Film

Big Deal on Madonna Street

Mario Monicelli's Italian caper comedy follows a crew of broke, middle-aged nobodies who plan an elaborate safecracking job and are comprehensively unqualified for it. It's warm rather than cynical, more interested in hunger and dignity than loot, and it invented the template for every 'heist gone charmingly wrong' film that followed. Funny, humane, unhurried, and full of faces you won't forget, including a very young Claudia Cardinale.

TMDb rating8.1

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Rififi1955

The deadly serious heist film Big Deal is openly spoofing — a meticulous, wordless safecracking sequence that Monicelli's crew could only dream of pulling off this cleanly.

But It's a real noir, tense and fatalistic where Big Deal is warm; if you want more laughs, this isn't it.

Rififi poster

A Fish Called Wanda1988

A heist ensemble comedy built entirely on its crooks' vanity, stupidity, and bad luck, with a cast (Cleese, Palin, Kline, Curtis) working at the very top of their game.

But Broader and more slapstick than Monicelli's film, with a cruel streak the Italian original never has.

A Fish Called Wanda poster

The Ladykillers1955

Ealing's own gang of hopeless crooks, undone by an elderly landlady rather than a locked safe — gentle, wicked, and just as fond of its useless criminals as Big Deal is.

But Very English and very dry; the humour is understatement rather than the Italian film's warmth and noise.

The Ladykillers poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Full Monty1997

Same engine — broke men, one absurd scheme, dignity at stake more than money — dressed as British kitchen-sink comedy instead of Italian crime farce.

Unemployed steelworkers plan a scheme they're wildly unqualified for, driven by the same mix of desperation, pride, and male camaraderie that powers Peppe's crew — laughs built on real hardship.

But The 'crime' here is a strip show, not a safe; if you came for a caper mechanic, this swaps it out entirely.

The Full Monty poster
More like this (8)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels1998

Guy Ritchie's breakout — small-time crooks, a plan that spirals wildly beyond their control, and the same pleasure in watching amateurs get in over their heads.

But Much more violent and testosterone-fuelled, with a jittery editing style a world away from Monicelli's patient camera.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels poster

Snatch2000

More sprawling chaos from the same corner of British crime comedy, if the tangled plotting and cast of criminal fools in Lock, Stock appealed to you.

But Even more frantic and less character-driven; the crooks here are punchlines first, people second.

Snatch poster

The Italian Job1969

A cheerfully patriotic British heist comedy with a plan just as fragile as Peppe's, and a similar delight in watching confident men undone by their own cleverness.

But Glossier and more swaggering, with none of Big Deal's poverty or melancholy underneath the jokes.

The Italian Job poster

Small Time Crooks2000no page yet

Woody Allen's own tunnel-digging heist comedy, with a crew every bit as clueless as Monicelli's, played for the same mix of farce and quiet sympathy for people who never had a real shot.

But Allen's rhythms and neuroses are very particular; this will feel more like a sitcom than a caper film.

Bottle Rocket1996no page yet

Wes Anderson's debut, about friends who plan crimes far beyond their competence — deadpan, affectionate, and interested in failure as a form of loyalty.

But Much quieter and more mumbly than Big Deal; the comedy is awkward silences rather than big ensemble set pieces.

Palookaville1996no page yet

An unassuming American indie about three unemployed friends whose robbery plan is even more halfhearted than Peppe's — small, sweet, and easy to love.

But Little-seen and low-key almost to a fault; nothing here has the visual flair or scale of the Italian original.

Grand Illusion1937

The literal tunnel-digging plan, and the same instinct to find comedy and fellowship among men who have nothing but each other and a bad idea — two decades earlier, in an entirely different genre.

A WWI prison-camp drama built partly around men digging a tunnel to freedom, mixing gallows humour and class tension with real tenderness for its trapped, mismatched characters.

But It's a war film first, humane rather than comic, and asks patience that Big Deal's briskness never does.

Grand Illusion poster

La Casa de Papel2017

Same basic shape — a assembled crew, one audacious score, everything threatening to unravel — blown up to serialised, big-budget, international-hit scale.

A modern, hugely popular Spanish series about a crew of specialists attempting one enormous, meticulously planned job — the glossy, high-stakes, red-jumpsuited descendant of Peppe's rag-tag operation.

But Multiple seasons of soap-opera plotting and stylised spectacle are the opposite of Big Deal's scrappy, one-night simplicity.

La Casa de Papel poster

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Recommended by

Rififi, The Sopranos, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Lavender Hill Mob, Logan Lucky, A Fish Called Wanda, The Ladykillers, Hustle