The Italian job Behind The Stunts

Putting the most talented stunt driving team and one of the lightest, best handling cars together was always going to result in something spectacular, but what Remy and his team did with the Mini Coopers in The Italian Job was above and beyond what anyone expected.

Remy got on incredibly well with the production team and everyone liked him. Director Peter Collinson and Producer Michael Deeley respected Remy totally and together the three of them devised the Mini Cooper chase scene together with Douglas Slocombe, Director of Photography. The decision was made that Remy would be in total charge of the stunt driving. Remy would often put forward inspired ideas that the production team initially had thought impossible and eventually Remy Julienne L'Equipe had doubled the amount of stunts that they were initially contracted to do.

Remy and his team proved addictive to watch; even when most of the acting cast weren't needed they would all turn up on location to watch the Coopers do their thing. Let‟s not forget that the action was two-fold on this production. Remy was responsible for all the vehicular action and British stuntman Derek Ware, who also plays Rozzer in the film, was responsible for all the other action.

So let‟s breakdown the action, starting with Camp Freddie and two heavies arriving at Charlie‟s London apartment to discover a domestic dispute going on.

Nearest to us, in the shot on the left, is legendary British stuntman Nosher Powell, who was regularly cast as a heavy in many British films and television shows at that time. He is also the father of two leading British stunt co-ordinators and second unit directors Greg Powell and Gary Powell. Both responsible for the action of many high profile blockbusters including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and James Bond.

The training sessions shown for the Mini drivers were at the Crystal Palace race track in Sydenham, South London. Here we see the red mini cooper being put through its paces.

A car roll at 40mph. A mini being such a small stocky vehicle makes the ferocity of this roll looks far worse than that of a standard 4 door saloon. You must also note the safety measures put in place for a stunt like this. Nowadays the driver would be wearing fire retardant clothing a five point racing harness, a neck support to prevent spinal damage during the stunt and the car would be fitted with a full roll cage to prevent the vehicle crushing the driver inside. As we can see from the final shot the car is fitted with a roll cage, but little else is there to give the driver peace of mind. I‟m surprised we don‟t see

rosary beads hanging from the rear view mirror! Still that was what made Remy Julienne such a legend in the vehicle stunt business. His very real approach to the thrill of a stunt.

So let‟s crack on with the robbery which was the responsibility of Derek Ware. Derek had worked with director Peter Collinson on his previous picture ‘Long Days Dying’ where all the roles, except the four lead characters, were played by stuntmen. Derek had set up the stunt agency HAVOC in 1960 and had a decent body of work including television series Dr Who and Adam Adamant already under his belt.

Derek, seen here on the left of shot, was asked by Collinson to undertake the robbery sequence and make it as real as possible. In the late sixties the weapon of choice for the armed robber was the pick axe handle and this was to be used by the team in the film.

Interesting to note that not a single shot is fired during the sequence.

The HAVOC stunt team were normally made up of the same six performers. Derek Ware, Terry Walsh, Val Musetti (seen here riding a motorcycle nearest the camera), Marc Boyle, Roy Scammell and Alan Chuntz. Some line-up changes happened due to work commitments, but this was considered to be the usual team. Next to Val is Roland Toutain one of Remy Julienne‟s trusted team.

Here we see John Morris who was Michael Caine‟s double for many years. Starting with his early outings through to the mid-seventies. Michael Caine‟s biography describes Morris.

"Caine's 'own man' had in fact been with Michael since the Ipcress File days, as stand-in, stunt-double, adviser, bodyguard, fixer and general sorter-out of problems”.

John Morris starts a chain of events that lead to the robbery by driving the car transporter across the road blocking off the authorities.

The battle with the authorities swings into action and so do the stunt teams.

This is actor Michael Standing, who plays Arthur, hitting a policeman over the head with a pick axe handle. Now we must clear a few things up here. The policeman is an actor not a stuntman and Michael Standing has been given instruction from Derek Ware about how to swing and make it look realistic. However the idea was to bring the pick axe handle down on the edge of the car roof allowing the actor playing the policeman to react. What actually happened is clear to see. He swings the pick axe like his life depended on it and cracks the „copper‟ right on the top of his head snapping the pick axe handle. A chunk can be seen flying off in the last shot.

Now the motorcyclists arrive to spice things up. Roland Toutain seen here being kicked from his bike via Michael Standings right boot and with the added assistance of the driver‟s door. Val Musetti now gets similar treatment and ends up on the floor.

Stuntman Marc Boyle is blown from the top of the Land Rover with water cannon. Just as he is about to take off his foot slips due to the water and as he lands he foot misses the landing area resulting in a broken toe. Peter Collinson wasn‟t very happy about this and suggested more padding should have been put down for the stuntman, but all that water would have made a box rig very dangerous indeed.

Derek Ware‟s most difficult job on the movie. Smashing the windscreen on the police car with a pick axe handle. On take 14 someone suggested a nail in the end of the handle and sure enough take 15 was the winner. Now once the van has been secured you have to get the gold out. This is done by dropping a small charge into the van from the roof allowing the „bloody doors’ to be blown off.

Here we see Derek climbing onto the roof, dropping the charge inside and jumping clear.

Not a big jump, but certainly one you would like a soft landing for. The positioning is crucial. The pillar on the left of shot hides the landing area. A few mats painted or covered to look like the floor, but enough to give him some cushioning.

