JOB’S A GOOD ’UN How a fun crime caper evolved into one of the greatest car movies of all time
The world’s leading The Italian Job authority on the legendary movie’s lasting automotive legacy
Hands down, The Italian Job is the daddy of the carchase genre. Loaded with ’60s swagger and some of the coolest performance cars of the decade, the film has become the ultimate expression of ‘cool Britannia’ and is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The movie stars Michael Caine as cockney wide-boy Charlie Croker, who leads a band of lovable rogues to pull off a daring gold heist before escaping across the gridlocked city of Turin in red, white and blue Mini Coopers. The script was written by British TV writer Troy Kennedy Martin, who admitted to a penchant for fast cars. Caine remembers it was on this premise that Kennedy Martin first pitched him the movie: “He said, ‘Let us destroy all these symbols of wealth, like cars. If you destroy a person on screen people go, ‘Oh, terrible.’ If you destroy a Lamborghini, they all burst into tears. He thought that destroying luxury machines would be more powerful than killing people.”
The 15-minute finale, in which the Austin Mini Cooper ‘S’ trio escapes the polizia through the palazzos, gallerias and rooftops of Turin, has become one of the most famous car chases in cinema. But enthusiasts love The Italian Job for more than just Minis. From the Lamborghini Miura in the title sequence to Michael Caine zipping around London in an Aston Martin DB4 Convertible, the film also takes in Fiat Dinos and two Jaguar E-types along the way.
Kennedy Martin was savvy enough to understand how the film could benefit the marketing and publicity departments at British Motor Corporation. The executives only had to read the script to understand the heroic exposure the Mini would be given: “Before I’d sold the script, I’d been to [BMC] and said, ‘Look, I’m going to write this story and I really want to make the Minis the centre of it. We had meetings about it, and I was talking to one of their PR guys and they just wouldn’t do it. They were totally f * cking useless. I couldn’t believe it.”
Later, when the film was in pre-production, producer Michael Deeley re-approached BMC in the hope that he could convince them to see the commercial value of being involved: “I fully presumed they would be thrilled to be involved with a Paramount Picture, one that would be shown around the globe and was ready to offer a wealth of free advertising. The dollar value of same would have been a phenomenal sum. Astonishingly, BMC could not have cared less. Many of those who worked on the picture felt that BMC’S attitude was a sad reflection of the British car industry’s waning marketing skills.”
BMC did eventually lend the production six end-of-the-line Mk1 Coopers. The Minis were delivered to Blenheim Motors in London, where they were prepped for filming. Blenheim was run by father-and-son team Phil and David Salamone. Upon arrival, David inspected the Minis and it appeared they were not brand new: “They were probably test mules and most had mechanical faults that needed addressing before filming.” Salamone jnr remembers all six cars survived and, once filming wrapped in Turin, were returned to England: “At least three of them had kinks in their roofs. The chassis had bent. The three cars used for the rooftop jump had sustained serious damage – the bodies had kinked. You could still drive them, but BMC would never have been allowed to sell them. So they must have been destroyed.”
Deeley formed a close relationship with Fiat proprietor Gianni Agnelli, who gave the production team complete autonomy to practically do what they wanted in Turin. As their relationship
developed, the Italian industrialist hit Deeley with a proposition: “Effectively Fiat told us, ‘Listen, we can be very helpful here if you switch the Minis to become Fiats.’ They were prepared to offer me as many Fiats as I needed to crash and smash, as well as trained stunt drivers to pilot the vehicles, a $50,000 cash bonus and the current top-of-the-range Ferrari as a personal gift. I had to decline. The whole point of the movie was very clear in my mind by this time: it was the theme of ‘us against them’. It had to be Minis.”
Fiat remained unbelievably co-operative, providing the film with three Dino Coupés for the Mafia to drive and dozens of Fiats for the traffic-jam sequences. At the end of production one of the Dinos was gifted to the director, Peter Collinson, but he later wrapped it around a lamp-post. Six Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti police cars were also used, of which only one reportedly survived. The Italian police got a little tetchy over the way the Minis continually escaped the Alfas and stressed, to anyone who would listen, that it would never happen in real life.
As vehicle supervisor, Salamone was tasked with sourcing all the other ‘fast’ cars: “I went to all sorts of strange places to find vehicles. I got cars off friends, out of papers. I got the cheapest DB4 Convertible I could find. I got the two cheapest E-type Jaguars that were available.”
Two DB4S were used for the film, one for the London scenes and a second for the Italian location shoot. The latter was destroyed courtesy of a special-effects disaster in the scene where the Mafia chief, Altabani, orders a bulldozer to destroy Croker’s Aston and the gang’s two E-types. The ‘hero’ DB4, 163 ELT, survives to this day and current custodian Brian Morrison oversaw a complete restoration after purchasing it in 1991. Salamone sourced four disposable E-types – two red roadsters and two blue fixedheads – but only one is known to still exist in its original form, 848 CRY. Beginning life as a demonstrator at Jaguar’s Leicestershire dealership, it was raced by manager Robin Sturgess at weekends. This car is currently in the hands of E-type expert and historian Philip Porter.
Once the Minis escape the city, they race along a deserted autostrada catching up with the final vehicle in Croker’s convoy – a Harrington Legionnaire coach. Only one coach was used for the film and it was returned to commercial use after the movie was complete. It survived as late as 1990 until it was scrapped in Scotland.
Upon release, The Italian Job was seen as just another heist movie, but over the five decades since it has gathered a cult following. Although it stars Michael Caine, he is in this instance overshadowed by the cars. “Somehow it has come to represent the ’60s,” said Kennedy Martin. “Even though it is a fantasy version of it.”
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“If we switched to Fiat they were prepared to offer me as many cars as I needed, plus drivers, a $50k bonus and a new Ferrari as a gift”