- Dim-wits Franco and Cicco try to come up with a plan to rob the safes of the Bank of Italy, but with one muddle after another, they find themselves empty-handed after each attempt to do so.
- Franco and Ciccio (Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia) are two dim-witted brothers who aspire to be thieves but seem destined to screw up over and over again. Their older brother, Paolo (Mario Pisu), on the other hand, is a criminal mastermind know as "Il Maestro" (The Master) who uses ultra-modern video gadgetry to supervise the actions of a crack gang of crooks without leaving his home, thus providing him with a perfect alibi.
Franco and Ciccio are arrested for a bungled hold-up and Paolo uses his influence to get them freed from jail. He decides the best thing is to give them money and women to keep them out of trouble, but none of his female friends will have anything to do with the "two imbeciles". At last, Paolo finds two suitable "escorts" in the form of a ditsy pop duo; Marilina (Lena Von Martens) and Rosalina (Mirella Maravidi).
Paolo leaves town on a trip abroad after which he will commit his most ambitious crime yet: to rob the Bank of Italy in Rome. However, Ciccio manages to steal Palo's detailed plans from his safe and sick of being failures, he and Franco decide to commit the robbery themselves. To this end, they assemble a crack team of experts... or so they believe. In fact, the men they assemble are just as clueless and dim-witted as themselves. They begin by seeking a criminal mastermind and opt for a ten-time loser: the self-styled Romoletto, the Evil Genius (Fiorenzo Fiorentini). Romoletto recommends Ferdinando Marconi (Furio Pellerani) an electrical expert who is first seen blowing out the lights in his own home; Joe Filippo, an obese plumber who can't fix a toilet without water jetting out of every fixture; Fabio (Mino Pellerani), a dangerously unstable drill operator, and finally Agnello Pasquale (Carlo Taranto), an explosives expert so easily confused that he can't decide which way round his first and second names should go.
The team of losers set about digging under the bank vault but a variety of disasters befall them. The police get wind of the plan and arrest Paolo, marching him along to the vault where they expect to find the robbery in progress. To their surprise, the vault in intact. The bewildered police commissioner decides to the their intelligence is mistaken and orders the vault to be closed.
Much later, Franco and Ciccio's gang finally break into the vault, but while doing so they accidentally burst a water main pipe and soak the millions of lira in banknotes in muddy water. Never the less, the duo retreat to a safe hideaway and with with the help of their two "molls", they dry the banknotes on washing lines.
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By what name was How to Rob the Bank of Italy (1966) officially released in Canada in English?
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