''Big Deal on Madonna Street'' ( it, I soliti ignoti; released in the
UK as ''Persons Unknown'') is a 1958
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
caper film
The heist film or caper film is a subgenre of crime film focused on the planning, execution, and aftermath of a significant robbery.
One of the early defining heist films was ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950), which ''Film Genre 2000'' wrote "almo ...
directed by
Mario Monicelli
Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli (; 16 May 1915 – 29 November 2010) was an Italian film director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the ''Commedia all'Italiana'' (Comedy Italian style). He was nominated six times for an Oscar, and was awa ...
and considered to be among the masterpieces of Italian cinema. Its original Italian title literally translates as "the usual unknown ones", which is roughly equivalent to the English phrase "the usual suspects". The name of the Roman street in the English title is a slight mistranslation, as the Italian name of the fictional Roman street on which the midnight burglary in the film takes place is the ''Via delle Madonne'' (The Street of the Madonnas) rather than "Madonna Street". Compounding the confusion is the fact that the real Roman street on which the scene was filmed is the ''Via delle tre cannelle'' (The Street of the Three Spouts), rather than the ''Via delle tre Madonne'' (The Street of the Three Madonnas).
The film is a comedy about a group of small-time thieves and ne'er-do-wells who bungle an attempt to burgle a
pawn shop
A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. The five hapless would-be burglars are played by
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman (; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as , was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter.
He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions ...
,
Renato Salvatori
Renato Salvatori (20 March 1933 – 27 March 1988) was an Italian actor.
Born in Seravezza, Province of Lucca, Salvatori began his career in his teens playing juvenile, romantic roles. After working with directors such as Luchino Visconti, Ro ...
,
Carlo Pisacane
Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni (22 August 1818 – 2 July 1857) was an Italian patriot and one of the first Italian socialist thinkers. He argued that violence was necessary not only to draw attention to, or generate publicity for, a c ...
,
Tiberio Murgia
Tiberio Murgia (5 February 1929 – 20 August 2010) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1958 and 2009.
Biography
Born into a humble family, Murgia began working as a laborer from an early age. At the age of ...
and
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
. The careers of both Gassman and Mastroianni were considerably helped by the success of the filmGassman in particular, since before this point he was not deemed suitable for comedic roles.
Claudia Cardinale
Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English.
Born and raised in La Goulette, a ...
is featured in a minor role (a chaste, black-clad
Sicilian girl, almost held prisoner at home by her overbearing brother, played by Murgia); she would later rise to fame for other work. In addition to its cast and plot, the film is also notable for its breezy jazz score by composer
Piero Umiliani
Piero Umiliani (17 July 1926 – 14 February 2001) was an Italian composer of film scores.
Biography
Umiliani was born in Florence, Tuscany. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the scores for many exploitation f ...
, 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's success, so the appearance of the famous comedian
Totò
Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi de Curtis di Bisanzio (15 February 1898 – 15 April 1967), best known by his stage name Totò (), or simply as Antonio de Curtis, and nicknamed ''il Principe della risata ...
was highlighted on the original poster to boost audience interest, even though his character, used for comic relief, chooses to remain a consultant to the heist gang, rather than joining it outright.
The film is distributed in
Region 1 by
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
and for the Italian market in
Region 2 by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
.
Plot
A hapless small-time Roman crook, Cosimo (
Memmo Carotenuto
Memmo Carotenuto (23 August 1908 – 23 December 1980) was an Italian actor. He appeared in 125 films between 1941 and 1980.
Selected filmography
*'' The Wedding Trip'' (1969)
* ''Assassination in Rome'' (1965)
* '' Male Companion'' (1964 ...
), is arrested for a bungled car theft and sentenced to a few months in prison. He harangues his girlfriend and lawyer to get him released so he can carry out a heist idea stolen from another inmate, a dishonest bricklayer who purposely constructed a flimsy wall between a pawn shop safe and an adjacent vacant apartment. Ultimately, his gang bribes an acquaintance with a clean criminal record, a boxer named Peppe (
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman (; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as , was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter.
