GRAND SLAM

 This Italian heist movie was released in English with about 90% of the cast dubbed though it was clearly sold on the casting of Edward G. Robinson as the elderly professor who plans the heist and Janet Leigh as the girl who just happens to get her name at the head of the cast. As heist movies go, "Grand Slam" is hardly memorable but, despite the not totally convincing dubbing, is still a lot of fun with director Giuliano Montaldo making excellent use of his locations while, even in such a small part, it's always a pleasure watching Robinson steal a movie from under the noses of his co-stars.

The largely international cast also includes Klaus Kinski, again fun to watch in any language, Robert Hoffman and Adolfo Celi and the plot has to do with a diamond robbery worth over ten million dollars but, of course, no matter how well thought out nothing seems to go quite according to plan and naturally, as a homage to "Rififi", the robbery has to be performed in complete silence. This is certainly not in the same class as Dassin's masterpiece but it's a very serviceable guilty pleasure nevertheless.