1. Charlie Croker - The Italian Job (1969)
Consistently voted as one of the best British films ever made and one of Caine's greatest films, we have a lot to thank The Italian Job for, not least for giving us Caine's brilliant performance. The film not only has some of the most fondly remembered action scenes (the Mini Coopers escaping through the streets of Italy is what usually comes to mind) and a literal cliffhanger ending, it also features Caine's Charlie Croker. Recently released, career criminal Croker attempts to grant the wishes of his deceased friend Roger Beckermann, and pull off a heist worth four million dollars by stealing Chinese gold in Italy. As you watch Croker progressively builds up his band of misfits and devises his foolproof plan to lift the gold from under the nose of the Italian authorities, you'll suddenly realise that you're rooting for the criminals due in large part to Caine's magnetism and the extremely likeable persona that he displays as Croker. The 'band of brothers', closely-knit relationship between Caine and his fellow thieves is a theme that's been replicated many times since The Italian Job, and the more recent Fast & Furious films have undoubtedly been influenced a great deal by the film. Caine's suave, jack the lad and subtly humorous performance as Croker is one not to miss, and if you're part of the younger generation around, The Italian Job is most certainly worth a watch, if only so you can see Caine before he became the loveable Alfred in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Unfortunately though, even some of the world's greatest actors can make mistakes...