I soliti ignoti (1958)

Director:

Mario Monicelli

Writers:

Agenore Incrocci (story) &
Furio Scarpelli (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 November 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Plot:

A motley quintet of inept small-time thieves bungle the burglary of a local pawnshop in this Italian farce.

Plot Keywords:

Pawnshop | Boxer | Gang | Burglar | Photographer

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Vittorio Gassman	...	Peppe il pantera
Renato Salvatori	...	Mario Angeletti
Memmo Carotenuto	...	Cosimo
Rossana Rory	...	Norma
Carla Gravina	...	Nicoletta
Claudia Cardinale	...	Carmelina
Carlo Pisacane	...	Capannelle
Tiberio Murgia	...	Michele Ferribotte
Gina Rovere	...	Teresa - la moglie di Tiberio
Gina Amendola	...	Mario's 'Madre'
Elvira Tonelli	...	Assunta
Elena Fabrizi	...	Signora Ada (as Elisa Fabrizi)
Pasquale Misiano	...	Massimo
Renato Terra	...	Eladio
Aldo Trifiletti	...	Fernando - portinaio
Nino Marchetti	...	Luigi
Mario De Simone	...	Il ricettatore
Marcello Mastroianni	...	Tiberio
Totò	...	Dante Cruciani
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edith Bruck	...	Donna litigare sotto il lucernario (uncredited)
Franco Carli	...	(uncredited)
Mario Feliciani	...	Ispettore di polizia (uncredited)
Ida Masetti	...	Gabriella (uncredited)
Mario Meniconi	...	Paolo (uncredited)
Mimmo Poli	...	Prigioniero (uncredited)
Lisa Romey	...	Emilia (uncredited)
Amerigo Santarelli	...	(uncredited)
Gustavo Serena	...	(uncredited)
Roberto Spiombi	...	Piero (uncredited)

Directed by
Mario Monicelli

Writing credits
Agenore Incrocci		(story) &
Furio Scarpelli		(story)
Agenore Incrocci		(screenplay) &
Furio Scarpelli		(screenplay) &
Suso Cecchi D'Amico		(screenplay) &
Mario Monicelli		(screenplay)
Italo Calvino		(short story "Furto in una pasticceria") uncredited

Produced by
Franco Cristaldi	....	producer

Original Music by
Piero Umiliani

Cinematography by
Gianni Di Venanzo

Film Editing by
Adriana Novelli

Production Design by
Piero Gherardi

Set Decoration by
Vito Anzalone

Costume Design by
Piero Gherardi

Makeup Department
Romolo de Martino	....	makeup artist (as Romolo De Martino)

Production Management
Gino Millozza	....	production supervisor
Nicolò Pomilia	....	production manager (as Nicolo Pomilia)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mario Maffei	....	assistant director

Art Department
Italo Tomassi	....	manager of art department (uncredited)

Sound Department
Oscar Di Santo	....	sound technician
Luigi Puri	....	sound technician

Camera and Electrical Department
Erico Menczer	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Marisa Letti	....	assistant editor (as Maria Luisa Letti)

Music Department
Piero Umiliani	....	conductor

Other crew
Renato Jaboni	....	production secretary
Silvana Mangini Colizzi	....	script supervisor (as Silvana Mangini)
Vincenzo Taito	....	administrator
Renato Cominetti	....	voice dubbing: Tiberio Murgia (uncredited)
Nico Pepe	....	voice dubbing: Carlo Pisacane (uncredited)
Monica Vitti	....	voice dubbing: Rosanna Roy (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Cinecittà (Stabilimenti Cinematografici)
• Lux Film
• Vides Cinematografica

Distributors

• Cristaldifilm (1958) (worldwide) (all media) (rights)
• Lux Film (1958) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Franco Cristaldi-Lux Films (1960) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• United Motion Pictures Organization (UMPO) (1960) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Janus Films (1960) (USA) (VHS)
• Connoisseur Video Collection (1988) (USA) (VHS)
• Tamarelle's International Films (1988) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Studio Canal (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Italia (2003) (Italy) (DVD) (restoration remastered version)
• Aquarius TV (2004) (Greece) (DVD)
• Aquarius TV (2004) (Greece) (TV)
• Koch Lorber Films (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Audio Visual Enterprises (2005) (Greece) (DVD)
• Barcino Barcino Films S.A. (Spain)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Music Group
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2005) (Finland) (TV)

Also Known As:

"Big Deal on Madonna Street" - International (English title) (imdb display title), USA
"Persons Unknown" - UK
"Diebe haben's schwer" - West Germany
"Gangsters Falhados" - Portugal
"Ismeretlen ismerősök" - Hungary
"Kvartetten som sprängde" - Sweden
"Le pigeon" - France
"Los desconocidos de siempre" - Argentina
"O klepsas tou klepsantos" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Os eternos Desconhecidos" - Brazil
"Palimadarak" - Hungary (TV title)
"Rufufú" - Spain
"Sprawcy nieznani" - Poland (imdb display title)
"Suuri keikka Madonna-kadulla" - Finland

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Italy:T | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Cinecittà

Trivia:

Mario Monicelli wanted to call its movie "Le Madame", and only in a second moment changed it into "I Soliti Ignoti" (Usual Unknowns). Le Madame is an Italian slang for Policemen.

Quotes:

Tiberio:Stealing is a serious profession. You need serious people, not people like you. All you can do at your best is work.

Movie Connections:

References Cuori senza frontiere (1950)

Very funny caper movie.

An ensemble movie with multiple minor stories built around the main theme of a big heist on Madonna Street. Half a dozen or so hapless crooks decide to apply "scientific methods" to their plan to sneak through coal chutes and over rooftops into a vacant apartment. They will then use a car jack to break through a wall into the office next door where a fortune is stashed away in a safe. That's about as far as medical discretion will allow me to go in revealing the plot.

There have been many carefully planned caper movies, before and after this one, like "The Asphalt Jungle." Some have even been turned into comedies, like Woody Allan's "Small Time Crooks." But this was one of the first I'm aware of that turned the caper movie into a ridiculous farce.

I think I'll give one example of the kind of gags you can expect, to illustrate the style. To get to the vacant apartment the thieves must tiptoe across a skylight in the middle of the night and climb through a window on the other side. They are slipping along the metal framework, cursing each other, when suddenly blinding lights go on in the room underneath them and they must throw themselves flat on the glass to avoid detection. A young couple enter the room below and begin a loud argument about whether she really loves him and whether he's been unfaithful to her. The accusations are shouted back and forth, while 10 feet above them the immobilized gang alternately doze and gesture impatiently at one another as their carefully plotted timetable is all shot to hell.

Well, alright, one more. One of the gang, a master photographer, Marcello Maistroianni, is assigned to make a movie of the opening of the safe, shooting from across the rooftops through an open window, so the combination will be registered on film. The gang watch the resulting film and moan while pairs of underpants on a clothesline drift across the office window and there are inserts of the photographer's baby crying. At the moment the combination is to be revealed the film stutters and slips off its sprockets.

I can't help it. Stop me before I describe more. Okay -- last one. Two men have an argument in which a knife is produced. They fling angry insults back and forth, and one of them departs, slamming the wooden door behind him. The remaining man sneers at the door and hurls the knife at it. The knife doesn't stick, it bounces off.

It's really impossible to recommend this too highly. What a lot of fun.