Derek Ware now returns to playing Rozzer and the action cap is now worn by Remy Julienne and his driving team. Remy managed to turn the cars into characters, each with their own grace and style. Giving a car a personality back in the sixties was left up to Walt Disney and Herbie, but somehow Julienne pulls it off.

Stuntman Frank Valverde slides his motorcycle along on the freshly mopped floor. The front wheel sliding away first makes for an uncomfortable impact.

Peter Collinson loved the way the „coopers‟ tackled steps and this underpass was an ideal location for this getaway. He wanted something else to set the scene off and suggested to Derek Ware that someone should be in the underpass, at the bottom of the stairs, when the cars come into shot. Marc Boyle was called to sit and watch the three cars fly by, but Collinson was right take Marc out of the shot and it could have been a carefully scripted studio set up, but add Marc in the shot and it has a sense of added danger. Him trying to keep clear of these motor maniacs so he can go on and enjoy his bottle of beer.

Legendary French motorcyclist Alain Prieur performs this crash through what can only be described as a cardboard wall, but still you can‟t have huge sums of cash to fritter away on building walls only for the stuntman to crash through it now can you?

The wedding sequence on the steps of the Gran di Dio Church was a tricky one to set up. It appears to be a pretty straight forward bit of stunt driving, but because the Coopers had to negotiate the steps at an angle, a fairly high speed needed be maintained as Remy feared that they would roll over if the speed dropped too low. Because of this speed, the wedding party had to be perfectly placed to avoid any accidents - especially as the Coopers couldn't simply perform an emergency stop. Each time the take was done the Mini's were suffering damage to the sills, so it needed to be in the can within a few takes.

The dome roof sequence was filmed on the top of Mostre in the Italia 61 Exhibition Park, central Turin. The slope that they drove up was specially constructed for the scene, although some of the crew had questioned the strength of the roof, it was a full success.

The infamous roof top jump was filmed at the Turin factory and should be regarded as one of the finest car stunts ever captured on celluloid, but due to time and positioning it just failed to satisfy. Remy and his team had practiced for weeks on achieving the distance of 60ft doing a series of ramp to ramp jumps. Satisfied that the jump could be completed successfully Remy and his team of drivers went ahead and completed the 60ft jump at

70mph. The only problem is that such an awesome leap should have been given the best of camera angles. Nowadays a big car stunt like this would have had 4 or 5 cameras running at the same time covering as many angles as possible. This stunt had 2 camera angles and both were on the roof. Ideally this should have been filmed from above. This would have shown the size of the gap that was to be jumped and the height of the jump. Down below tables and chairs had been erected making it look like the street below. It‟s a great mystery as to why Peter Collinson didn‟t choose to shoot the scene from above. Director of Photography Douglas Slocombe also suggested the scene should have been done in slow motion…and I‟m inclined to agree with him.

A few final pieces of action to clear up before we bring this caper to a close. The minis are now entering the last past of their journey back to the coach, but they‟re still being chased by the police. Driving across the weir was only a brief shot, but is incredibly complex to prepare for. The stretch of weir needed to be dredged and all sharp or oversized objects removed. Then sections of rubber track needed to be attached to the river bed allowing the cars some traction otherwise they‟d slip and slide into the deep water. Each car following their own path until they arrive at the bridge to drive single file over the top.

The police on the other hand weren‟t as successful as you can see in these shots from the bridge.

Into the tunnels we go from sunny Italy to a somewhat overcast Coventry where the sewer sequence was shot. 2nd Unit Director Phil Wrestler filmed the sequence in a new stretch of sewer. Remy Juliennes idea was to get the red mini to perform a full 360 degree roll and land back on its wheels, but the speed had to be just right and on two previous attempts the car had just flipped onto its roof. So the sequence in the film is made up of all of the takes.

Exiting the tunnel is as simple, but once again not if you are an officer of the law.

Depending on which website you read and which part of the world you‟re in does depend on who the man is seen bringing down the gate at the end of the tunnel. I‟d like to think its Peter Collinson who always had a dangerous edge to him. Some say it was one of the special effects crew, but whatever you believe the police car wasn‟t driven by any stunt drivers. Just some dummy!

According to Remy Julienne getting the wheels in line wasn‟t the biggest problem with this stunt; trying to ensure the cars stopped once inside the coach was the trick that needed to be mastered. This coupled with the fact that as the coach filled with each car, the physical distance that remained from the ramps to the back of the preceding car became ever smaller. This meant that the driver of the blue mini had the least amount of distance to brake and come to a stop without coming into contact with the white one. At the end of the coach directing them in was the film‟s director Peter Collinson. Dressed in a blue boiler suit he stood where nobody else would. Producer Michael Deely was un-amused to say the least, but it stands as a great example to other directors. If you want something done…do it yourself.

All aboard and the coach full of three minis and 4 million dollars‟ worth of gold. Doubling for Michael Caine is John Morris seen here in these last few shots.

So the Italian Job finally comes to a close with the ultimate in cliff hanger endings. Many noble men have put pen to paper and come up with many alternative ways of obtaining the gold. Three men get out of the coach then balancing up the gold etc. etc. So we all know how it ends, but I'll leave you with possibly my favourite line…

I‟d also like to express my thanks to www.theitalianjob.com for their excellent website and to Matthew Field for his wonderful work on the Anniversary DVD for The Italian Job This look at the action is dedicated, as always, to the stunt professionals who give so much to the film industry.

“Self-Preservation”?