The Italian Job (1969)

Recently, Michael Caine is known for playing the beloved and loyal Alfred in the recent Batman trilogy. A kind, gentle old man who just wants the best for Bruce Wayne and does everything in his power to make him happy. However, over 40 years ago he was known for playing the handsome, quick witted Charlie Croker in the 1969 film The Italian Job. Directed by Peter Collinson and starring Michael Caine, Benny Hill and Noel Coward comes a classic British gangster movie that avoids the typically violent stereotypes the genre holds. Outright it is a mobster movie, about a ‘job’ in Italy involving stealing $4 million worth of gold, but its much more than just that, it blends slapstick comedy and true British wit to create a hilarious account of a group of men attempting to outsmart Italian police and Mafia.

The story goes like this. A man called Roger is driving a very fancy Lamborghini around the Italian Alps to the tune of “On Days Like These” by Matt Monro. He looks very suave with a cigarette hanging from his mouth and sunglasses on. He them drives into a tunnel and crashes into a digger which then lifts his car up and throws it over the side of the road, and its tumbles down the mountainside like a discarded toy.  We learn that this man was going to be carrying out a job in Italy and the Mafia found out, thus being the ones that killed him. This job is then passed on to the fresh out of prison Charlie Croker, who undertakes it with a motley crew of fellow mobsters. They have to intervene a convoy of vehicles, one of which is carrying the $4 million worth of gold, they devise a plan of causing a traffic jam right around the time the England V Italy football match is happening, with the help of a bus, three souped up Mini’s and Camp Freddie they manage to pull it off. However, their celebrations in the bus go awry when the driver swerves and the bus ends up hanging half off the cliff. The balance being the men against the huge pile of gold. Left open for the possibility of a sequel, we don’t actually find out what happens next, all we hear is Michael Caine say ‘Hang on lads, I’ve got a great idea”.

As much as the story of The Italian Job is greatly executed and the writing is sharp and strong, I think that the real success of the film comes in the form of

Michael Caine’s, Charlie Croker. He is first introduced to us as he leaves prison. He makes passing remarks to guards as he leaves and his swagger demonstrates that his time in prison has not been of a bother to him at all. We are then shown Charlie’s lifestyle involving sports cars and lots of attractive women, the lifestyle of a notorious criminal. His authority is honored and adhered to, and his reputation isn’t exaggerated, he is an expert at what he does and he makes sure his mobsters know who is the boss. He’s a loveable character and when he is confronted by the Mafia bus upon arrival in Italy and his Aston Martin is pushed off a cliff, he doesn’t show sadness or anger, instead he smoothly tells the Mafia boss if anything happens to him, then every Italian living in England would suffer. Calmly he walks away, and you know that he isn’t afraid of anything, he’s Charlie Croker.  The definitive British Mobster.

It goes without saying that the rest of the cast, with the exception of Croker’s girlfriend Lorna played by Maggie Blye, were exceptional in supporting Caine. Benny Hill as the mad Professor Peach enabled you to laugh out loud and feel quite disgusted at the same time. His infatuation with large middle aged women and eating cigars made him an unforgettable character despite the small role he played.  Noel Coward was equally as impressive as Mr. Bridger, the big time Mobster lock up in prison. He speaks with perfect eloquence, is obsessed with The Queen and has high status amongst prisoners and civilians alike. If he ever needed to get out of prison to do some business, he would ‘arrange a funeral’ which would allow him his day release. Never lifting a finger and barely even raising his voice, he’s a man to be feared and his character is the perfect counterpoint to Caine’s Croker.  Little can be said however for Croker’s little madam Lorna, who’s character was annoying, badly acted and I couldn’t help but breathe a large sigh of relief when Croker packed her off to Geneva before the Job.

Nevertheless, The Italian Job was highly entertaining, and even though it was poorly received in the States and received only 1 award nomination it is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest films. I shall refrain from talking about the travesty that was the remake, but let me say one thing, it certainly proved America’s distaste for the original seeing as they completely butchered it and slapped Mark Wahlberg’s face all over it.  

 

There’s much more to Michael Caine than a kindly old man, Alfie, Get Carter, and even more recently Harry Brown proves that he is a classic British actor and playing a London Mobster is definitely his forte. All the while, no matter how many people he kills, how many illegal abortions he oversees and how much gold he may steel, he has a cheeky twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step. The Italian Job is a fantastic film, carried by an amazing lead proving that you don’t need a driving license to triumph in a film about cars.

Final Line:

“Hang on Lads, I’ve got a great idea” – Charlie Croker.

The Third Man (1949)

- Contains Spoilers -

I love a good mystery film, Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is my all time favourite film noir mystery. Up until now that is. Carol Reed’s The Third Man is a masterpiece in executing the perfect murder mystery story. 

