Michael Caine is an affable crook just out of the pokey named Charlie Croker, who is ready for a new heist job just as he's being released! The heist includes robbing a truck containing 4 million dollars worth of gold in Turin, Italy and part of the plan involves replacing computer data reels to cause a traffic jam and knock out surveillance cameras so the thieves can escape with the loot. Benny Hill (yes, Benny Hill) is the Professor who is something of a computer expert...and a sexual pervert! We also have the Mob on hand who materialize out of nowhere on the cliffs just as our robbers travel through dangerously curvy roads.
"The Italian Job" contains many laughs throughout and the extended chase finale involving mini Cooper vehicles is comically zany and enticing on many levels (literally). Unfortunately, the thieves are nondescript at best with no color or variety to them except for Benny Hill as the beaming Professor who just has to grab a woman's behind. Michael Caine comes off best of course and dominates the proceedings, especially the brief interlude that involves having a romp in the hay with a few women (Swinging 60's after all)! But even Caine's relationship with his dutiful girlfriend Lorna (Maggie Blye) comes off stale - there is not much chemistry there and hardly any close-ups. However there is Noel Coward as a crime lord still serving time in prison who finances the plot - he has a patriotic bent to him as if this heist was a political statement of England winning one over Italy.
"The Italian Job" is a nutty 99-minute entertainment with a nerve-frying cliffhanger of an ending that is just about perfect. The characters are colorless yet it is Caine who gives it enough maximum vitality to maintain interest. No movie this zany is worth passing up.