He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions ...
) to confess. The warden does not believe Peppe, however, and he ends up in jail alongside Cosimo. Peppe tells Cosimo that he has been sentenced to three long years for this minor offense and Cosimo, to justify his actions, explains the details of the pawn shop heist to Peppe. Peppe then gleefully reveals that he has been given a year's probation and walks out the prison gate, infuriating Cosimo.
Peppe takes up the heist plan with Cosimo's gang: Mario (
Renato Salvatori
Renato Salvatori (20 March 1933 – 27 March 1988) was an Italian actor.
Born in Seravezza, Province of Lucca, Salvatori began his career in his teens playing juvenile, romantic roles. After working with directors such as Luchino Visconti, Ro ...
), petty thief and the youngest member of the group; Michele (
Tiberio Murgia
Tiberio Murgia (5 February 1929 – 20 August 2010) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1958 and 2009.
Biography
Born into a humble family, Murgia began working as a laborer from an early age. At the age of ...
), posturing Sicilian crook who needs money for his sheltered sister's dowry; Tiberio (
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...
), down and out photographer caring for his baby with his wife in jail on a minor offense; and Capannelle (
Carlo Pisacane
Carlo Pisacane, Duke of San Giovanni (22 August 1818 – 2 July 1857) was an Italian patriot and one of the first Italian socialist thinkers. He argued that violence was necessary not only to draw attention to, or generate publicity for, a c ...
), elderly pickpocket. Tiberio steals a movie camera from a flea market to film the pawn shop safe's combination with a telephoto lens, but without success. Since none involved have the skill to crack the safe, they enlist the help of genteel local safecracker Dante (
Totò
Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi de Curtis di Bisanzio (15 February 1898 – 15 April 1967), best known by his stage name Totò (), or simply as Antonio de Curtis, and nicknamed ''il Principe della risata ...
), who is cautious not to violate his parole but supplies tools and gives them a brief primer.
They soon discover the vacant apartment is occupied by two spinsters and their young, attractive maid, Nicoletta (
Carla Gravina
Carla Gravina (born 5 August 1941) is an Italian actress and politician. She received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her role in '' La terrazza'' (1980). Her other notable roles were in ''Love and Chatter'' (1957), '' Esterina ...
). Ladies' man Peppe learns from Nicoletta that the two older women leave the apartment overnight once a week. Peppe earns the offer of a tryst with the maid the next time the ladies leave. The rest of the group pressures him to accept so they can stage the burglary, but Nicoletta unexpectedly quits her job in a huff and does not know if the spinsters will make their weekly departure. Meanwhile, Cosimo is released from prison. He had insisted on a substantial portion of the loot as the plan's mastermind but was rebuffed. Now, he vows vengeance on the group by robbing the pawn shop with a gun, which the blasé pawnbroker assumes he wants to hock. Deflated, Cosimo leaves, but during a botched purse snatching he is killed by a streetcar.
Mario has fallen for Michele's sister, Carmelina (
Claudia Cardinale
Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English.
Born and raised in La Goulette, a ...
), and quits the caper in fear of being caught and embarrassing his mother. He vows to pursue a straight life and court Carmelina. Tiberio deposits his baby with his wife in prison to participate in the robbery, but runs into the flea market proprietor, who breaks his arm for stealing the camera. The group's fortunes brighten, however, when the elderly occupants of the apartment make their weekly trip after all. Re-energized, the gang break into the apartment. After a couple of misfortunes, they succeed in breaking through a wall that leads to the apartment's own kitchen; the elderly women had rearranged the furniture, thus disorienting the gang.
Realizing they have little time left until morning, they resignedly gather round the apartment's kitchen table and raid the refrigerator. Their repast ends abruptly when ever-starved Capannelle blows up the stove while lighting one of its burners. Thwarted, they all straggle homeward, members peeling off one by one for streetcars until only Peppe and Capanelle are left. Peppe then surprises Capanelle by deciding to find legitimate work. The film ends with a newspaper article recounting a robbery by unknown persons who apparently broke into an apartment to steal pasta with chickpeas.
