The Wrecking Crew (1969)

Director:

Phil Karlson

Writers:

Donald Hamilton (novel)
William P. McGivern (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 January 1969 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Action | Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

Matt Helm gets it from the Wrecking Crew!

Plot:

The count has stolen enough gold to cause a financial crisis in the world markets so I.C.E. sends in ace spy Matt Helm to stop him...

Plot Keywords:

Gold | Matt Helm | Spy | Train | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Dean Martin	...	Matt Helm
Elke Sommer	...	Linka Karensky
Sharon Tate	...	Freya Carlson
Nancy Kwan	...	Yu-Rang
Nigel Green	...	Count Contini
Tina Louise	...	Lola Medina
John Larch	...	'Mac' MacDonald
John Brascia	...	Karl
Weaver Levy	...	Kim
Wilhelm von Homburg	...	Gregor
Bill Saito	...	Ching
Fuji	...	Toki
Pepper Martin	...	Frankie
Ted Jordan	...	Guard (as Ted H. Jordan)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Whitney Chase	...	Miss Natural Gas (uncredited)
David Chow	...	Bartender (uncredited)
James Daris	...	(uncredited)
Noel Drayton	...	Man at Downing Street Meeting (uncredited)
Harry Fleer	...	(uncredited)
Harry Geldard	...	(uncredited)
Tony Giorgio	...	Gadget Agent for I.C.E. (uncredited)
Joe Gray	...	(uncredited)
Rex Holman	...	(uncredited)
Brick Huston	...	(uncredited)
Joséphine James	...	Girl (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Officer in Hospital Room (uncredited)
John Kowal	...	Kelly (uncredited)
James Lloyd	...	Desk Clerk (uncredited)
Byron Morrow	...	Officer in Hospital Room (uncredited)
Chuck Norris	...	Man in the House of 7 Joys (uncredited)
J.B. Pick	...	(uncredited)
Allen Pinson	...	Page (uncredited)
Bartlett Robinson	...	President's Aide (uncredited)
Bill M. Ryusaki	...	Henri (uncredited)
Vincent Van Lynn	...	(uncredited)
Dick Winslow	...	Man (uncredited)

Directed by
Phil Karlson

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Donald Hamilton		novel "The Wrecking Crew"
William P. McGivern		screenplay (as William McGivern)

Produced by
Irving Allen	....	producer
Harold F. Kress	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Hugo Montenegro

Cinematography by
Sam Leavitt

Film Editing by
Maury Winetrobe

Art Direction by
Joseph C. Wright		(as Joe Wright)

Set Decoration by
Frank Tuttle

Costume Design by
Moss Mabry

Makeup Department
Hank Edds	....	makeup artist: Dean Martin
Virginia Jones	....	hair stylist
Ben Lane	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Ralph E. Black	....	unit production manager (as Ralph Black)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jerome M. Siegel	....	assistant director (as Jerome Siegel)
John M. Poer	....	dga trainee (uncredited)

Art Department
Max Frankel	....	property master

Sound Department
James Z. Flaster	....	sound (as James Flaster)
Arthur Piantadosi	....	sound
Charles J. Rice	....	sound supervisor

Stunts
Bill Couch	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Gray	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Hickman	....	stunts (uncredited)
Joe Lewis	....	stunts (uncredited)
Carey Loftin	....	stunts (uncredited)
Ed Parker	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gil Perkins	....	stunts (uncredited)
Allen Pinson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Wally Rose	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill M. Ryusaki	....	stunts (uncredited)
Mary Statler	....	stunts (uncredited)
Mike Stone	....	stunt double: Dean Martin (uncredited)
Fred Stromsoe	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dale Van Sickel	....	stunts (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sy Devore	....	wardrobe: Dean Martin

Editorial Department
Oscar Denenberg	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Hugo Montenegro	....	conductor
John Bahler	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Al Capps	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Richard Hazard	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Jay Hill	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Willis Holman	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Wayne Fitzgerald	....	title designer
Bruce Lee	....	karate advisor
Frank Tallman	....	pilot: helicopter sequences

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Meadway-Claude Productions Company (I) (II)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1969) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Films (1969) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (197?) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Nelonen (2007) (Finland) (TV)
• Sony Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

The House of Seven Joys (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for sensuality, violence and some language.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 | UK:PG (cut) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG (re-rating) (1996)

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Dean Martin was so distraught over the murder of his The Wrecking Crew (1969) co-star and friend Sharon Tate that he abandoned the next already-announced "Matt Helm" motion picture series installment (to be titled "The Ravagers"), and never played the character again.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: There are no mountains in Denmark

Quotes:

Matt Helm: [to Freya] I don't know what you got, but you sure got bad timing.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Once Upon a Body (1969)

Soundtrack:

On the Sunny Side of the Street

Its sad when you think of what might have been

Someone once said that Dean Martin was so laid-back he made Perry Como look like a nervous wreck. It was said if a nuclear bomb went off behind him he wouldn't even drop his martini glass. Martin and his fellow Rat-packer Frank Sinatra were among our few recording giants who achieved in films as well. Although not as good an actor as Sinatra, Martin had a charming presence on the screen and was always entertaining to watch, even when you knew he wasn't taking it too seriously. The Matt Helm films came out at the same time as Sean Connery was playing Bond and have been largely forgotten today. Martin played the reluctant spy with tongue firmly in cheek. The Wrecking Crew was the last of the four Helm films and I feel it was the best. A gold train has been hijacked by a criminal mastermind. The one billion dollar theft will cause world wide financial panic and its up to Matt Helm to save the day. Of course in any spy film of this nature, you have to have beautiful women and there are plenty here. Elke Sommer and Tina Louise light up the screen, but it is Sharon Tate who steals the show as bumbling MI5 agent Freya Carlson. I thought it was so funny how she kept getting Helm into deeper and deeper trouble, even getting him arrested at one point. She tells him "I wont desert you Mister Helm". He says "Do me a favor PLEASE DESERT ME!". However, she comes through in the end and there is a good fight scene between her and Nancy Kwan. (For trivia lovers, Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee helped to set up the fight scenes for this film). People have commented the fight scenes involving Helm are fakey, what do you expect? Dean Martin was 52 when this film was made. Sharon really stole the show in this one, in fact they later based one of the characters in the Austin Powers films on her character here. This was her last film before she was murdered by the Charles Manson family. Its chilling when you watch it and think of how horribly her life ended.