Big Deal on Madonna Street

Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti, 1958) is an Italian crime comedy directed by Mario Monicelli — watch it online on iFILM. 106 minutes. Starring Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale and Totò.

The scheme is elegant on paper. Rent an apartment next to a pawnshop, dig a tunnel through the wall overnight, crack open the safe, disappear. Peppe (Vittorio Gassman) assembles a crew of Rome's least reliable petty criminals. Tiberio (Marcello Mastroianni) is in. So is a retired safecracker played by Totò, and a young Claudia Cardinale in a small but vivid role. Nobody in the group has ever dug a tunnel. It turns out that is the least of their difficulties.

Released in 1958, the film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and became the blueprint for an entire subgenre — the heist-by-incompetents comedy later echoed from Rififi parodies to Ocean's Eleven. Monicelli wasn't just making a caper film; he was sketching postwar Rome and its underclass of dreamers who cannot catch a break. The result holds up as one of the sharpest Italian comedies ever put on screen. Watch Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) online on iFILM.