‘Big Deal on Madonna Street’ or — Stupidity Saves the Day?
On Madonna Street there is a pawnshop. Inside the shop there is a safe. Inside the safe there are enough valuables to set anyone up for life. The pawnshop is heavily protected so getting in is almost impossible. Yet when small-time crook Cosimo discovers that a dodgy bricklayer had deliberately constructed a weak wall between the store and the adjoining apartment next door he sees the chance to make a big deal… a big deal on Madonna Street!
And so a team consisting of fellow petty thieves is put together to pull off the heist. These criminals might be from the lowest rung of society, and with none of them being particularly well educated, but by applying a highly “scientific” approach to the job and using their collective intelligences then these masterminds are soon all set to commit what will be the most perfectly executed crime of the century. The police will be totally baffled by the crime, that’s for sure.
I’d known for a while that Mario Monicelli’s ‘Big Deal on Madonna Street’ (1958) is regarded as one of the greatest Italian comedies ever made and boy, it certainly lives up to its reputation as this is one extraordinarily funny movie. Not only that but it’s also meticulously made with a well crafted plot, fully rounded characters, social commentary, sublime direction, exquisite black and white cinematography and a superb jazzy score by the wonderful Piero Umilliani. You could strip all the comedy out of the movie entirely and still be left with an excellent film.
‘Big Deal on Madonna Street’ as the look and feel of a film noir combined with Italian neorealism as the group tackle with not just how to pull off the heist but also with the struggles facing the Italian working class. Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni) has to raise a baby by himself whilst his wife is in jail for cigarette smuggling, Peppe (Vitorio Gassman) is a down on his luck boxer and another of the team is jealously possessive of his dowryless sister (Claudia Cardinale). What the film then does is take all the tropes and clichés of neorealism plus the heist genre and subvert, parody and overturn every single one of them with slapstick glee. It’s like ‘Rififi’ (1955) meets an Italian ‘Only Fools and Horses’.
For example — at one point one of the group quits and walks out so a furious Peppe hurls his knife into the closing door, leaving the blade quivering in the wood from his precise and powerful throw. At least, that is what would normally happen in any other Italian crime film. Instead Peppe’s knife harmlessly hits the door by its grip, bounces right off and flops pathetically onto the floor. This group can’t even get the gestures of machismo right!
The film is so much fun and packed with so many delightful scenes that it was quite a while until I realised this lot hadn’t even come close to getting around to the actual heist and, quite frankly, I didn’t care; I was just loving hanging out with this lot. Of course when it does come time for the heist I suddenly became worried for their fate. After all, no matter how lovable these rogues might be they will still have to pay for their crime and with such a well thought out and highly sophisticated plan it’s obvious they’re all going to end up in jail or maybe even dead. Gulp!
And what happens? Well, I won’t spoil a single moment but the heist itself is one of the most gut-bustingly funny sequences I’ve seen in any movie and when we start to realise that every single one of the carefully thought out aspects to their plan is going to fall apart it’s an exhilarating delight. And just when you think you’ve been hit with the biggest laugh in the movie the film miraculously pulls out another, even bigger one and wallops you with that. The final gag is a piece of genuinely inspired comedy writing and perfect joke construction that it qualifies as genius. If it doesn’t then I can’t think of anything else that does. The end is also surprisingly touching and sweet and proof that an anticlimax can be a thing of beautiful joy. Oh, and it all closes on the funniest newspaper headline I’ve seen in a movie just in case the grin on your face wasn’t big enough already.
‘Big Deal on Madonna Street’ is a phenomenal example of comedy, Italian cinema, crime parody, neorealism, buddy movie and caper presented with a gorgeous look and a fantastic soundtrack. If you fancy laughing, and laughing HARD, then get down to that little pawnshop on Madonna Street as fast as you can. The delights contained there are as delicious as… well, as delicious as pasta and beans.
