1969 crime, dir. Peter Collinson, Michael Caine, Noel Coward:
IMDb /
allmovie. You wouldn't hit a
man with no trousers on, would you?
It's a classic, of course. But I think it's a classic in large
part because it speaks to that feeling in 1960s Britain that things
might be a bit rubbish since the war, and the Americans might have all
the money and be making stuff people actually wanted to buy, but at
least we could still be stylish in a way that those other guys
couldn't quite manage.
Not, of course, to the extent of Mr Bridger, Noel Coward in his final
film role, flag-shagging in a way that in those days was an obvious
bit of humour. But while the Mafia who kill off Beckerman in the
opening sequence may have the old-school style, Charlie Croker (Caine)
and his crew are very much of the Swinging Sixties. (To the extent
that they even have a non-white person in their gang. Not that he gets
much to do, but most of them don't get much to do.)
And Benny Hill is Benny Hill. And his character is probably the second
or third most developed in the film. This is not a film about
character; I think it's notable that during the big chase sequence we
hardly ever see inside the cars, or need to know who's in which one,
because it simply doesn't matter. The minis are the good guys, the
Italian police cars are the bad guys, get on with it. (And in these
glory days there's actual stunt driving rather than CGI trickery. The
sequence in the sewer tunnels is hugely impressive when one remembers
this.)
Meanwhile this may be the earliest example in film of a computer
intrusion. It's even moderately realistic.
But I think there's one female character with more than trivial
presence, and she's explicitly got out of the way before the exciting
stuff can happen.
It's fun, but it's carried on Caine's charisma until it's time for the
heist itself, then it's carried on the action. Nothing wrong with that
but I kept expecting it, on my most recent re-watch, to go a little
further, to be the film I remembered seeing when I was younger. Which
is entirely unfair of me of course; my tastes have changed. Try to see
it as the romp it is and you'll probably enjoy it much more.
I talk about this film further on Ribbon of
Memes.