Released in 1949 shortly after the Second World War, and alongside Samson and Delilah, Pinky and All The Kings Men, it was a competitive year for film. However, The Third Man won an Academy Award for best Cinematography and a BAFTA for best film.  Joseph L Mankiewicz scooped the Academy Award for best Director from Reed for All About Eve.

The opening credits familiarize us with the films theme tune. A quaint, Italian sounding melody plucked out on the strings of a zither, to which the credits literally roll over. We are then given a fast paced, narrated opening few shots explaining the history of Vienna, that Russians, Americans, British and the French occupied some parts.  This opener reminded me of Jason Reitman’s film Up In The Air, which employed a similar technique in quickly rallying through important information to get to the good stuff. It would be no surprise that an American Director like Reitman would be influenced so heavily by Reed, as the film is inspiring to any young director watching it at any age.

We are then introduced to our main character, Holly Martins, an American writer specialising in Westerns. We learn he is looking for a man called Harry Lime, whom we almost instantaneously discover has recently died by being hit by a car.  At his funeral we are shown the face of Anna Shmidt, a character we will later discover was Lime’s lover. Martin’s is unconvinced Lime’s death was as innocent as the police thought and takes its upon himself to solve the mystery of why he was murdered. Through talking to various witnesses, friends and the two men who dragged Lime’s body to the side of the road he discovers there was a mysterious Third Man at the scene of the crime. Some of his witnesses swear he was there, and others say there were only two men at the scene. This mystery develops and upon taking his evidence to the police, another sinister element of the story is unveiled. Lime was illegally stealing penicillin from the local hospitals with the help of Doctor Herbiger, watering it down and selling to people in need of it, helping with the penicillin shortage of the time. However, this act ended up killing hundreds of innocent people, including children, but Lime’s carried on with his dark medical work unconcerned for the safety of his users.

Lime was a wanted man, so his death would have seemed like an act of revenge form someone related to this crime. Case solved right? Not quite. Reed has another trick up his sleeve. Martins visits Anna at her home and meets her cat, who, she informs us, only ever liked Harry. The cat jumps out the window and strolls off into the night. We see it approach at a pair of very smart shoes worn by a smartly dressed man, shrouded in shadow. The cat starts purring and meowing at this stranger. Harry Lime.  He is alive, having replaced his body with that of Doctor Herbiger and disappearing into the sewers.  Cue the films incredible finale, a chase in the sewers between Lime, Martins and the Police. Completely soundtrack free, the tensions are created through shadows creeping and racing on the walls. An intense scene, demonstrating pure film noir style, culminating in Lime’s actual death.

The final scene of the film is at the funeral of Lime’s, like the beginning, we see Anna. Martins and Anna developed somewhat of a relationship while working together, however, Martins traded Anna’s freedom from the Russian occupied part of Vienna for his knowledge on the whereabouts of her lover Lime. So he wasn’t exactly in her good books as she walked down a long tree lined road, dead in the centre of it. Martins is waiting for her at the end and you think this is it, the happy, Hollywood ending. She’ll walk over to him, they’ll apologize to each other, kiss, make up and walk off into the sunset together. Wrong, she walks straight past him.

The Third Man is a fantastic film, and uses some interesting cinematic techniques in unraveling its complicated plot. One of which being that Martin’s doesn’t speak German so doesn’t understand what people are telling him. He relies on various people around him to translate, so him and we have to trust that what is being said is the truth as there are no subtitles for us. This adds to the constant guessing and doubting of the various suspects we meet along the way.  As do the jarring camera angles as some scenes are shot with a heavily tilted camera, unsettling the flow of the film, making you really pay attention to those scenes. In true Film Noir style, everyone is a suspect and Reed employs various methods to make us think this, placing people in odd situations, introducing characters by showing the slicing chicken with a gigantic knife and linking people together tenuously.  I didn’t think Lime would still be alive, however, the films most famous actor Orson Welles hadn’t been on screen yet, so I assumed he would be Lime but thought his scenes would be those of a flashback explaining the story in a Jonathon Creek kind of way.

Carol Reed and Graham Greene created an amazing world, complicated by lots of different characters and sub-stories linking into the main narrative, but they succeed in delivering this narrative in an easy to follow manner. You know who each person is when you see them, so you don’t spend the whole time trying to figure out what’s going on, you are guessing and working out who the third man is, just like Holly Martins.  Orson Welles delivers the character of Harry Limes with enviable ease and charm, making him almost likeable despite his child killing, penicillin offcut. The moment in the film, which emphasised the hidden evil lying within Harry Lime, was when he was on the Ferris wheel with Martins. He pointed to the people below and described them as dots. He asked Martins if he was offered $20’000 for each dot that just stopped, how many dots would he feel he could stop. He is insinuating that he got paid a lot of money for a dose of his illegal, murderous penicillin and instead of stopping when he found out it was killing people, he tried to see how many more people he could kill, thus how much more money he could make from it. A darkly scripted scene, disguised by a friendly Ferris wheel and a sunny day.