Cast
(character names are not indicated in on-screen cast credits)
Production
![I soliti ignoti filming site](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/I_soliti_ignoti_filming_site.jpg)
According to director Mario Monicelli, while the film was intended as a parody of neorealism, "by then neorealism was already a thing of the past, something that was surpassed. It was more a parody that was aligned with a certain realism around us, with the poverty, and with people who had to do the best they could with whatever means possible to survive, with petty crimes."
Asked if it was also a parody of
Jules Dassin
Julius "Jules" Dassin (December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist in the McCarthy era, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, whe ...
's film ''
Rififi
''Rififi'' (french: Du rififi chez les hommes) is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste Le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster To ...
'', Monicelli said, "Yes because we saw this as a film shot in a very harsh, realist style. Very scientific, as the Peppe character continually says. So we wanted to do the same thing, but the characters didn't have the means. The way they worked was quite the contrary actually."
Monicelli and cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo agreed on a photographic tone that was not comedic or brightly lit. "On the contrary," Monicelli said, "harsh and dramatic, because the film has a dramatic side in that it is about poor people. But Di Venanzo understood the tone. To make people laugh with a story that was dramatic rather than comic. But seen with a comic eye."
The film was shot in ten weeks on locations throughout Rome. Monicelli said, "The only interior that was shot in a studio was the wall that gets broken into at the end, because I couldn’t break a wall in an actual apartment! But all the other interiors were shot on location. Which of course was a particular trait of Italian cinema, to shoot on location."
According to Monicelli, the film adhered to the script, without improvisations.
Dialogue, as was customary in Italian cinema, was all post-dubbed. Monicelli explained, "First of all because in Italy we often shoot with actors who are not professional." (Carlo Pisacane and Tiberio Murgia were not actors.) "So because they didn’t know how to recite their lines they had to be dubbed." Furthermore, some cast members spoke in the wrong dialect. Monicelli continued, "So, for example,
urgiawho plays the Sicilian was not Sicilian. So I had to have a Sicilian dub his voice. Another one of the actors who was supposed to be Bolognesian (from Bologna) was from Naples, so I had to dub his voice. Cardinale spoke French so I had to dub her voice into Sicilian."
The apartment and pawnshop on "Via della Madonna" was in reality located at 7–8, Via delle Tre Cannelle (), immediately north of
Trajan's Market
Trajan's Market (; ) is a large complex of ruins in the city of Rome, Italy, located on the Via dei Fori Imperiali, at the opposite end to the Colosseum. The surviving buildings and structures, built as an integral part of Trajan's Forum and ne ...
. The building is still standing as of 2019.
Awards
The film was a hit in Italy when it was released and won two Italian
Nastro d'Argento
The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...
awards:
Best Leading Actor (Gassman) and
Best Screenplay. It also garnered the prestigious
Silver Shell for Best Director The Silver Shell for Best Director ( es, Concha de Plata al Mejor Director; eu, Zuzendari Onenaren Zilarrezko Maskorra) is one of the main awards presented at the San Sebastián Film Festival to the director of a competing film.
Award winners
...
at the
San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain. The film won Best Comedy at the 12th annual
Locarno Film Festival
The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...
in Switzerland. The film was also Italy's Oscar nominee for
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
31st Academy Awards.
It lost to
Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, film-maker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted the 46th greatest of all time ...
's ''
Mon Oncle
''Mon Oncle'' (; ''My Uncle'') is a 1958 comedy film by French filmmaker Jacques Tati. The first of Tati's films to be released in colour, ''Mon Oncle'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film ...
.''
Reception
According to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', for its American release the film was “dubbed into English over a six-month period with considerable money and effort expended in matching voices and intonations to achieve artistic and mechanical perfection.” At the time, there was a general debate over dubbing versus subtitling foreign films, and the American distributor, Richard Davis, screened the first reel of both versions for critics and writers and asked for their preference. They chose subtitles, though the dubbed version did make it to American TV in the early 1960s.
