UNWILLINGLY TO VEGAS

Shy, retired tax inspector G.D.H. Pringle and his buxom, down-to-earth companion Mavis Bignell (Death in Close-up, etc.) can't believe their luck when film director Enrico Dulce offers them a trip to the American West in return for Pringle's accounting services--handling the finances for a small group of actors Dulce is importing from England for a movie. But Pringle's initial skepticism turns out to be well founded. Enrico Dulce is really Louis Carlson, member of a Mafia family headed by Ozal Hailing, who has made plans for the heist of the century--roughly $20 million in cash from a mega charity-drive televised from a Las Vegas casino and headed by Frank Sinatra. The perfect plan starts to unravel almost at once, though, as Louis and other top henchmen plot their individual double-crosses. In the process, Pringle and Mavis accidentally come across the remote site of the payout and are left for dead. The body count mounts as, piece by carefully crafted piece, the master plan falls apart, but Pringle throws a final monkey wrench into the works, accomplishing his own charity and bringing himself gratefully back to England. Lighthearted, fast-moving, with some good-natured barbs at American mores and manners and an intricately embroidered plot convincing enough not to spoil the fun.