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Big Deal on Madonna Street
Conceived as a kind of irreverent parody of both Rififi and The Asphalt Jungle, Mario Monicelli's stumblebum heist film (1958) about a group of incompetent crooks trying to rob a safe full of jewels is one of the funniest Italian comedies ever made--certainly much funnier than the many imitations and remakes (i.e., rip-offs) it's spawned over the years, including Louis Malle's Crackers and Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks. Monicelli's sense of character is priceless, and his fabulous cast--including Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Claudia Cardinale, and Renato Salvatori--makes the most of it. 111 min. |
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