{ "id": "epk7sqpb0p", "slug": "big-deal-on-madonna-street", "title": "Big Deal on Madonna Street", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1950s-films", "label": "1950s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1950s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti) is Mario Monicelli's 1958 Italian heist comedy about bungling Roman burglars robbing a pawnshop; it founded commedia all'italiana, was Oscar-nominated, and spawned remakes and a Fosse musical.", "snippet": "Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti) is Mario Monicelli's 1958 Italian heist comedy about bungling Roman burglars robbing a pawnshop; it founded commedia all'italiana, was Oscar-nominated, and spawned remakes and a Fosse musical.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1950s-films", "markdown": "# Big Deal on Madonna Street\n\n**Big Deal on Madonna Street** (*I soliti ignoti*, literally \"The Usual Unknowns\") is a 1958 Italian heist comedy directed by Mario Monicelli, in which a band of small-time Roman burglars attempts, and botches, the robbery of a pawnshop. Produced by Franco Cristaldi through Vides in partnership with [Cinecittà](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinecitta) and Lux Film, it is generally treated as the founding film of *commedia all'italiana*, the Italian comedy of social satire that flourished from 1958 into the 1970s, and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street) • [2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) • [3](https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/i-soliti-ignoti-come-il-film-ha-cambiato-la-commedia-italiana/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / director | *I soliti ignoti*, directed by Mario Monicelli, Italy, 1958[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street) |\n| Production | Produced by Franco Cristaldi; Vides Cinematografica with Cinecittà and Lux Film[2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) |\n| Runtime and format | 106 minutes, black-and-white 35mm, 1.33:1[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street) |\n| Principal cast | Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Totò, Renato Salvatori, Memmo Carotenuto, Claudia Cardinale, Carlo Pisacane, Tiberio Murgia[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street) |\n| Key crew | Screenplay by Age & Scarpelli, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, and Monicelli; cinematography Gianni Di Venanzo; music Piero Umiliani; editing Adriana Novelli[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street) |\n| Recognition | Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film; Golden Sail at Locarno; Silver Seashell at San Sebastián[2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) • [4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/) |\n| Legacy | Considered the starting point of *commedia all'italiana*; remade in Italy twice and in the United States twice, and adapted as a Bob Fosse Broadway musical[3](https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/i-soliti-ignoti-come-il-film-ha-cambiato-la-commedia-italiana/) • [2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and style\n\nThe plot follows a group of feckless petty criminals in postwar Rome who plan a \"sensational\" heist: digging a tunnel from a rented apartment into the pawnshop (a branch of the Monte dei Pegni) next door to rob its safe.[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/) • [5](https://www.olivoegroppo.it/media/olivo-e-groppo-brochure-istituzionale%20.pdf) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/big-deal-on-madonna-street) The crew is assembled through a chain of petty misfortunes. Cosimo (Memmo Carotenuto), whose bungled car theft opens the film, passes the plan to his fellow prisoner Peppe ([Vittorio Gassman](https://www.edgepedia.org/vittorio-gassman)), a self-styled ladies' man and boxer; the others include Mario (Renato Salvatori), the photographer Tiberio ([Marcello Mastroianni](https://www.edgepedia.org/marcello-mastroianni)), who minds his baby while his wife finishes a jail sentence, the elderly Capannelle (Carlo Pisacane), the overprotective brother Ferribotte (Tiberio Murgia), and the safecracker Dante Cruciani (Totò), who rents out do-it-yourself burgling kits and dispenses advice but avoids involvement.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street) • [7](https://letterboxd.com/filmnotesnw/film/big-deal-on-madonna-street/) • [8](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/classic-film/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n\n**The comedy of ineptitude.** The film's joke is structural: it follows the procedural conventions of the professional heist film while its characters lack the professionalism to execute them. Monicelli described the film as a \"caricature\" and \"parody\" of [Jules Dassin](https://www.edgepedia.org/jules-dassin)'s *Rififi* (1955), the French heist film famous for its half-hour, wordless robbery sequence; the climax here is staged with comparable care and length, but replaces laconic professionalism with noisy ineptitude.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/) The opening plays the same game: a night-time urban scene scored to urgent jazz sets up 1950s noir expectations, then two toothless old lags appear and a simple car theft dissolves into a blaring alarm and a chase on foot against two policemen on bicycles.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/) Silent-movie-style intertitles advance the plot, adding to the air of mockery.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n\nThe film also works against the gravity of [Italian neorealism](https://www.edgepedia.org/italian-neorealism) (postwar Italian film style using real locations, ordinary people, social hardship). It was shot on location in Rome's outlying wastelands, abandoned Fascist building projects, and the husks of modernist reconstruction, sharing its settings with films by [Vittorio De Sica](https://www.edgepedia.org/vittorio-de-sica) and [Roberto Rossellini](https://www.edgepedia.org/roberto-rossellini), but Monicelli turns that milieu into a human-scale comedy in which his \"fallen\" protagonists remain incorrigible and buoyant.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/) Gianni Di Venanzo's cinematography keeps interiors flat and underexposed, and Piero Umiliani's jazz score underscores timing rather than mood; dialogue was post-synchronized, partly because several cast members were non-professionals or spoke the wrong dialect.