Several critics decried the subtitles. ''New York Times'' critic
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
called it "an essentially funny picture, artfully and joyously played. It's just too bad those incongruous, flat subtitles have to get in the way.” ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' critic James Rich liked the film, though he noted “the humor
starnished only when the parade of subtitles makes viewing a sort of exercise in speed reading.” Philip K. Scheuer, writing for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', called it “cleverly directed and acted...but there is one disadvantage for the linguistically limited: they have to wait to read the joke at the bottom of the screen, and by the time they can appreciate its purport the actors have already gone on to the next one.”
Other critics simply praised the film. The critic for the ''
New York Herald-Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
'' called it “one of the most irresistible Italian comedies in years. No one with a sense of humor and an appreciation of humanity should miss it.” ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' wrote: “Most unusual, however, and ever so clever, are the ways the script progresses to its climactic goof-up.” ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'' said: “Director Mario Monicelli has endowed the film with such flashes of brilliance, and the cast...has enacted it with such tasteful understatement, that ‘The Big Deal on Madonna Street’ must be listed as one of the funniest comedies of the last ten years.”
Crowther, in a follow-up essay, wrote: “Although the routines have whiskers, so old and used in vaudeville are they, the picture has an ageless zest for laughter.”
According to the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 89% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 7.47/10.
Sequels
A sequel directed by
Nanni Loy
Nanni Loy (born Giovanni Loi; 23 October 1925 – 21 August 1995) was an Italian film, theatre and TV director. Specifically, Nanni Loy was Sardinian, and one of several notable Sardinian film makers, including Franco Solinas.
Biography
Lo ...
titled ''
Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti
''Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti'' (also known as ''Fiasco in Milan'' or ''Hold-up à la milanaise'') is a 1959 Italian comedy crime film directed by Nanni Loy. The film stars Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori and Claudia Cardinale.
It is the s ...
'' (also known as ''Fiasco in Milan'' or ''Hold-up à la Milanaise'') followed in 1960, reuniting the entire main cast, aside from Totò and Mastroianni.
Another sequel was released in 1985, directed by Amanzio Todini and titled ''
I Soliti ignoti vent'anni dopo'' (known in English-speaking countries as ''Big Deal After 20 Years''; it was released by
Koch Lorber
Koch Entertainment was an American record label and a distributor of film, television, and music. It was purchased by Canadian entertainment company Entertainment One in 2005.
History First years
The company began in 1975 as part of Koch Inter ...
on DVD in the United States as ''Big Deal on Madonna Street - 20 Years Later'').
Remakes
Two remakes of the film were shot in the United States: the 1984 film ''
Crackers'' by
Louis Malle
Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both Cinema of France, French cinema and Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a fi ...
(set in San Francisco) and the 2002 film ''
Welcome to Collinwood
''Welcome to Collinwood'' is a 2002 American caper comedy film written and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and starring William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter (in his last movie, during his lifetime), Luis Guzmán, Pa ...
'' by
Anthony Russo and
Joe Russo (set in Cleveland).
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
created a Broadway musical titled ''
Big Deal'' based on the film. Set in 1930s Chicago with an African-American cast and using popular songs of the era, the show opened at the Broadway Theatre on April 10, 1986, and closed on June 8, 1986, after 69 performances. It received five Tony Award nominations, with Fosse winning for his choreography.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
*
*
*
''Big Deal on Madonna Street''an essay by Bruce Eder at the
Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{Mario Monicelli
1958 films
1950s Italian-language films
1950s crime comedy films
Italian heist films
Italian black-and-white films
Commedia all'italiana
Italian crime comedy films
Films directed by Mario Monicelli
Films scored by Piero Umiliani
Films set in Rome
Films with screenplays by Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Lux Film films
Films shot in Rome
1950s heist films
1958 comedy films
1950s Italian films