This Italian classic ¨Rufufu¨ or ¨I soliti ignoti¨(1958) concerns a team of low rent criminal dunderheads engaging in various scrapes and incidents as they carry out a peculiar robbery. It deals with Peppe: Vittorio Gassman, he's a bungling thief who leads a band of equally inept crooks who plan to make themselves very rich when they attempt to rob a pawnshop on Madonna Street. So the robbery takes place in a building at the corner between Via Delle Tre Cannelle e via Della Cordonata, near Piazza Venezia. But their elaborate plans cause numerous and hilarious disasters. The Story of a Perfect Crime... Perfectly Hilarious! . The Comedy that dreams the impossible scheme!
The offbeat story of two bumbling thieves: Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni who round up a gang of equally inept neighbors and go on the wildest crime spree you have ever seen. Spurred on by poverty and frustration, they decide to crack a safe, only to botch the whole caper in a welter of escalating crack-handedness. This agreeable picture concerns a hold-up pulled off by a bunch of unfortunate as well as bungling people but things go awry. Interesting as well as funny screenplay by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi D'Amico and director Mario Monicelli himself. There are some nice jokes in the film and the cast, playing eccentric characters, make a cosy fit. It takes a simple concept, a peculiar robbing, being badly schemed, lousily planned and disastrously proceeded by botcher people. A great Comedia all'Italiana by Mario Monicelli; the latter directed this stunning film, a brilliant parody to French production titled ¨Rififi¨(1956) by Jules Dassin . ¨I soliti ignoti(1958)¨ is a comical and sometimes disconcerting account of a bunch of lower class people from the personal, social, cultural, and economic perspective , because needing all of them, urgently, amount of money to resolve their problematic lives. This film packs attractive images, strange situations, swift frames , twists and turns ; but it especially contains catching touches of humor and irony. Nice interpretations from the best Italian actors at the time, Vittorrio Gassman as the former boxer Peppe who organizes the break-in of a pawnshop, Marcello Mastroianni as the unemployed photographer Tiberio, as well as fine support actors: Renato Salvatori, Memmo Carotenuto, Totó, Mario Feliciani and the newcomers beautiful Ragazzas: Carla Gravina, Gina Rovere, and Claudia Cardinale who gets pregnant and married producer Franco Cristaldi who financed this likeable film.
This soft-boiled caper was well directed by Mario Monicelli who gets to capture the same period feeling during the Fifties and lives of the lower classes. Mario Monicelli was born in 1915 Tuscany and died in 2010, Rome; being a good writer/filmmaker and expert on comedies . As he was a writer and director, known for The army Brancaleone (1966), La ragazza Con Pistola (1968) , The marquis of Grillo (1981) and his greatest hit : Rufufú (1958). In fact , his movies Rufufú (1958), The Great War (1959) were Oscar-nominate for "Best Foreign Language Film"; furthermore , The Great War won Golden Lion in Festival of Venice . Followed by ¨Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti¨ or ¨Fiasco in Milan¨ (1959) by Nanny Loy with Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Tiberio Murgia. And ¨Rufufú 20 years later¨ (1985) by Amanzio Todini con Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Tiberio Murgia, Gina Rivera.
Remade in a would-be comic adaptation in 1984 as ¨Crackers¨ by Louis Malle with Donald Sutherland, Jack Warden, Sean Penn and Wallace Shawn. ¨Welcome to Collinwood¨ (2002) is also a remake of 1958 film Big Deal on Madonna Street, being directed by Anthony, Joe Russo, and acted by William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter and Luis Guzmán.
The offbeat story of two bumbling thieves: Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni who round up a gang of equally inept neighbors and go on the wildest crime spree you have ever seen. Spurred on by poverty and frustration, they decide to crack a safe, only to botch the whole caper in a welter of escalating crack-handedness. This agreeable picture concerns a hold-up pulled off by a bunch of unfortunate as well as bungling people but things go awry. Interesting as well as funny screenplay by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi D'Amico and director Mario Monicelli himself. There are some nice jokes in the film and the cast, playing eccentric characters, make a cosy fit. It takes a simple concept, a peculiar robbing, being badly schemed, lousily planned and disastrously proceeded by botcher people. A great Comedia all'Italiana by Mario Monicelli; the latter directed this stunning film, a brilliant parody to French production titled ¨Rififi¨(1956) by Jules Dassin . ¨I soliti ignoti(1958)¨ is a comical and sometimes disconcerting account of a bunch of lower class people from the personal, social, cultural, and economic perspective , because needing all of them, urgently, amount of money to resolve their problematic lives. This film packs attractive images, strange situations, swift frames , twists and turns ; but it especially contains catching touches of humor and irony. Nice interpretations from the best Italian actors at the time, Vittorrio Gassman as the former boxer Peppe who organizes the break-in of a pawnshop, Marcello Mastroianni as the unemployed photographer Tiberio, as well as fine support actors: Renato Salvatori, Memmo Carotenuto, Totó, Mario Feliciani and the newcomers beautiful Ragazzas: Carla Gravina, Gina Rovere, and Claudia Cardinale who gets pregnant and married producer Franco Cristaldi who financed this likeable film.
This soft-boiled caper was well directed by Mario Monicelli who gets to capture the same period feeling during the Fifties and lives of the lower classes. Mario Monicelli was born in 1915 Tuscany and died in 2010, Rome; being a good writer/filmmaker and expert on comedies . As he was a writer and director, known for The army Brancaleone (1966), La ragazza Con Pistola (1968) , The marquis of Grillo (1981) and his greatest hit : Rufufú (1958). In fact , his movies Rufufú (1958), The Great War (1959) were Oscar-nominate for "Best Foreign Language Film"; furthermore , The Great War won Golden Lion in Festival of Venice . Followed by ¨Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti¨ or ¨Fiasco in Milan¨ (1959) by Nanny Loy with Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Tiberio Murgia. And ¨Rufufú 20 years later¨ (1985) by Amanzio Todini con Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Tiberio Murgia, Gina Rivera.
Remade in a would-be comic adaptation in 1984 as ¨Crackers¨ by Louis Malle with Donald Sutherland, Jack Warden, Sean Penn and Wallace Shawn. ¨Welcome to Collinwood¨ (2002) is also a remake of 1958 film Big Deal on Madonna Street, being directed by Anthony, Joe Russo, and acted by William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter and Luis Guzmán.