Big Deal on Madonna Street

Big Deal on Madonna Street
Italian film poster
Directed by	Mario Monicelli
Written by	Furio Scarpelli Renato Salvatori Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Produced by	Franco Cristaldi
Starring	Vittorio Gassman Totò Claudia Cardinale Marcello Mastroianni
Release date	June 30, 1958 (1958-06-30)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	Template:Film Italy
Language	Italian

Big Deal on Madonna Street (Italian: I soliti ignoti, also released as Persons Unknown in the UK) is a 1958 Italian criminal-comedy film, directed by Mario Monicelli, and considered to be among the masterpieces of Italian cinema. Its original title translates as "the usual unknown persons", a journalistic and bureaucratic euphemism for "unidentified criminals" or "usual suspects". The film is a comedy about a group of small-time thieves and ne'er-do-wells who bungle an attempt to burglarize a state-run pawn shop called Monte di Pietà in Rome. As the film's heist scene bears a striking resemblance to that of the film Rififi, the movie is often considered a parody of that film.

The main roles are played by Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Carlo Pisacane, and Tiberio Murgia. The careers of both Gassman and Mastroianni were considerably helped by the success of the film—Gassman, in particular, since before then he was not deemed suitable for comedic roles. Claudia Cardinale also featured in a minor role (a chaste, black-clad Sicilian girl, almost held prisoner at home by her overbearing brother, played by Tiberio Murgia), although she would later rise to fame for other work. The film is also notable for its breezy jazz score by the composer Piero Umiliani, who helped develop the style of the jazz soundtracks now considered characteristic of European films in the 1960s and 1970s.

The producers were initially skeptical about the film, and used some misleading tactics to hook the public's interest—such as the original poster featuring famous comedian Totò in a prominent position even though he has only a minor role.

The film is currently distributed in Region 1 by The Criterion Collection and for the Italian market in Region 2 by 20th Century Fox.

Plot

A local thief, Cosimo, is arrested for the attempted theft of a car. After he is sentenced and put in prison, he begins immediately on his escape by telling his partners that he has a plant for a heist but that needs their help to be freed. In order to assure his release, they find an acquaintance named Peppe with a clean criminal record to take blame for the theft in the hopes that the police will release Cosimo. They instead have both of them jailed. While Peppe is in jail, Cosimo tells him the plans for the heist of a safe in a pawnshop. After revealing the plans, Peppe tells him that he got off merely with probation, leaving him free to pursue the heist without Cosimo, much to the chagrin of Cosimo.

The heist entails the following: as the pawnshop is adjacent to a vacant apartment, they must first break into a small courtyard, climb onto the roof of another small apartment, and break in through a window of the vacant home. To accomplish this, they enlist the help of another local thief that is an expert on safes who tells them of a plan (similar to that of the film Rififi, released a few years prior in 1955) to silence the alarm of the safe that they may break into it safely. While everything is planned, they discover that the vacant apartment has just become occupied by two spinsters and their young, attractive maid. Peppe learns from the young maid, with whom he flirts, that the two women never leave their apartment except on Thursday night. After arranging a date with the girl on this particular day, the group is distressed to learn that she quits her job and the women may in fact be their on the night.

Meanwhile, a number of misfortunes are incurred by the group: Cosimo, who had since been released from jail, dies in a botched robbery; Mario, another of the group, bails on the plan in favor of a legitimate life for the sake of a beautiful girl, while another of the group is partially crippled after being attacked by the man whose camera he stole earlier for the purpose of daytime reconnaissance of the pawnshop. Despite this, they proceed with the plan anyway after learning that the women will not be in the apartment. Notwithstanding a number of bumbling entries, they gain entry into the apartment. After first boring a hole through a water pipe, they are forced to staunch the flow of water while remaining quiet after a night porter enters the apartment to make a call. After these obstacles, they bore another hole, this time knocking out a portion of the wall, revealing another room in the same apartment. After they realize their plan was miscalculated, they leave the apartment dejected - albeit as free men. Peppe then decides to find legitimate work, much to the surprise of an elderly member of the group. The film ends with a newspaper article recounting a robbery by unknown persons of an apartment for food (which the men had eaten after their plan had crumbled.)

Sequels

A sequel directed by Nanni Loy followed in 1960, reuniting the entire cast aside from Totò and Mastroianni, entitled Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti (released in English as Hold-up à la Milanaise). A further sequel was directed by Amanzio Todini titled I Soliti ignoti vent'anni dopo (1987). It was released on DVD in the United States as Big Deal On Madonna Street - 20 Years Later by Koch Lorber.

Remakes

Two remakes of the film were shot in the USA: the 1984 film Crackers by Louis Malle (set in San Francisco), and the 2002 film Welcome to Collinwood by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (set in Cleveland).

Quotes

"Say, little boy, I'm looking for a Mario."

"People named Mario are a dime a dozen in this hood."

"But the Mario I'm looking for, you see, is a thief."

"They're still a dime a dozen!"

External links

• Big Deal on Madonna Street at AllMovie
• Big Deal on Madonna Street at IMDb
• Big Deal on Madonna Street at Rotten Tomatoes
• Big Deal on Madonna Street at the TCM Movie Database