I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) (1958)

June 30, 1958, release date

Directed by Mario Monicelli

Screenplay by Age-Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Mario Monicelli

Based on a story by Age-Scarpelli

Music by Piero Umiliani

Edited by Adriana Novelli

Cinematography by Gianni di Venanzo

Vittorio Gassman as Peppe

Renato Salvatori as Mario Angeletti

Memmo Carotenuto as Cosimo

Rossana Rory as Norma

Carla Gravina as Nicoletta

Claudia Cardinale as Carmela Ferribotte

Carlo Pisacane as Capannelle

Tiberio Murgia as Michele Ferribotte

Gina Rovere as Teresa

Gina Amendola as Nerina

Marcello Mastroianni as Tiberio

Totò as Dante Cruciani

Distributed by Lux Film

Big Deal on Madonna Street is a charming film noir: a heist film with a lot of humor and the most likable burglars. They are living in postwar Rome, struggling to get by in uncertain times. They bungle almost everything they plan together, however, like young boys who don’t know any better and are probably not the best influences on each other. With all the good humor and camaraderie, it’s difficult to find any angst in this film. The jazz score by the composer Piero Umiliani keeps the mood light, too.

The film opens with a nighttime city street scene. As the credits roll and the wonderful jazz score plays, two men (Capannelle and Cosimo) walk down the sidewalk and away from the camera. Cosimo keeps looking over his shoulder: He is waiting for the right moment to steal a car while Capannelle acts as a lookout. Cosimo finds his chance, but he botches the job by accidentally turning on the car’s horn, which he cannot turn off. The jazz horn from the film’s score blends into the sound of the car’s horn, and then the sound of the car’s horn blends into the sound of a police siren. The two arriving police officers size up the situation and start a foot chase. Cosimo gets out of the car and gets his coat stuck in the car door, making it easy for the officers to catch up with him. This first sequence in the film sets up humorous expectations for viewers about the main characters at the outset.

(This blog post about Big Deal on Madonna Street contains spoilers.)

While in prison for auto theft, Cosimo learns about what he thinks will be an easy heist of a pawnshop on Madonna Street. A series of double dealings result in others learning of the plot and taking it over from him. Cosimo is forced into petty crime, which leads to the one point in the plot without humor: Cosimo is run over by a streetcar when he runs in front of it after trying to steal a woman’s purse.

The remaining friends (Peppe, Capannelle, Michele Ferribotte, and Tiberio) continue with their plans to break into the pawnshop on Madonna Street. Anything and everything thwart the group’s planned heist. They break down the wrong wall: They’ve gone from the dining room to the kitchen in the same apartment, not to the pawnshop next door. They become distracted and start eating the food, including the pasta and beans, left behind in the apartment. Capannelle accidentally sets off a small explosion because the others nicked the gas pipe. All of them live their lives at the whim of fate and at the mercy of their good-natured ineptitude. But audiences at the time might have found it especially easy to identify with them: Many of the scenes in Rome show the effects of war in the background, and everyone at the time probably had to make do with what they could find.

Events go well for these friends only when they give in and accept the circumstances that fate hands to them, which usually involves falling in love when they didn’t expect it or landing a job they didn’t realize was available. Big Deal on Madonna Street ends with a shot of a newspaper article with the following headline:

I SOLITI IGNOTI

Col sistema del buco rubano pasta e ceci

PERSONS UNKNOWN

Bore a hole to steal pasta and beans

The police are still investigating a strange burglary from last night. A group of thieves broke into an apartment in Via delle Madonna, through a window overlooking the . . . .

Almost sixty years after the release of Big Deal on Madonna Street, I read this newspaper excerpt on the screen secretly hoping that the group of friends were never found by the police and could continue with their lives, happy and prosperous. My guess is that the director Mario Monicelli felt the same way, too.

According to Wikipedia, two sequels to Big Deal on Madonna Street were released. Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti (released in English as Hold-up à la Milanaise) was released in 1960; it was directed by Nanni Loy. Another sequel, I soliti ignoti vent’anni dopo, was released in 1987; it was directed by Amanzio Todin. The latter was released on DVD in the United States as Big Deal on Madonna Street—20 Years Later. Two remakes of the film were shot in the United States: the 1984 film Crackers directed by Louis Malle, and the 2002 film Welcome to Collinwood, directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo.

I guess these sequels and remakes are a testament to the success of the original. I haven’t seen them, but I wonder if they can recapture the bonhomie of the original because Big Deal on Madonna Street really is charming.