Touches You

I wanted to but couldn't!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This marvelous Italian comedy is simply outrage funny...a bunch of losers try make a perfect plan to steal a box,but it's spend a lot of time to prepare each part of the entire plan,during this time every weird situation came along.... Gassman ,Mastroianni,Salvatore,Carotenuto,Pisacane,Murgia and Totó all them had a stunning performance without forget Claudia Cardinale's debut...each one them are colorful and has a own story....Mario Monicelli made a fantastic movie!!! Resume: First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9

Lots and lots of little touches, little moments and the comedy is handled as delicately. It takes a 'light touch' to make pastry and Monicelli, the beloved Italian director of comedies has that light touch. The beloved comedian Toto does a delicately nuanced turn as the master safe-cracker. Mastroianni sheds his glamour and is quite believable as a lowlife with a baby and wife in jail. The old man, Carlo Pisacane, reveals a great talent for comedy in this his best role.The 'loot' at the end of this 'Rififi' style caper is... a pot of leftover pasta and beans. And the crooks ENJOY the pasta. It is really very good, they are hungry from working hard to break through the wrong wall and that moment of gastronomic joy and fellowship, I understood something about life that a dozen serious movies never taught me.

What's the 'big deal' about 'Big Deal on Madonna Street?" Well, it's a pretty amusing take on Italian Society in the late 50s. Strong suits include a bevy of neat character types, a plot that moves along at a saucy pace (except perhaps for a bit of a draggy denouement) and dialogue full of jokes, some of which are spot on and others that are probably lost in translation.When a petty criminal, Cosimo, is locked up for breaking into a car, he soon gets wind inside the local jail, that there is safe full of jewels inside a pawnshop on Madonna Street in Rome, ripe for the taking. All he has to do is conscript his pals, gain entry into a vacant apartment next door and punch through a weak plaster wall, which leads directly to the safe in question. One problem remains: his sentence on the misdemeanor is keeping him locked up for months on end.Cosimo calls upon an old geezer, ex-Jockey Capannelle, to find a 'scapegoat' who will confess to the crime and take his place in the lockup. Capannelle calls upon a motley group including Mario, a product of the Italian orphanage system, who is perennially unemployed, Michele Ferrite, a Sicilian hothead who keeps his sister under lock and key, ensuring that no man takes advantage of her and and Tiberio, an unemployed photographer who must take care of his infant son after his wife has been locked up for smuggling cigarettes. All these ne'er-do-wells refuse to accept Cosimo's cash offer of 100,000 lira as they all have records and will probably be given significant time despite pleading guilty to such a minor crime. They finally find a washed-up boxer, Peppe, who agrees to switch places with Cosimo. Both Cosimo and Peppe hit a snag when the sentencing Judge sees through the ruse and also sends Peppe to jail.In one of the real neat scenes in the film, Peppe tricks Cosimo into revealing the location of the potential heist on Madonna Street. After returning from the sentencing Court, he acts as if he's been sentenced to three years and Cosimo suddenly takes pity on him, spilling the beans. Peppe then walks out laughing, indicating that in actuality, he's been sentenced to one year probation.If there's one scene that doesn't work at all, it's when the crooks steal an old 8 millimeter movie camera from a flea market after Tiberio comes up with the lame brained idea of utilizing the camera's zoom lens to film the safe combination from a rooftop, as pawnshop employees can be seen periodically opening the safe through a window of the building across the street. The scheme is so ridiculous from the get go since it's obvious that no one could read the safe combination by using a cheap camera like that. I understand that the point is to show what a bumbling bunch this gang of crooks really is. Unfortunately, I believe, no one is THAT stupid and it reduces the characters to a bunch of buffoons.Fortunately, that's only one scene and there are plenty of others that hit the mark. One very subtle jab at a certain 'character type' occurs after the group needs to raise money to hire a "professional" safe cracker to open the safe. Mario visits his "mother" and her friends, the other older women at the orphanage where he was raised. One very funny bit is when one of the women keeps insisting how ugly he is without any awareness of her lack of tact.The story takes a darker turn during a short sequence when Cosimo, after his plan for the big heist has been stolen from him by his former pals, resorts to mugging women on the street and ends up being killed after being hit by a streetcar, following a chase by the police. The gang then gets together for his funeral and wax philosophical about the capriciousness of life. The unsophisticated Capannelle can only say something trite in front of his pals: "feast or famine".Some judicious editing could have improved the final quarter of the film as the focus is on two long-winded subplots: Michele going after Mario who expresses his love for Michele's sister and Peppe's involvement with Nicoletta, who works for the two spinsters who inhabit the apartment which the gang must gain access to. I also felt the actual 'break-in' scene was much too long but after reading Wikipedia, I learned that it was designed to satirize "Rififi", a 1955 French heist film, which I have yet to see.'Big Deal' ends nicely as there are no fatal consequences for any of the misguided group of thieves. After drilling through the wrong wall, they conclude that its best to abort the caper; but all's well that end's well, when they partake of leftovers in the refrigerator concocted by the endearing Nicoletta. Finally, Peppe gets his just desserts, when he's swept up in a crowd of men who are seeking work at a construction site—work, of course, is the last thing Peppe really wants to do but he has no choice to accept his fate.'Big Deal on Madonna Street' perhaps suggests that the root of instability in society is tied to infidelity between men and women. Without a strong anchor (or shall we say, 'moral compass'), people are condemned to a lack of satisfaction precisely because of the lack of strong relationships between the sexes. Right after being locked up, Cosimo can only joke when he promises his girlfriend a fur coat if he and his confederates can pull off the big heist. His girlfriend replies she'd rather get married and Cosimo states he's only doing a few months and she wants to sentence him to life! It's a funny line, but indicative of something much more sad going on in 1958 Italy, and just as relevant to today's times as well.

