Trailer
Plot summary
Thief Roger Beckerman is murdered by the Mafia while driving through the Alps, his plan to steal four million dollars in gold bullion from an armored convoy in Turin left unfinished. His friend Charlie Croker, newly released from prison, hears of it from Beckerman's widow, who urges him to carry the scheme through. Croker breaks back into prison to win the support of the British crime lord Mr. Bridger, who sends his right-hand man Camp Freddie to supervise. Croker assembles a crew of specialists, among them his girlfriend Lorna, the computer expert Professor Simon Peach, and a group of drivers. Crossing the Alps, Croker's group is confronted by Mafia boss Altabani, who destroys their backup cars and warns them to abandon the plan.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Italian Job (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Producer Michael Deeley was unhappy with four different written endings and devised the film's own ending as a literal cliffhanger himself, leaving the door open for a sequel.- In 2008 the Royal Society of Chemistry held a competition for a scientifically sound way to save the bus and the gold in under 30 minutes without a helicopter, marking the 100th anniversary of the periodic table, gold being element 79.
- Sixteen Mini Coopers used in the chase were destroyed or rendered unroadworthy during filming, along with nine replica cars; the six surviving 848cc replicas were abandoned in the crew's Turin storage unit and their later history is unknown.
- The heist's $4 million in gold would have weighed about 3,200 kg, so each of the three Minis had to carry roughly 1,070 kg, about one and a half times the 630 kg weight of a 1968 Mini.
- The orange Lamborghini Miura in the opening scene was two cars: a roadworthy P400 sold as new afterwards, which classic car expert Iain Tyrrell located and authenticated in 2015, and a second Miura, previously badly crashed and not roadworthy, that was pushed down the chasm.
- Part of the car chase was filmed as a dance between the Minis and police cars, with a full orchestra playing "The Blue Danube" inside Turin's Palazzo Esposizioni; the sequence was cut from the final film but is still available to view.
- The sewer chase was actually shot in the Sowe Valley Sewer Duplication system in Stoke Aldermoor, Coventry, filmed from the back of a Mini Moke, and the man closing the gate at the tunnel's end is the film's director, Peter Collinson.
- The "Chinese" plane delivering the gold to Turin was a rare Douglas C-74 Globemaster, of which only 14 were built and only four passed into private ownership; abandoned in Milan, it was moved to Turin for filming and destroyed by fire in 1970.
