The Italian Job

But it’s that stunning, and meaningful, cliff-edge finale that matters most. It is, in essence, a philosophical head-scratcher.

What The Italian Job has to revive the viewer of the drowsy first 70 minutes is a whopping good third-act mini-car chase, one which will inevitably compared to the daredevil hill vaulting of Bullitt.

The brio and ambition of The Italian Job can't be doubted and Caine has enormous charisma...

Is there a film - certainly a British film - that delivers a greater infusion of pure joy than The Italian Job?

Caine and Coward play a splendid game of verbal tennis, but by the final reel the laughs are lost in an anthology of dull and deafening car chases.

The cast does its stuff to good effect. Coward, as the highly patriotic, business-like master crook, brings all his imperturbable sense of irony and comedy to his role.

It's a mightily popular movie, helped immeasurably by the now-iconic status of Caine, the soundtrack from Quincy Jones, the editing by John Trumper, and the marvellous Coward, who masterminds the whole wheeze from his prison cell.

Featuring a spectacular performance from Michael Caine, The Italian Job remains one of the best representations of British culture in the late 1960s.

...works as neither an over-the-top comedy nor a gripping heist thriller.

This is an easy yet always enjoyable way to spend your time -- and should remain so for decades to come.