How to Bungle a Heist | Cinema Sojourns

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An Italian film poster for the 1958 crime caper comedy BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET, directed by Mario Monicelli.

While some point to The Asphalt Jungle in 1950 as the film that really marked the emergence of the heist film, the genre had actually been in existence since the silent era with The Great Train Robbery (1903) a prime example on up through the forties with such influential efforts as High Sierra (1941). It is true, however, that the heist film became an international phenomenon in the fifties thanks to the worldwide success of Jules Dassin’s Rififi (1955) which set the standard for subsequent films such as Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Bob Le Flambeur (1956). It was inevitable that some filmmaker would eventually poke fun at the then-current craze but nobody expected it to come from Italy in what is now regarded as possibly the finest heist parody of all time – Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). Directed by Mario Monicelli, the film was known in Italy as I Soliti Ignoti and was also released under the alternate title of Persons Unknown.

Another variation of the Italian film poster for BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958), an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

An inspired synthesis of neo-realism and Italian farce, Big Deal on Madonna Street was created in the spirit of the commedia all’italiana, a form Monicelli had perfected in his films over the years through working with the great screen comic Toto in Toto cerca casa (1949), Cops and Robbers (1951, aka Guardie e ladri) and others. In an interview with writer Ilaria Lacommare, Monicelli stated that commedia all’italiana "comes from way back, from the commedia dell’arte, from the characters created by sixteenth century Italian writer and actor Ruzante and Machiavelli, to quote but two. One has to underline the fact that it’s called ‘comedy’ and not ‘tragedy.’ It encompassed everything from love to death, passing through hunger, poverty, sickness and violence. It generates a desperation that nevertheless fills one with hope through laughter."

An Italian lobbycard for the 1958 crime caper comedy BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET.

The plot of Big Deal on Madonna Street focuses on a motley crew of petty criminals who are so inept at their so-called profession that they can barely eke out a living on the streets. Deciding to pool their resources and talents, the group plots the robbery of a state-run pawn shop that is adjacent to the apartment of two elderly women. Peppe (Vittorio Gassman), a failed boxer, begins courting Nicoletta (Carla Gravina), the niece of the two women, in an attempt to learn the layout of their apartment and their routine. As the burglars prepare for the designated day when the apartment will be empty and they can break through the wall into the neighboring pawn-shop, we get to know each character and their personal problems – Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni), whose wife is in jail for selling black-market goods, has his arm broken by a street vendor he stole a movie camera from; Ferribotte (Tiberio Murgia), a proud Sicilian, becomes enraged and threatening when he learns that his beautiful sister Carmelina (Claudia Cardinale) is being romanced by fellow gang member Mario (Renato Salvatori); Peppe gets into a fight at a public dance hall with Nicoletta’s two suitors and is knocked unconscious; all of which is played for laughs. The group’s lack of experience and poor judgment is confirmed when they seek advice from safecracker expert Dante Cruciani (Toto) who can’t participate because he is under close scrutiny by the police but rents them the necessary tools for the job which includes a cheese grater and other kitchen implements.

From the left, Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni), Mario (Renato Salvatori), and Pierluigi (Carlo Pisacane, seated) listen to Dante (Toto, right) outline their heist plan in BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958).

According to Matilde Hochkofler in Marcello Mastroianni: The Fun of Cinema, Big Deal on Madonna Street "had a rather complicated genesis. In some ways it emerged from the ruins of White Nights [1957]. The co-producers of Visconti’s film, reunited under the title CIAS, decided to reuse the extremely expensive reproduction of Livorno which they had built at Cinecitta. They were thinking of a low-budget film to be produced using the same back-drop. In the end they dismantled the set but the film itself, based on the story of some small-time crooks who may have operated in such a downtrodden, proletarian setting, began to take shape." It was always the intention of the screenwriters – Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli and Monicelli – to parody Rififi and they drew their inspiration from minor crimes committed by "the usual nobodies" in local newspapers.

Marcello Mastroianni was already familiar to art house audiences from such earlier films as the aforementioned White Nights...