Peter Collinson · 1969 · road

Peter Collinson's 1969 caper. Charlie Croker comes out of prison with a plan inherited from a dead friend: jam Turin's traffic control computer, take four million dollars in gold from an armoured van in the resulting chaos, and drive it out of Italy in three Minis. The getaway runs through arcades, weirs and rooftops, and ends on a cliff road in the Alps.

1. 1
   London

   Fresh out of prison, Charlie Croker inherits a plan for a gold robbery in Turin, and assembles the money, the men and the Minis in a London that the film treats as a sort of national character sketch with a cockney accent.

2. 2
   Dover

   The team crosses to the Continent by way of Dover, coaches and cars and all - the whole operation moving to Italy on the assumption that a British crew can be funnier and better organised than anybody expects.

3. 3
   The Great St Bernard Pass

   The route into Italy runs over the Alps by the Great St Bernard, where the Lamborghini's fate at the hands of the Mafia establishes early that the local opposition is not going to be reasonable about any of this.

4. 4
   Turin

   In Turin the traffic system is deliberately jammed and the gold is lifted from the armoured van, and the three Minis take it out through the shopping arcades, the sewers, a weir, and finally across the roof of the Fiat factory.

5. 5
   Ceresole Reale

   The coach carrying the gold takes a bend too fast on a mountain road above Ceresole and ends up hanging over the drop, gold at one end and crew at the other - and Croker announcing that he has a great idea.