Back when I was a 12 year old whippersnapper, I flipped out over this caper flick filled with English dollie birds all over Mchael Caine and a fonal three with mini coopers zipping through the streets of Turin as they life $4M in gold!
40 odd years later and it is saying the British Queen Mother Noel Coward that grabs my attention. That, plus the chase through Turin which, unlike the chase through the streets of Morocco in the recent Tintin movie, were, well actually happening not created through stop action. Ps It does make a decision.
Caine as Crocker gets out of prison and picks yup the plans to steal the gold through an elaborate scheme to shut down Turin's traffic lights and stall all cars so the three mini's can zip off to Switzerland with the loot.
Things all work out pretty well except at the very end where a bus filled with gold dangles on a precipice. Will it fall and they fail or will they manage to drive off with the loot? I dunno. For some bizarre reason, they don't bother to tell us. Oh yeah, swinging' London loves ambiguity… in a caper movie? Stupid bastards.
The characters aren't fleshed out, there is a sort of dumnbass suspended belief throughout which may have felt smart at the time but simply sucks today . For instance, Caine breaking into jail to meet Noel Coward. In the toilet.No, this hasn't aged well at all.
Music: The Matt Monro "On Days Like These" plays like the calm before the storm. And there is an extremely tedious song called "Get A Bloomin' Move On". Quincy Jones scored it.
Movie: C+
Music: C+