AUSTIN MINI COOPER 'S'

If the Mini defined the '60s, then The Italian Job defined the Mini.

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Three Cooper 'S' Minis laden with gold bars are chased through the jammed streets of Turin and leap from the top of the old Fiat factory, through a sewer and across the River Po, pursued by Alfa Romeo Giulia Super police cars. Coming long before the advent of CGI, which has made audiences blasé about the most improbable stunts, it was all real. Maybe it is the best car-chase movie of all.

With any other cars except Minis, the film could not have worked. They were narrow enough to squeeze into tiny gaps during the various stunts - such as through a pavement restaurant, down a grand staircase, and up ramps into a moving bus - and their agility and sharp handling were crucial.

When the movie went on general release in 1969 it was not a great success in British cinemas, and in the USA it bombed. American audiences found the little cars ridiculous, and failed to get the very British humour that runs throughout. An inferior remake (with BMW MINIs) in 2003 did worse, and a planned sequel called The Brazilian Job never surfaced.

But to mark its 30th anniversary