The Usual Suspects, directed by Mario Monicelli
On Saturday, August 31, 2024, a classic of Italian comedy from 1958, directed by the great Mario Monicelli, will be broadcast on the afternoon of Rai 3, at 3 PM: The Usual Suspects. The film features a stellar cast that includes Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Totò and Claudia Cardinale and is considered one of the masterpieces of Italian cinema.
The soundtrack, composed by Piero Umiliani, adds a distinctive touch to the film, with jazz themes becoming an integral part of the narrative. One of the pieces present in this film, Dusk on the Sea, is featured in the film Ocean’s Twelve. Monicelli, a master of Italian comedy, skillfully directs a film that artfully mixes humor, drama, and social criticism.
The plot of the film The Usual Suspects: a heist at the Monte di Pietà
In The Usual Suspects, we are in Rome, where two clumsy neighborhood thieves Cosimo and the old Bolognese, nicknamed Capannelle, are attempting to steal a car: they are completely incompetent and every time they get arrested. Cosimo goes to prison while Capannelle manages to escape.
While in Regina Coeli, Cosimo gathers information to carry out a sensational heist at the Monte di Pietà. He meets Capannelle and invites him to quickly find the so-called “sheep,” meaning someone with a clean record who will take the blame for the attempted theft instead of him.
Capannelle, with the help of other shady characters who are supposed to be part of the planned heist, finds one in a very poor boxer known as Peppe “Er pantera”. He is convinced to play his role with the promise of being rewarded with a handsome sum. However, the ruse doesn’t work; the commissioner is not fooled and decides to lock up Peppe without letting Cosimo out.
In prison, Peppe manages to get important information about the planned heist, and after he is released, he becomes the mastermind of the robbery himself. Alongside him will be Capannelle, Mario, Tiberio, and Michele. Together they will seek out a “great expert” in bank heists, Dante Cruciani, to get useful advice on how to open the vault in question.
Dante will also provide them with a series of tools that should be useful both for entering the Monte di Pietà and for opening the vault itself. Due to a series of adventurous mishaps and the incompetence of the five thieves, the heist will never succeed…