The Biggest Bundle of Them All

The Biggest Bundle of Them All

Directed by Ken Annakin
Produced by Josef Shaftel
Sy Stewart
Written by Sy Salkowitz
Starring Robert Wagner
Raquel Welch
Godfrey Cambridge
Davy Kaye
Francesco Mulé
Vittorio De Sica
Femi Benussi
Music by Riz Ortolani
Cinematography Piero Portalupi
Edited by Ralph Sheldon
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • January 17, 1968 (1968-01-17)
Running time
 105 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Biggest Bundle of Them All is a 1968 American crime film set in Naples, Italy. The story is about a mobster and a novice gang of crooks who team up to steal $5 million worth of platinum ingots from a train. The film stars Robert Wagner and Raquel Welch and was directed by Ken Annakin.

Plot

American gangster Cesare Celli, hiding out in Italy, is kidnapped by Harry Price and his gang. Much to everyone's surprise, none of Cesare's friends or associates is willing to pay a ransom to get him back.

Unhappy with this development, Cesare offers to assist Harry and girlfriend Juliana in pulling off a daring robbery that could net them $5 million. Cesare even brings in criminal mastermind Professor Samuels to run the operation.

A jet bomber is hijacked to be used to transport the platinum ingots after the theft. Harry and the gang overcome many obstacles and the robbery is a great success, at least until the jet's bomb doors open unexpectedly and the loot falls out.

Cast

Production

Director Ken Annakin recalled that ten days into pre-production of the film, then titled The Italian Caper, a story reader from MGM discovered an old script in their archives that had the same story as the film, and that script was currently being filmed as The Happening by producer Sam Spiegel for Columbia Pictures. Producer Josef Shaftel met Spiegel with the result that he had to give up his 15% share of the profits, Spiegel had the power to approve every page of the shooting script, and the film, retitled The Biggest Bundle of Them All would not be released until six months after The Happening (which had a delayed release).[1]

The interior scenes were filmed at the Cinecittà studios in Rome. The movie was released in France as "La Bande à César". The B-17 airplane used was B-17G-85VE 44-8846 and actual World War II combat veteran aircraft. Currently being flown by the Amicale Jean-Baptiste Salis Museum.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ p. 19i Annakin, Ken so You Wanna Be a Director? Tomahawk Press 2001
  2. ↑ B-17 44-8846 History

External links


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