[10](https://film.briefs.cloud/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n\n## Production and release\n\nThe film had what Monicelli's collaborators described as a complicated genesis; one of [Luchino Visconti](https://www.edgepedia.org/luchino-visconti)'s unused sets, left over from *White Nights*, which Cristaldi also produced, became the starting point for the film's conception.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/) It opened in Italian cinemas in the summer of 1958, with sources giving 30 June[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/) and 26 July[3](https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/i-soliti-ignoti-come-il-film-ha-cambiato-la-commedia-italiana/) as the release date. Initial attention was modest; the film was noticed at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Golden Sail, and at [San Sebastián](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-sebastian), where it received the Silver Seashell, and a national re-release in October 1958 brought large success.[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/)\n\n**English-language titles.** The English title went through at least three attempts. The film opened in the United Kingdom as *Persons Unknown* and in the United States as *The Big Deal* in 1960, before distributors settled on *Big Deal on Madonna Street*.[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/) The American release, handled by Richard Davis's UMPO from November 1960 and later by Janus Film, adopted the title in homage to the Roman street where the story takes place, and marketed the film as an Italian parody of *Rififi*.[2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) At a New York screening, the distributor ran the first reel both subtitled and dubbed, put the choice to a vote, and released the film subtitled after an overwhelming vote for subtitles.[11](https://letterboxd.com/stanleykauffman/film/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film is credited with launching *commedia all'italiana*, the satirical comedy of manners that held up a mirror to the vices and virtues of the average Italian between the postwar years and the economic boom; its golden period is usually dated from 1958 to 1974.[3](https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/i-soliti-ignoti-come-il-film-ha-cambiato-la-commedia-italiana/) Its social setting is the Italy of the late 1950s, when national income doubled between 1952 and 1962, agricultural employment fell from 42 to 29 percent, and television advertising from 1957 encouraged a cult of consumerism; the film shows how those left behind by the boom turn to crime to keep up.[12](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00472441231172055)\n\n**Remakes and sequels.** In Italy the film was reworked twice, as *Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti* (Nanni Loy, 1959) and *I soliti ignoti vent'anni dopo* (Amanzio Todini, 1985), the latter reuniting Mastroianni and Gassman with surviving cast members.[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/) • [13](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1763deal.html) American remakes include [Louis Malle](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-malle)'s *Crackers* (dated 1984 in one account[2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) and 1982 in another[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/)) and *Welcome to Collinwood* by Anthony and Joe Russo (2002).[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/) [Bob Fosse](https://www.edgepedia.org/bob-fosse)'s Broadway musical *Big Deal* (1986), a Tony Award winner, was also based on it, and the film influenced later American crime comedies such as [Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson)'s *Bottle Rocket* (1996) and Woody Allen's *Small Time Crooks* (2000).[2](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/) • [4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/) The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD as spine number 113, with an essay by Bruce Eder describing it as a satire that helped kill off one movie genre while starting a new subgenre.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Big Deal on Madonna Street, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/652-big-deal-on-madonna-street)\n2. [I soliti ignoti, Transatlantic Transfers (Politecnico di Milano)](https://transatlantictransfers.polimi.it/it/atlas/542/i-soliti-ignoti/)\n3. [I soliti ignoti: come il film ha cambiato la commedia italiana, Cinematographe.it](https://www.cinematographe.it/rubriche-cinema/focus/i-soliti-ignoti-come-il-film-ha-cambiato-la-commedia-italiana/)\n4. [I soliti ignoti, Senses of Cinema (MIFF dossier, 2014)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2014/2014-melbourne-international-film-festival-dossier/i-soliti-ignoti/)\n5. [Olivo e Groppo institutional brochure on I soliti ignoti](https://www.olivoegroppo.it/media/olivo-e-groppo-brochure-istituzionale%20.pdf)\n6. [Big Deal on Madonna Street streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/big-deal-on-madonna-street)\n7. [Review by Wes Edwards, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/filmnotesnw/film/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n8. [Big Deal on Madonna Street, Video Librarian](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/classic-film/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n9. [Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti, Mario Monicelli, 1958), Senses of Cinema (CTEQ annotation, 2017)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/cteq/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n10. [Big Deal on Madonna Street, film.briefs](https://film.briefs.cloud/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n11. [Review by Not Stanley Kauffmann, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/stanleykauffman/film/big-deal-on-madonna-street/)\n12. [European movements for confluent love, Journal of European Studies](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00472441231172055)\n13. [Big Deal on Madonna Street 20 Years Later, DVD Savant (DVD Talk)](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1763deal.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1950s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Big Deal on Madonna Street\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Big Deal on Madonna Street](https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street](https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Big Deal on Madonna Street\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/big-deal-on-madonna-street. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Big Deal on Madonna Street is Mario Monicelli's 1958 Italian heist comedy about bungling Roman burglars robbing a pawnshop; it founded commedia all'italiana, was Oscar-nominated, and spawned remakes and a Fosse musical." }