Grand Slam (1967 film)

1968 film

Grand Slam

Original film poster

Directed by| Giuliano Montaldo
Screenplay by|

* Mino Roli
* Augusto Caminito
* Marcello Fondato
* José Antonio de la Loma
* Marcello Coscia[2]

Story by|

* Mino Roli
* Augusto Caminito
* Paolo Bianchini[3]

Produced by|

* Zeljko Kunkera
* Harry Colombo
* George Papi[1]

Starring|

* Janet Leigh
* Robert Hoffmann
* Klaus Kinski
* Riccardo Cucciolla
* George Rigaud
* Adolfo Celi
* Edward G. Robinson

Cinematography| Antonio Macasoli[1]
Edited by| Nino Baragli[1]
Music by| Ennio Morricone[1]

Production
companies

* Jolly Film
* Coral Producciones Cinematográficas
* Constantin Film

Distributed by|

* Unidis (Italy)[3]
* Filmax (Spain)[4]
* Constantin Film (West Germany)[1]
* Paramount Pictures (International)

Release date

| 6 January 1968 (West Germany)[1]

Running time

| 119 minutes[1]
Countries|

* Italy
* Spain
* West Germany[1]

Language| English

Grand Slam (Italian: Ad ogni costo) is a 1967 Italian-Spanish-German heist film directed by Giuliano Montaldo and starring Edward G. Robinson, Klaus Kinski and Janet Leigh.[1]

## Plot[edit]

A seemingly mild-mannered teacher, Professor James Anders, is an American working in Rio de Janeiro. Bored with years of teaching, Anders retires and sets about putting together a team to pull off a diamond heist during the Rio Carnival in Brazil.

With the help of a youthhood friend, now a successful criminal, Anders recruits a team of four international experts to carry out the robbery: Gregg an English safecracking specialist, Agostino an Italian mechanical and electronics genius, Jean Paul a French playboy (whose job it is to seduce the only woman with a key to the building holding the diamonds, the lovely Mary Ann), and Erich a German ex-military man (at the movie's ending, it will become clear that Anders' young friend had ordered the German to kill the other members of the team after the job is finished).

The team develops a series of mechanical devices to defeat the layers of protection built within the building in which the diamonds are stored, mainly photocells which crisscross the entry corridor, and the new "Grand Slam 70" safe system: an alarm triggered by any sound detected near the safe room by means of a sensitive microphone listens for sounds while the safe and its environs are secured. Although the presence of the latter system is found by the team only one day in advance and at first this seems to impose a stop to the entire action, Agostino is able to find a genial solution to overcome the problem, so that the action can start.

The team successfully enters the safe using a pneumatic trestle to bypass the photocell beams by crawling over them, accesses to the safe room with the Mary Ann's key stolen by Jean Pauland, move the safe to the corridor using shaving cream to dampen their sounds, and finally open the safe with specific nitroglycerin charges. However, the following day the police are alerted by Mary Ann, who has found that the safe key had been temporarily taken, and all the four members of the team are killed during their escape.

Anders ends up with the diamonds in a small letters case, sitting in an outdoor cafe...but loses them in the film's last scene in Rome to a thief gang on a motorcycle.

## Cast[edit]

* Janet Leigh as Mary Ann
* Edward G. Robinson as Professor James Anders
* Robert Hoffmann as Jean-Paul Audry
* Klaus Kinski as Erich Weiss
* Riccardo Cucciolla as Agostino Rossi
* George Rigaud as Gregg Hutchinson
* Adolfo Celi as Mark Milford
* Jussara as Stetuaka
* Miguel Del Castillo as Manager
* Luciana Angiolillo
* Valentino Macchi
* Anny Degli Uberti
* Aldo Bonamano

## See also[edit]

* Heist film

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Top Job". Filmportal.de. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
2. ^ Beck, Robert (2002). The Edward G. Robinson Encyclopedia. McFarland. p. 139.
3. ^ a b "Ad ogni costo (1967)". Archivio del Cinema Italiano On-Line. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
4. ^ "Diamantes a gogo". iicaa Catalogo de Cinespanol. Retrieved March 11, 2024.

## External links[edit]

* Grand Slam at IMDb
* Grand Slam at AllMovie
* Grand Slam at the TCM Movie Database

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