Le Mans/The Italian Job (DVD)

Double bill of car-themed classics. Steve McQueen stars in 'Le Mans' (1971) as a racing driver who forces himself to return to the scene of a previous accident. Having been seriously injured in the Le Mans race the previous year, Michael Delaney (McQueen) starts a tentative relationship with the widow of another driver killed in that same accident, while forcing himself to compete one last time. McQueen performed all of his own driving on the genuine Le Mans course in France and recruited a further 45 international racing drivers for the film. In 'The Italian Job' (1969), newly released from jail petty criminal Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) inherits a carefully planned $4,000,000 gold robbery in Italy. With the original mastermind of the plan murdered, Croker needs financial backing and finds it in Mr Bridger (Noel Coward in his last screen role), a quintessential English crime boss still incarcerated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. Bridger supplies Charlie with his own gang of bank robbers, getaway drivers and computer whizz-kids, and helps him plan the heist (during the practice runs Caine utters the infamous phrase 'you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off'), which results in the world's biggest traffic jam. The gang's getaway in red, white and blue minis is accompanied by the tune 'Getta Bloomin Move On' (aka 'Self Preservation Society') written by Quincy Jones and George Martin.