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Grand Slam (1967 film)

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Grand Slam
US film poster
ItalianAd ogni costo
Directed byGiuliano Montaldo
Screenplay by
Story by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAntonio Macasoli[1]
Edited byNino Baragli[1]
Music byEnnio Morricone[1]
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 28 September 1967 (1967-09-28) (Italy)
  • 6 January 1968 (1968-01-06) (West Germany)[1]
  • 21 April 1969 (1969-04-21) (Spain)
Running time
119 minutes[1]
Countries
  • Italy
  • Spain
  • West Germany[1]
LanguageEnglish

Grand Slam (Italian: Ad ogni costo, lit. 'At any cost') is a 1967 heist film directed by Giuliano Montaldo and starring Janet Leigh, Robert Hoffmann, Klaus Kinski, Riccardo Cucciolla, George Rigaud, Adolfo Celi and Edward G. Robinson.[1] The musical score was composed by Ennio Morricone.

The film is an Italian, Spanish, and West German co-production.[1] It premiered on September 28, 1967.[1]

Plot

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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.

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 Rome to a thief gang on a motorcycle.

Cast

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "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.
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