The Italian Job, Mini stars

Again, this one's not necessarily a car film per se, but cars are so central to its premise that it may as well be. In fact, if it wasn't such a classic it would be easy to pass it off as a feature length Mini advert, ditto the 2003 remake with the new MINI, which surprised plenty of moviegoers by not being absolutely diabolical. The 1969 comedy caper about stealing gold from Turin is something of a British institution now, and the perfect bringing together of car and film. However, its synonymity with the original Mini means its easy to forget the handful of much more exotic metal on display - no more so than the Lamborghini Miura P400 in the opening sequence, a few Aston Martin DB4 convertibles and Jaguar E-Types, and Police in Alfa Romeo Guilas.

Still, the Mk 1 Mini Cooper S is the star, racing through the film's alpine settings and Turin streets with a turn of pace simply not possible in the more exotic metal. It's hard to believe, then, that British car maker BMC was reluctant to give the film makers any cars for use in the film, only handing over a small fleet of Minis and forcing the production company to buy the remainder itself. They call that classic British marketing; compare it to Fiat, who offered the film maker as many Fiats as it needed, including sports cars and a cash payment of $50,000. Thankfully, it was turned down.

It's estimated that each Mini had to carry around 1.5 times its weight in gold for the heist, based on the value of gold at the time, the amount of gold stolen and the number of Minis. A Mini weighed around 630kg, but would have been required to carry just over 1,000kg in gold. That anomaly is corrected in the 2003 remake, in which the fleet of new MINIs are equipped with heavily revised suspension to cope with the extra burden of gold.

And the film's distributor, Paramount, may as well have been stealing gold too, because the Italian Job grossed $175,826,012 and continues to generate cash today thanks to steady DVD sales.

Mark Nichol