As mystery, film noir goes this has to be up there with the best of them. It is flawless, confident and stunning to watch. The narrative is carried by its main actors Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles and Alida Valli, each of which delivered their characters perfectly, allowing us to feel sympathy towards the right people and suspect others.  I recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery film without being pounded by the Hollywood half naked women, big guns, explosions and cringe-worthy one liners. The Third Man is executed simply with fine acting, a beautiful script and stunning camerawork. What else should you need?

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)

Being born in the 80's meant I missed out on the age of the Western. John Wayne, Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood were just names to me, and the premise of Cowboys and Indians remained in my childhood stories. It wasn’t until recently I decided to quench my ignorance of such a beautiful genre and delve into the world of the Western, having grown tired of the small amount of Westerns my generation has to offer.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is no exception to the wonder this genre holds. Winning multiple awards and currently holding the record for the most BAFTA’s one by a single film, it is a perfect example of a feel good Western. Released in 1969 alongside Midnight Cowboy, True Grit and Easy Rider, amongst others, it was an interesting 42nd Academy Awards, with Midnight Cowboy winning best film and John Wayne finally getting his Oscar for True Grit. 

After an opening credit sequence showing an old film reel rattling through the story of Butch Cassidy, we are taken to a sepia toned blackjack game. The Sundance Kid is the main focus of the scene, and the camera stays firmly on him even though other people are talking and moving in and out of the frame. This prolonged focus allows us to analyse him, watch him and get to know his face as one of our protagonists. Its not until Butch, who we briefly saw enter the room, crouches down beside him does the camera shift focus and follow him around the room. Instantly, we know the other people in the room are not important and the only two worth our attention are Butch and The Sundance Kid. We are launched into a colourful passing of time as the two men galavant through the Western lands on their horses. These young, attractive ‘bandits’ love robbing trains and banks, but when the police start getting a bit to close for comfort the decide to flea to Bolivia with Spanish speaking Mrs. Sundance Kid, Etta, in tow. Upon arrival, they start robbing banks again to get cash and live a life of luxury but the law catches up on them again, resulting in their unfortunate demise.

A simple story, executed with style, Butch Cassidy uses photo and musical montages to propel the story, the most famous being when Butch romantically cycles around with Etta on his handle bars to B.J. Thomas’s ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’.  The previous scene and this one define our characters perfectly, based on their relationships with Etta. Previously we see The Sundance Kid – her current partner – sinisterly telling her to take off her clothes while he wryly points a gun at her, even though a non threatening act, its an uneasy exchange between two lovers. His dark nature, sly attitude and short temper makes his counterpart look like a saint. Butch is quick witted, charming and handsome. If he wasn’t a criminal he would be the perfect man, as demonstrated in the bicycle scene with Etta, where she turns to him at the end and says "Do you ever wonder if i'd met you first, we'd be the ones to get involved?"

The characters of Butch and the Sundance Kid are constructed with precision, whereby bouncing each one off of the other develops their characteristics. These characters are what’s important, the story is neither here nor there, two criminals on the run with a pretty woman in tow. What makes the film so fantastic is the friendship Butch and The Sundance Kid share. We know nothing of their background, and neither do they. He was Butch’s number 1 in The Hole In The Wall Gang, and after the rest of the gang members were killed, Butch showed no remorse or sadness, because he only cares about The Sundance Kid. Their loyalty to one an other and their differing approaches to robbing banks – Butch with his sharp wit and cunning sensibilities and The Sundance Kid with his ruthless quick draw and remorseless attitude toward murder - makes them the perfect criminal duo.

Unfortunately, my generation doesn't have a great deal to offer in terms of a Western. The best one by far being The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) ,which in my opinion encompasses all that is required, generically, of a good Western. All be it a serious and threatening piece of cinema, it kept me thoroughly entertained for its 160 minute duration. Don’t get me wrong, No Country For Old Men (2007), There Will be Blood (2007) and True Grit (2010) are great films, but again, they are so serious, sometimes frightening. I am eagerly awaiting Tarantino’s latest conquest in the form of Django, I’m hopeful that he will inject some humor back into the genre.

Nevertheless, the classic Westerns of the 60's and 70's are entertainment enough for me, with Butch Cassidy paving the way for a comedic attitude towards Westerns which brings us to the hilarious Blazing Saddles (1974) the ultimate Western spoof movie, which draws from Butch Cassidy mainly in the form of The Waco Kid, played by Gene Wilder, who is "The fastest hands in the West", an obvious homage to the quick draw Sundance Kid of 5 years previous. 

Whether you like the Western genre of not, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, is a must watch for anyone. Having aged brilliantly, and still as witty and sharp as the day it was released, it is a timeless classic. Pure entertainment from start to finish, challenging standard cinematic methods of the time and delivering a menial narrative with great delight. There really is no one wonder it  has gone down in film history.

Credits
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)
Directed by George Roy Hill
Starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Katharine Ross.