawed palooka who, along with several keystone criminals, stumblebum their way to...not much. Also featured in this comedy by Italian film legend Mario Monicelli are Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale, who would go on to fame and fortune, but here have only modest parts. Mastroianni, who would later star in La Dolce Vita (1960), Il Bell'Antonio (1960), Divorzio all'italiana (1961) and many others, plays Tiberio a photographer without a camera, whose wife is in jail, who has a constantly crying baby to take care of with one of his arms up in a sling with a board under it. Cardinale, who would go on to become one of Italy's most famous beauty bombshells, plays Carmelina, a young woman locked up by her brother in order to protect her honor until she marries.

Also featured are Carla Gravina (Nicoletta), a very pretty 17-year-old who went on to only a modest career, and the veteran Toto who plays the incompetent safecracker, Dante Cruciani. Notable is Renato Salvatori as Mario who wins Carmelina's heart, Memmo Carotenuto as Cosimo who fails at purse-snatching, and Carlo Pisacane as Capannelle who looks like an aged member of the Bowery Boys.

The story begins when Cosimo is caught trying to steal a car. In prison he learns of a nice sting that he can pull off if only he can get out of jail. So he tries to hire a scapegoat to confess to the crime so he can be freed. Finally Peppe, after getting knocked out in the first round of a prize fight, decides he needs the money. However when he goes to confess, the police see through the ruse and throw him in jail without releasing Cosimo. But Peppe does get out, and he and the motley assortment of would-be jewel thieves plot their crime amid hilarious missteps, pratfalls and mass confusion as they break into an apartment that they have the keys for to knock down a wall (which wall?) to gain access to a safe they probably can't crack. Will they succeed despite all the mishaps?

There is a sense of both recovery and poverty in post World War II Italy in the backdrops and the asides and the circumstances of the characters that lend to this comedy a realistic edge. We see the petty thievery as an understandable and almost acceptable way of life, at least for the time being. Mario always buys or steals three identical things for his "mother" who turns out to be three women who raised him at the orphanage. Tiberio has to sell his camera and then steal one. Skinny Capannelle is always eating. And in the jail several men share one cigarette while they blow the smoke into a bottle to capture it so that others might get a little nicotine as well! (Sure, and I have some gum I can recycle.)

The Criterion Collection DVD that I viewed has excellent yellow subtitles, but some of the lines come so fast and with such comedic as well as denotative intent that it is easy to miss something. Knowing Italian would help!

See this for all the "bumbling criminal" movies that it both imitated and inspired, and for the fine work by the talented cast. June 1, 2007

Funny Funny Funny!

This movie is the perfect representation of the Italian sense of Humor! A certified timeless classic film that will always be hilarious! October 16, 2006

mamma mia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a a GREAT FILM!
I've seen it countless times and every time it's just like the first time: I laugh my butt off!!!!!!!!
I love every character in in this film, in fact, I couldn't imagine this film without Mastroianni and Gassman, they are hilarious!!!!!!! April 26, 2005

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