Colpo grosso alla napoletana

A nice trip to Italy and a good paycheck is what probably got Robert Wagner, Raquel Welch and Edward G. Robinson over from America to make The Biggest Bundle Of Them All. Not to mention Godfrey Cambridgr who has a few funny moments in this routine caper film.

All, but Robert Wagner have no criminal activity to their credit. Wagner has recruited Welch, Cambridge, Davy Kaye and Francesco Mule to kidnap deported old Mafia don Vittorio DeSica to hold for ransom. Problem is that he's so long out of the criminal business no one figures DeSica is worth paying for.

DeSica feeling rejected and unwanted decides to get back in action and this mob of misfits is whom he recruits. He also gets Edward G. Robinson who is a Sam Jaffe like caper planner. Robinson and DeSica decide to rob a train carrying platinum bars.

Somehow this crew with a lot of problems makes it come off. Pretty routine. But the ending with a variation is borrowed from Ocean's 11.

Raquel Welch does look great in a bikini.

I agree with moonspinner55's review.

It's painful to watch Wagner play a simple pain-in-the-ass, or Cambridge play a bumbler with no good scenes.

Welch is very pretty, but like everyone else here, her one dimensional character adds nothing.

Nobody here has an interesting character, nor is there any humor evident in the first 50 minutes (after which I stopped).

I enjoy wacky caper comedies, but though this movie tries to be one, it never comes close.

If you spend two hours on this, you're spending more time on it than the writers did.

Robert Wagner (with girlfriend Raquel Welch in tow), Godfrey Cambridge, Davy Kaye, and Francesco Mulè kidnap retired gangster Vittorio di Sica and try to ransom him. He's broke. When he can't raise the ransom money, he takes them into partnership to steal $5,000,000 in platinum with a plan by mastermind Edward G. Robinson.

It's one of those sprawling 1960s comedies, this one directed by Ken Annakin, populated by serious actors. Unfortunately, it's not in the least funny. Di Sica shows no sparkle, Wagner is in over his depth, and Miss Welch, who would show great comedy chops in THE THREE MUSKETEERS, is present for eye candy, and she certainly performs in a bikini. The big heist is well done, but that makes this no less a slog.

This sort of movie could work; IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD was carried on the backs of its all-star comic performers, and WHO'S MINDING THE MINT likewise. This one, however, brought no smile to my face.

"The Biggest Bundle of Them All" is a caper film that would have worked much better had the story either been funnier or a serious story. As it is, this hybrid story left me very cold.

When the story begins, a gang of misfits kidnaps a famous mobster (Vittorio De Sica). But they soon learn the man has little money and instead of just releasing him, the kidnap victim gets them to agree to make him the boss and pull a really big heist...$5,000,000! But unfortunately, the gang turn out to be complete idiots...too much so.

The story seemed incomplete. I have no idea why Raquel Welch was there other than to be nice eye candy. I have no idea why several of the gang members were afraid of guns and violence. And, I have no idea why De Sica and Edward G. Robinson would agree to be in a film with such a weak script. Overall, dull and difficult to believe.

Not a truly funny movie, but it is amusing. Watching Robert Wagner acting tough is very amusing. Of course there is Raquel in all her splendor. Watching her go-go with Edward G. Robinson (!) is worth the price of admission alone. The supporting characters do the best they can with the cartoon characters they are given to enact. And you get to watch Godfrey Cambridge play the violin!