The Italian Job (Italian Job The)

The film starts with a driver's-eye view of a Lamborghini Miura driving through the Italian Alps as the titles roll. Following the car as it negotiates the turns at high speed, the scenery is cut off when the car enters the darkness of a tunnel and subsequently explodes. The viewpoint changes to the other end of the tunnel, where the remains of the ill-fated Lamborghini are pulled from the tunnel, wrapped around the front of a bulldozer, and subsequently pushed off the top of a steep hill.

Croker decides to continue the plan despite the risks, but needs to put together a large gang to pull it off. In order to fund the attempt, he breaks into jail to meet with Mr Bridger (Noël Coward), an incarcerated criminal kingpin who nonetheless runs a gangland empire from within. Croker explains "The Italian Job" and is able to extract Bridger's reluctant backing. He assembles a group including computer expert Professor Peach (Benny Hill), electronics handler Birkinshaw (Fred Emney) and several getaway drivers. The plan calls for Peach to infect Turin's lauded computerised traffic control system to create a traffic jam that will prevent the police from recapturing the gold after it is stolen. Three Mini Cooper Ss, able to navigate the gridlock in unconventional ways, will follow Beckermann's unusual route through Turin to evacuate the gold. Planning and training for the caper takes up the first half of the film.

Inside, the gang transfers the gold to the Minis. Mafioso Altabani recognizes right away that "If they planned this [traffic] jam, then they must have planned a way out of it." That "way out" is the balance of the film: the three Minis race through the stylish shopping arcades of the Via Roma, up the sail-like roof of the Palazzo a Vela, around the rooftop test track of the famous Fiat Lingotto factory building and even down the steps of the Gran Madre di Dio church while a wedding is in progress. The gang finally escapes the city by driving through large sewer pipes, throwing off the police in the process. The gang make their final getaway on a six-wheeled Harrington Legionnaire-bodied Bedford VAL coach (actually used to transport the crew), driving up a ramp on the back whilst the coach is still travelling at speed. Once the gold has been unloaded from them, the getaway Minis are pushed out of the still-moving coach as it negotiates hairpin bends in the Italian Alps.

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