Big Deal on Madonna Street
- filmscreed
- Oct 27, 2014
- 5 min read
There’s an old saw in comedy that someone trying to be funny isn’t as funny as someone being serious when the situation is funny. That’s what makes the band of inept robbers of Mario Monicelli’s Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) so appealing. Despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, they never stop believing that they are master criminals.
BDoMS hits the ground running, and it never looks like it’s going to be anything but fun. The film opens to the infectious jazz soundtrack of Piero Umiliani, and a car theft in progress. Cosimo (Memmo Carotenuto) and Capanelle (Carlo Pisacane) demonstrate right up front that they are not good at what they do. Trying to start the car, Cosimo merely gets the horn blowing, which naturally brings a couple of policemen running. His luck is such that, he even slams his coat in the car door trying to get away!
The timing is terrible, because Cosimo had a big job in the works. Capanelle needs to get him out so that the job can go on, and this leads to us meeting the rest of the group. Someone needs to take the rap for Cosimo (For a price, naturally), so that he can get out of jail. Mario (Renato Salvatori) can’t do it – His mother would kill him. Ferribotte (Tiberio Murgia) won’t do it. His time is consumed making sure nobody comes near his sister Carmelina (Claudia Cardinale). Tiberio (Marcelo Mastroianni) has to look after his baby, because his wife is already in jail. When it’s suggested that the baby can stay with the mother in jail, Tiberio shoots down this idea. “The kid will go to jail when he’s all grown up!” Ok, then.
The boys finally find the right guy in Peppe (Vittorio Gassman), a down-on his luck boxer whose dreams of the championship are dashed just seconds into his next fight. The film cuts directly from him going down for the count to his theatrical confession to Cosimo’s crime. As a reward, he is thrown into jail…and poor Cosimo is thrown BACK in.
Cosimo makes the mistake of spilling the whole plan to Peppe, because he believes that the boxer has gotten a long sentence. When that turns out to not be the case, poor Cosimo has been wronged again. Peppe has the plan, and the gang, and is eventually out of jail. Cosimo, he’s still in there.
The plan is that the gang will use a vacant apartment to access a rich pawnshop right next door. The film uses the common device of following them as they pre-case the location from a nearby rooftop. This allows us to get a preview of the logistics of the plan, as well, which will pay hilarious dividends later on. Peppe intones seriously that they are going to be smart about this and use ‘scientific’ methods.
The next section of the film involves the preparation for the robbery, and in it, we start to get to know the gang better. These guys are not hard criminals like we might see in other movies. They are actually good guys, if a little under motivated. We follow Mario as he visits the orphanage where he grew up. We visit Ferribotte and his sister. These are not bad people - It’s just that the thought of having a regular job doesn’t really entice them. Only Tiberio has a regular gig (he’s a photographer), but he is as quick as any to go along with the big scheme, which will undoubtedly make them all rich.
The film takes the time to give us sly little jokes, and then circles around to the same joke later on. Tiberio uses a fake cast as a prop to steal a camera. Mario uses Ferribotte’s voice and a ruse about forgetting his keys to get in to see Carmelina. Mario buys 3 Donald Duck aprons, ostensibly for his mother, and then we see the same aprons on 3 nuns when he goes to visit his old orphanage. Mario had spoken of his “Mother” earlier, and now we see that he is actually speaking of 3 mothers. This detail isn’t really critical to the story, but it is valuable in fleshing out a character, and makes a later decision by Mario seem logical. Same thing for Tiberio and his baby; It is a cute comic wink when he brings the child to a crime meeting (or a funeral), but it also adds a bit of flavor. Despite being a bit of a criminal, he is nonetheless a devoted father.
While casing out the job, Peppe and Tiberio hit a snag – The apartment that they are counting on isn’t vacant after all. The solution is that Peppe begins a relationship with a maid who lives there, which may allow them to get a key. That’s simpler than breaking in. This leads to a hilarious little scene on a train where Peppe steals the key from her purse, only to have her offer to give it to him. Thus, he has to get it back into her purse so that she can give it right back to him. It’s little touches like this that make BDoMS so affecting and funny – There’s always something muddling up their plan. When one of the other guys asks Peppe what he is going to do when he gets the girl and the key and is in the apartment, he has no idea – He hadn’t thought of that. His solution? - “Relax – I’ll figure it out.”
In any caper film, the robbery itself is always the centerpiece, and thus it is here. In watching the people involved and the preparation, we can already surmise what the outcome will be, but what is truly marvelous is to watch what providence throws at our intrepid thieves. The list includes a broken arm, a mewling cat, a leaking water pipe, a strangely unobservant night watchman, a bickering couple, and a temperamental gas stove. The scene with the couple, in particular, is pure comic magic. Just as the thieves are making their way across a skylight the couple enters the room below, arguing even as they arrive. The discussion just goes round and round in circles, much to the consternation of the impatient thieves above.
The climax of BDoMS, of course is the moment when the gang finally tunnels through the wall. Without giving anything away, this is simply one of the funniest things I have ever seen in the movies. It works so well because we have followed these guys for so long, and seen how earnest they are towards this job, and how wedded they are to the idea of being rich. As they prepare for the big moment, they are drenched in sweat, and the anticipation is palpable. It’s a beautiful set-up, and it doesn’t disappoint. At least, it doesn’t disappoint US.
The heist movie often gave us a gang that might be broken, but was generally unbowed. They would just wait until the next thing comes up (Oceans 11, for example). Here, the vibe is a little different. As the men leave the scene, there is the sense that they are all taking a personal stock. Tiberio and Ferribotte just want to get back home. Peppe and Capanelle wander away dejectedly. When a couple of cops decide to investigate this shabby duo, Peppe hides amongst a group of men waiting to apply for jobs. Then the gates open, and he is swept in with them; the suggestion being that Peppe is going to get a job despite himself. That’s the final thought that BDoMS leaves us with. Failures as criminals, the boys will probably end up OK, if they just let themselves be swept along with the tide of honest living.
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