"The Biggest Bundle of Them All" is more a heist spoof than a comedy. Though some of it is very funny.
I was unfamiliar with Vittorio de Sica's work so I won't comment on him. Edward G. Robinson, on the other hand, mellowed into a subtle actor with a quiet flair for humor. He gives a presentation in one scene that calls out for PowerPoint. He's just great and, alas, too briefly seen.
The star, for better or worse, is Robert Wagner. Usually likeable, if not much more, here he talks tough. He doesn't pull it off very well, but I have a theory that's part of his character: he talks tough because of his innate weakness. Much less palatable is his 1960s slang, which dates him worse than a calendar. He always did his best work spoofing himself. Perhaps that starts here?
Wagner has a ready-made gang of misfits. Right off the bat they kidnap an aging mobster for ransom (a paltry fifty thousand dollars to split five ways--shades of "Austin Powers"!) only to learn he has no money and no one else he ever helped will pick up his bill. Now what?
Upset that no one wants to help him, the aging mobster gets together with an old chum (Robinson) to plan a fresh caper.
But the caper gets bigger and bigger, requiring more front money. And more danger for the pitiful gang.
Not many laughs but when Godfrey Cambridge is given the stage he's hilarious.
Oh, and did I mention Wagner's co-star is Raquel Welch? Perhaps she's old hat in her second century but for a boy growing up on 1960s movies she left a strong impression on me, especially in "Fathom" and "Bedazzled." And one of my favorite all-time movies, Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers."
I never even heard of this flick until I was sixty and went through a "light-hearted heist spoof of the 1960s" phase and watched all I could.
Raquel might be, as one wag had it, "plastic from the neck down," but she's undeniably lovely and she's smart enough to know what attributes made her a star and how to use them. More than half the movie she's costumed in a way to reveal herself to best effect even when she's wearing a sweater. Is all that important? Yes! That's what she's there for. To titllate. In fact, that's all she's ever there for. And her performance dominates the movie. She buries all the others, apart from Robinson's cameo and Cambridge, who has too few lines.
Is it a great flick? It's about on the level of a heist spoof made for TV. But for the most part it's an inoffensive little time-waster. It just doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It's not a full-blown comedy like Jim Hutton's "Who's Minding The Mint?" And there's always a feeling it might turn nasty in the end. All that is the fault of the writers.
If you try this one on for size don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. Especially if you're a guy with hankering for Raquel. Movies then were not as graphic as the are these days, and that's a good thing, as Raquel teases us along from scene to scene all the way through. She'll have most guys wondering what a she'll wear next. She wears pants suits better than anyone. Until she starred in the wonderful "Three Musketeers" she was never much of an ensemble player. She was Raquel--she had them but in her heyday she needed two names no more than Elvis. She doesn't blend. At this stage of her career any movie with Raquel in it was a Raquel movie. Yowza. If nothing else, she's worth the price of admission.
I was unfamiliar with Vittorio de Sica's work so I won't comment on him. Edward G. Robinson, on the other hand, mellowed into a subtle actor with a quiet flair for humor. He gives a presentation in one scene that calls out for PowerPoint. He's just great and, alas, too briefly seen.
The star, for better or worse, is Robert Wagner. Usually likeable, if not much more, here he talks tough. He doesn't pull it off very well, but I have a theory that's part of his character: he talks tough because of his innate weakness. Much less palatable is his 1960s slang, which dates him worse than a calendar. He always did his best work spoofing himself. Perhaps that starts here?
Wagner has a ready-made gang of misfits. Right off the bat they kidnap an aging mobster for ransom (a paltry fifty thousand dollars to split five ways--shades of "Austin Powers"!) only to learn he has no money and no one else he ever helped will pick up his bill. Now what?
Upset that no one wants to help him, the aging mobster gets together with an old chum (Robinson) to plan a fresh caper.
But the caper gets bigger and bigger, requiring more front money. And more danger for the pitiful gang.
Not many laughs but when Godfrey Cambridge is given the stage he's hilarious.
Oh, and did I mention Wagner's co-star is Raquel Welch? Perhaps she's old hat in her second century but for a boy growing up on 1960s movies she left a strong impression on me, especially in "Fathom" and "Bedazzled." And one of my favorite all-time movies, Richard Lester's "The Three Musketeers."
I never even heard of this flick until I was sixty and went through a "light-hearted heist spoof of the 1960s" phase and watched all I could.
Raquel might be, as one wag had it, "plastic from the neck down," but she's undeniably lovely and she's smart enough to know what attributes made her a star and how to use them. More than half the movie she's costumed in a way to reveal herself to best effect even when she's wearing a sweater. Is all that important? Yes! That's what she's there for. To titllate. In fact, that's all she's ever there for. And her performance dominates the movie. She buries all the others, apart from Robinson's cameo and Cambridge, who has too few lines.
Is it a great flick? It's about on the level of a heist spoof made for TV. But for the most part it's an inoffensive little time-waster. It just doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It's not a full-blown comedy like Jim Hutton's "Who's Minding The Mint?" And there's always a feeling it might turn nasty in the end. All that is the fault of the writers.
If you try this one on for size don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. Especially if you're a guy with hankering for Raquel. Movies then were not as graphic as the are these days, and that's a good thing, as Raquel teases us along from scene to scene all the way through. She'll have most guys wondering what a she'll wear next. She wears pants suits better than anyone. Until she starred in the wonderful "Three Musketeers" she was never much of an ensemble player. She was Raquel--she had them but in her heyday she needed two names no more than Elvis. She doesn't blend. At this stage of her career any movie with Raquel in it was a Raquel movie. Yowza. If nothing else, she's worth the price of admission.