THE BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL, a 1968 heist comedy, tried to hijack audiences with the front & center casting of Raquel Welch, but despite a proven director (Ken Annakin), bright French & Italian locations, and a few venerable cast members giving their all, it didn’t deliver a bundle but dropped one, the $1,100,000 gross against a cost of $2,000,000. It bears some resemblance to The Happening, a dud released the year before. It’s better than that one, and makes for a mildly amusing diversion.

Retired gangster ‘Cesare Celli’ (Vittorio de Sica) is kidnapped at his Italian palazzo by ‘Harry Price’ (Robert Wagner) and his small (inexpert) gang, which includes his gorgeous squeeze ‘Juliana’ (Welch) and nervous ‘Benny’ (Godfrey Cambridge). Harry & his crew are foiled when none of the old Mafioso’s associates will cough up any dough, but cagey Celli turns the tables by offering to set up a coup of metal riches with the help of planning whiz ‘Prof. Samuels’ (Edward G. Robinson). Taxing training and clumsy dry runs lead to robbing two tons of platinum ingots from a train and splitting the scene via an old B-17 bomber. What do you guess will happen to the loot?

Written by Sy Salkowitz (is that a classic name for a B-flick caper writer or what?); primarily a TV scribe yet he also managed Thunder Alley, with Annette Funicello, Fabian and Jan Murray!?, so cut Sy some slack. Over the scenery-gulping opening titles Johnny Mathis belts out “Most Of All There’s You” like it was the greatest number he’d ever been given, then thru the course of events Riz Ortolani pumps things up with a vibrant score.

Between the time this was filmed and released Welch had leaped to fame with One Million Years B.C. and had been displayed in Fathom (groan) and Bedazzled (fun), which, together with a massive publicity wave generated by blatantly appealing to blatant sex appeal likely accounted for her receiving top billing despite inexperience, let alone discernible talent. Wagner plays a slick jerk, so it’s not a stretch.  Thankfully they take a back seat to the how-it’s-done de Sica, 65, who injects the vitality the young people lack (Raquel was a newbie, but Wagner, 36, had been around for 18 years and was as wooden as when he started back in 1950). Wily Robinson, 73, is as on the ball as ever. Thank goodness for pros. *

Somehow Eric Burdon & the Animals were coaxed into singing “The Biggest Bundle Of Them All” (it’s bad) during a disco scene where Raquel dances the Watusi with Robinson. Crazy, man!  Amiable, slow-paced, the show ultimately overstays at 105 minutes, and the US box office rank was a weak 145th.

With Davey Kaye, Francesco Mulè (gets a share of chuckles),Victor Spinetti, Mickey Knox, Yvonne Sanson and Femi Benussi.

* Annakin, from his quite fun autobio “So You Wanna Be A Director?”— 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!”

Eddie G., gentleman to the last— “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.”

Wagner in his autobio said fed-up old hand Robinson let go with a ten-minute tirade that left the diva weeping and apologetic.