Cosimo, a small time criminal in Rome, decides to steal a car one night. He is too inept to get the job done, attracting the attention of the patrolling police. Landing in jail, Cosimo hears of a possibility for a caper, the only problem is, he still has to serve his time. With the help of his friends, a search for a man to come forward to confess to the actual crime would clear Cosimo. After asking around, without much success, Peppe, another street hustler, and womanizer, decides to do it for the money. Unfortunately, he ends up in jail and Cosimo too. Jail time proves to be an opportunity for Peppe to learn about the caper Cosimo has been so carefully planning.When Peppe is released, he looks for the men that would have been involved with Cosimo in the original plan. They include an assortment of petty street criminals who have no experience in how to go about doing the job. Enter Dante, a master safe cracker, who for money, will teach the gang how to open the safe at one of Rome's pawn shops. The only problem with the plan, Dante will not participate, thus leaving everything to Peppe and the gang.Peppe, who has met Nicoletta, the niece of the occupants of the apartment he thought was empty, has a short romance with the woman, from whom he learns when will the two old ladies be away. Involved in the gang is Mario, who discovers the beautiful Carmelina, sister of Ferribotti, a Sicilian man who is guarding her chaste for a possible good marriage. There is Tiberio, a photographer, whose wife is serving jail time and he is now taking care of his infant son. Campanelle, an inept older man who is always hungry, completes the gang.When the big night for the heist arrives, everything that could gone wrong, and more, is what happens. The men have absolutely no clue as to what to do, therefore, their plan will never be put in action. At the end, the gang come out empty handed, not before Campanelle discovers a pot of pasta and chick peas, which he praises to the others, who soon share the dish with him, agreeing how delicious it was.Mario Monicelli, the director, who also collaborated with the screen play, seemed to be doing a funny take off on the more serious "Rififi", directed by Jules Dassin. That's where the comparison ends. Mr. Monicelli was more interesting in capitalizing in the comic aspects of a serious caper with a bunch of lunatics that have no clue what they really want. The result is one of the best movies of the fifties. The director was blessed in bringing together some of the best of the Italian cinema of the era.The wonderful Vittorio Gassman is Peppe, the man in charge of the caper. This legendary actor was at a great moment of his career, and although his character is not a serious one, he runs away with the film because he clearly understood what made Peppe tick. Toto, another magnificent actor plays Dante, who knows a thing, or two, about how to crack a safe. Renato Salvatori makes a good impression as Mario, who discovers he is in love with Carmelina. Marcello Mastroianni has a small role here, as Tiberio, the man with a wife in jail who must bring the infant son to all the gang meetings. Carlo Pisacane has some excellent moments as Campanelle. The same goes for Tiberio Murgia who as Ferribotte wants to protect his sister from all his male friends.The women in the film have lesser roles to play, but they clearly show they understood the material well. Carla Gravina makes a great Nicoletta. Claudia Cardinali appears as Carmelina, and lastly, Rosanna Rory is seen as Norma, Cosimo's girlfriend.The DVD we recently watched has been carefully transferred and looks as good as when the film was released. It helps that Monicelli employed cinematographer Gianni DiVenzano to capture his story in black and white. The jazzy score by Piero Umiliani goes along well with the action. Mario Monicelli directed with an eye for the picaresque in a film that is imitated, but never equaled.