Big Deal on Madonna Street
Big Deal on Madonna Street (; released as Persons Unknown in the UK) is a 1958 Italian comedy caper film directed by Mario Monicelli. Regarded as one of the masterpieces of Italian cinema, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Plot
A hapless small-time Roman crook, Cosimo, is arrested for a bungled car theft and sentenced to a few months in prison. He harangues his girlfriend and lawyer to get him released so he can carry out a heist idea stolen from another inmate, a dishonest bricklayer who purposely constructed a flimsy wall between a pawn shop safe and an adjacent vacant apartment. Ultimately, Cosimo's gang bribes Peppe, a boxer with a clean criminal record, to confess, but the warden does not believe Peppe, and he ends up in jail alongside Cosimo. Peppe tells Cosimo that he has been sentenced to three long years for Cosimo's offense. To justify his actions, Cosimo, explains the details of the pawn shop heist to Peppe. Peppe then gleefully reveals that he was only given a year's probation and walks out of the prison gate, infuriating Cosimo.
More details
| author | Age & Scarpelli Agenore Incrocci Furio Scarpelli Mario Monicelli Renato Salvatori Suso Cecchi d'Amico |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Italy |
| director | Mario Monicelli |
| editor | Adriana Novelli |
| genre | comedy crime |
| keywords | arrest break car theft criminal record embarrass flea market kill morning movie camera newspaper article one by one shelter steal |
| musicBy | Piero Umiliani |
| nomination | Academy Award for Best International Feature Film International Submission to the Academy Awards |
| producer | Franco Cristaldi |
| publisher | Lux Film |
| recordedAt | Rome |
| theme | crime comedy heist |