''The Biggest Bundle of Them All'' is a 1968 American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

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

An Italian gangster, Cesare Celli, formerly active in Chicago but now retired in his homeland of Italy, is kidnapped by Harry Price and his gang. Much to everyone's disappointment, none of Cesare's friends or associates is willing to pay a ransom to get him back. His professional pride offended by this development, Cesare offers to assist Harry and girlfriend Juliana in pulling off a daring heist that could net them $5 million. Cesare even brings in criminal mastermind Professor Samuels to run the operation. A

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

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

Cast

* Robert Wagner as Harry * Raquel Welch as Juliana * Godfrey Cambridge as Benny *

Davy Kaye Davy Kaye MBE (born David Kodeish, 25 March 1916 – 3 February 1998) was a British comedy actor and entertainer. Early life Born in Mile End Road in the East End of London to Jewish parents Koppel and Dora Kodeish, Kaye was so small at birth ...

as Davey * Francesco Mulé as Antonio Tozzi * Vittorio De Sica as Cesare Celli *

Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...

as Professor Samuels * Victor Spinetti as Captain Giglio * Yvonne Sanson as Teresa * Mickey Knox as Joe Ware * Femi Benussi as Uncle Carlo's Wife * Paola Borboni as Miss Rosa * Aldo Bufi Landi as Captain Del Signore *

Carlo Croccolo Carlo Croccolo (9 April 1927 – 12 October 2019) was an Italian actor, voice actor, director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Naples, Croccolo began his acting career on the radio and he appeared in more than 100 films since 1949. His debut ...

as Franco * Roberto De Simone as Uncle Carlo * Piero Gerlini as Captain Capuano * Giulio Marchetti as Lt. Naldi * Andrea Aureli as Carabiniere * Ermelinda De Felice as Emma *

Milena Vukotic Milena Vukotic (, ; born 23 April 1935) is an Italian former ballerina and a stage, television, and film actress. Biography Vukotic was born in Rome, to a Serb Montenegrin comedy playwright father and an Italian pianist/composer mother. A ...

as Angelina Pedrone * Carlo Rizzo as Maitre d'Hotel *

Nino Vingelli Nino Vingelli (4 June 1912 – 26 March 2003) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1941 and 2000. Selected filmography * ''I mariti (Tempesta d'anime)'' (1941) * '' The Betrothed'' (1941) - (uncredited) * '' ...

as Restaurant Manager

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). Filming began in April 1966. Female lead Raquel Welch had just made ''Fantastic Voyage'' and ''One Million Years BC'', but the latter had not been released. She signed to make ''Fathom'' while shooting ''Biggest Bundle''. "I didn't get to know Raquel Welch too well - we didn't have too many scenes together," said

. "I must say she has quite a body. She has been the product of a good publicity campaign. I hope she lives up to it because a body will only take you so far." Male lead Robert Wagner was under contract to Universal who loaned him out to make the film. 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. Annakin later recalled that Welch "tended to wing her lines a little bit and would keep us waiting, and I wasn't going to stand for any of this, so we had a big showdown quite early in the picture. I just said to her: `Unless you know your lines and come on time when you're called, I'm going to make sure I use you for the absolute minimum of time. I shan't do any closeups. I shall just do medium and long shots of you.' And, of course, being the woman she was, she was very co-operative after that!"Eighty-nine-year-old British filmmaker Ken Annakin is delighted; Portman, Jamie. CanWest News 23 Mar 2004: 1.

Soundtrack

The opening song, "Most of All There's You", sung by Johnny Mathis was written by Riz Ortolani with lyrics by Norman Newell. The title song,"The Biggest Bundle of Them All" was sung by the popular award winning British musical group - The Animals; it was co-written by Ritchie Cordell and Sal Trimachi. Notably, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer previously produced and released several motion pictures The Animals had appeared in prior to 1968.

References

External links