Grand Slam (1967 film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Grand Slam

| image = GrandSlam67.jpg

| caption = US film poster

| native_name = {{Infobox name module|it|Ad ogni costo}}

| director = Giuliano Montaldo

| producer = {{plainlist|

| screenplay = {{plainlist|

Mino Roli
Augusto Caminito
Marcello Fondato
José Antonio de la Loma
Marcello Coscia{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=Robert |title=The Edward G. Robinson Encyclopedia |publisher=McFarland |year=2002 |pages=139}}}}

| story = {{plainlist|

Mino Roli
Augusto Caminito
Paolo Bianchini{{cite web | title=Ad ogni costo (1967) | work=Archivio del Cinema Italiano On-Line | url=https://www.archiviodelcinemaitaliano.it/index.php/scheda.html?codice=AG2028 |accessdate=March 11, 2024}}}}

| starring = {{plainlist|

| music = Ennio Morricone

| cinematography = Antonio Macasoli

| editing = Nino Baragli

| studio = {{plainlist|

Jolly Film
Coral Producciones Cinematográficas
Constantin Film}}

| distributor = {{plainlist|

Unidis {{small|(Italy)}}
Filmax {{small|(Spain)}}{{cite web|url=https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=317950|title=Diamantes a gogo|access-date=March 11, 2024|publisher=iicaa Catalogo de Cinespanol}}
Constantin Film {{small|(West Germany)}}
Paramount Pictures {{small|(International)}}

}}

| released = {{Film date|1967|9|28|Italy|1968|01|06|West Germany|1969|4|21|Spain|ref2=|df=y}}

| runtime = 119 minutes

| country = {{plainlist|

Italy
Spain
West Germany{{cite web|url=http://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/top-job_ea43d4a74a535006e03053d50b37753d|publisher=Filmportal.de|title=Top Job|accessdate=November 9, 2016}}}}

| language = English

| budget =

}}

Grand Slam ({{langx|it|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. The musical score was composed by Ennio Morricone.

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

Plot

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 that 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 the safe room with Mary Ann's key stolen by Jean-Paul, moves the safe to the corridor using shaving cream to dampen their sounds, and finally opens 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.