Compare the recent American remake of the Italian Job to this classic British film and you find comparrisons near impossible, they are just two very different films. In my opinion the original wins hands down though; it may not be a slick as its more recent counterpart and it may not be as stylish, but this classic Brit flick is more fun and, well, just plain more British.
In it a cockney thief named Charlie Croker is released from prison and immediately begins planning his next job. It seems that a good friend of his has been planning a job in Italy (see this Italian Job involves more than just 5 minutes of Italy) that drew unwanted attention from the mafia and resulted in his death. Charlie; being the gutsy chap that he is, decides to take on The Italian Job by getting funding from a big time thief currently staying in the same prison that he has just vacated, a Mr. Bridger.
The thing to note about this one is that it a lot more British then the remake, its focus is more toward having a little fun without any of the pretences of being serious. Just take a look at the mini chase in this film, I mean I may have described the chase in the remake as one of the best in recent memory but this film has one of the best chase scenes in history. Seeing the little minnies burning through a Parisian traffic jam, trapping police cars as they leap along the roof tops, swerving along the drainage system and generally underplaying the danger of the stunts so that laughter can take priority over excitement.
It’s this sense of fun that drives the film forward, throwing such classic dialogue at the audience as Charlie’s false snooty accent uttering the line ’’Yes, I used a machine gun’’ after a businessman realizes that he must have shot a lot of tigers to gain the kind of money he’s been throwing around. Or better yet the training sequence in which Charlie witnesses the complete destruction of one of his cars only to reply in suitably overplayed manor ’’You’re only supposed to blow the bladdy doors off!’’ It’s just a film that remains consistently funny for this.
Of course I can not move on from the films style without giving at least a passing mention to its soundtrack. That fun loving British humour found throughout the film is also played out in the soundtrack that uses songs like The Self Preservation Society throughout its biggest action scene, something that distinguishes this classic caper movie as being completely different to anything you would see today in any country.
One last final note would also need to go to the films quality of acting too, again because of the all star cast playing themselves but back then making a success of it. Michael Caine (Get Carter) nails the cockney charm of a gentlemen thief, taking the totally unrepentant character and making him likeable for what he is, giving him such a sense of charm that even when he’s using every Italian in Britain as a threat against the mafia you still find him endearing.
He also delivers his lines in such a fluid way that he brings out each and every laugh as if he were looking for that one gem that will make him rich, not realizing the he actually finds it each and every time. Supporting him are Benny Hill (Of the banned at the time TV show fame) as a perverted professor that makes perfect use of Hill’s own perverse mannerisms. Noel Coward (Around the World in Eighty Days) posh talking his way through the role of traditional Englishman Mr. Briggs and delivering lines about an Englishman’s toilette so well that he begins to feel as comfortably British as Yorkshire puds.
Even Margaret Blye has fun as the girlfriend, playing a Barbie doll but self consciously so, overplaying the characters funny side until it becomes infectious.