169 - Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958, Italy. Dir. Mario Monicelli.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

169 - Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958, Italy.  Dir. Mario Monicelli.

Would you like to go to jail?

It is only for a few months, and it pays well.

Capannelle would do it himself, but he has already been in three times.  Next time is life.

Mario is thinking about it.

After all, 100,000 lira is good pay.

But he and his wife did have just had a baby.  In fact, he is shopping for a stroller now.

It's not like I don't want to, but what do I tell my mother?

Send the Sicilian guy.

Ferribotte?  Michele Ferribotte.  He has a sister named Carmelina.  He keeps her under lock and key. To protect her.  She drives men mad.

He hesitates too.  He is trying to get her married off.  What would the groom say?  You know how those people from the North are.

Capannelle is running out of options.

It is so difficult finding a scapegoat these days.

What can he do?

He owes Cosimo.

He was with him when Cosimo got caught.  Cosimo had just broken into a car by smashing the passenger window with a rock.  He was trying his set of master keys when the car alarm went off. Capannelle was standing lookout and he came running to tell Cosimo the cops were coming. Capanelle got away but Cosimo did not.

Now Cosimo is in jail.

He is talking to his lawyer.

The best I can get you is the minimum sentence.

Are you kidding?  I haven't confessed yet.

Cosimo knows the law.

Better than his attorney.

Cosimo explains that Article 403 is no good.  Go to 117 on page 128.

His attorney has to look it up.  Cosimo knows it all by memory.

Counselor suggests 521.

That's no good any more.  We gotta claim 124 or 606.

Counselor asks about the 1400.

What is the 1400?

That is the model you tried to steal.

Steal?  I don't even have a driver's license.

The prisoner next to him is yelling.

Cosimo confronts him.

Can't you yell quietly?

He just told me my grandmother has been asleep for five days.

Well, keep it down or you'll wake her up!

Cosimo needs to get out of jail right now.  He met a man in there who told him about this job, see. He needs to get out so that he can do this job so that he can be set for life.

Then he can by his girl Norma a fur coat.

His girl Norma is standing next to Counselor.  On the other side of the visitor's fence.

She says she would rather have him ask her to marry him than to have the fur coat.

He says he is in now for a short sentence.  Why exchange that for life?

He fires his lawyer.

I'll call you when I need to draw up my will.

He talks to Norma.

That is when he asks her to call Cappanelle and look for a substitute.

Finally, Cappanelle finds someone.

Peppe.

Peppe has a clean record.

He takes the rap.

He takes the money.

He tells the judge it was he who tried to steal the car.  That he got away.  That when he saw they had arrested an innocent man, his conscience got the best of him, so he came down to confess.

The judge gladly obliges him.  And puts him in jail.

But he does not release Cosimo.

Smart judge.

While in jail together, Cosimo tells Peppe about this new job, see.

Then Peppe gets out.

Then Peppe orchestrates the job.

While Cosimo gets left out.  Still stuck in jail.

That did not work out.

No worries, Cosimo.  Peppe will assemble one of the most incompetent gangs of ragamuffins ever to bungle a burglary.

The Bungling Burglars.  The Burgling Bunglers.

The rest of the film follows their foolishness one mistake after another as they take a bad situation and make it worse.

What is better than a great heist film?

A great comedy heist film.

Some critics classify this one as not only one of the great Italian comedies but also one of the great Italian films overall.

If you like Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks or Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers, then you may enjoy Big Deal on Madonna Street.

It showcased Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale before they were famous.

Now which wall were we supposed to bore a hole through?