I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) by Mario Monicelli

I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) by Mario Monicelli

Director: Mario Monicelli
106 mins, 1958
language: Italian with English subtitles

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film, Big Deal on Madonna Street (Italian: I soliti ignoti, also released as Persons Unknown in the UK) is a 1958 Italian criminal-comedy film, directed by Mario Monicelli, and considered to be among the masterpieces of Italian cinema. Its original title translates as "the usual unknown persons", a journalistic an bureucratic euphemism for "unidentified criminals". The film is a comedy about a group of small-time thieves and never-do-wells who bungle an attempt to burglarize a state-run pawn shop called Monte di Pietà in Rome. The main roles are played by Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Mario Salvatori, Carlo Pisacane and Tiberio Murgia. The careers of both Gassman and Mastroianni were considerably helped by the success of the film, especially Gassman's, since before then he was not deemed suitable for comedic roles. Claudia Cardinale also featured in a minor role (a chaste, black-clad Sicilian girl, almost held prisoner at home by her overbearing brother, played by Tiberio Murgia), although she would later rise to fame for other works.