‘I soliti ignoti‘, Mario Monicelli‘s 1958 film, can be considered the healthy laugh with which the period of Italian neorealism ends. In fact, Monicelli had directed almost 15 comedies in the decade preceding this film, more than one per year, and among them eight of the films in which the star and main character was the famous comic actor Totò (who also appears here). The Italian title of the film roughly translates to ‘the usual suspects’, but the working title was for a long time ‘Rifufu’, a replica of the famous French comedy ‘Du rififi chez les hommes’ that had enjoyed international success a few years earlier. The English version was distributed with the title ‘Big Deal on Madonna Street‘. The film’s heroes represent a mosaic of characters and dialects from different regions of Italy, the landscape of Rome – on whose streets it was filmed – fits into the neorealist atmosphere, while the emphasis of the story is on comedy. Monicelli was one of the masters of Italian-style comedy and this is one of his best films.
The film’s heroes are a gang of likable swindlers, who seek to get out of the post-war economic misery by all sorts of means, mostly illegal. Each character is distinct, both in physiognomy and personality, in the place of birth and in the way they speak. What they have in common is that they are a bit clumsy, some of those men who are not helped by either their head or luck, so very good material for comedy. After finding out a tip about a safe in a pawn shop, they meticulously plan to rob it. It would be the material of a classic film about robberies and robbers, but rarely has such an incompetent team gathered on the screens to plan and execute a burglary. We do have a long heist scene, again in competition with the French ‘Rififi’, but what happens and how it ends are totally inedit.
The entire cast is exceptional, but I must mention Marcello Mastroianni, who was just a few years before his glory, Vittorio Gassman in his first important comic role (many more were to follow) and Claudia Cardinale, who, at 20, was in only her second role in a feature film. A relatively small role, but enough to attract the attention of viewers and producers and launch her career. Finally, Totò, Monicelli‘s faithful collaborator, also has a small role, but a key one in the plot. Connoisseurs of the history of cinema will be able to include ‘I soliti ignoti‘ in the category of late Italian neorealist films, while comedy lovers will find enough opportunities to enjoy it. Monicelli‘s film has spawned many remakes and imitations, and rightly so. Those who find and watch the film will be entertained straight from the source.