User reviews

Cheap heist movie with Brad Harris

After Jules Dassin's successes with "Rififi" (1955) and "Topkapi" (1964), the heist movie genre was firmly established and still is today, as can be seen from the success of "Ocean's Eleven" and its successors. However, staging a spectacular break-in is not that easy. They tried anyway, and so there were numerous copycat films that were produced as cheaply as possible and wanted to ride the wave of success. While "Topkapi" boasted two Oscar winners, Peter Ustinov and Maximilian Schell, here it is action specialist Brad Harris (1933-2017) who dares to do the impossible with his friends.

Brad Harris plays the burglary specialist Robert Colman, who stages his own death in order to steal valuable diamonds from his former boss (Dana Andrews (1909-1992), the older brother of actor Steve Forrest), which he had previously stolen himself. The whole thing takes place spectacularly underwater with the help of a submarine and is also very attractively staged. During this sweaty affair, Brad Harris also has the welcome opportunity to swell his magnificent muscles. The plan remains in limbo for a long time, and in the end Brad Harris and the beautiful Elina DeWitt (who was also seen as a model in "Red Wedding Night") as his sweetheart Gaby provide a big surprise.

The film was directed by Bitto Albertini (1923-1999), who would also film the jungle adventure "They Called Him Zambo" (1972) with Brad Harris. The jack-of-all-trades Brad Harris had never been seen in a heist movie before. This gave him the opportunity to show his skills in this genre too. Filming took place in Italy and London.

Brad Harris fakes his death in order to be free to implement a complex plan to steal a 10 Million Dollar Diamond from his former employer, (Dana Andrews), who is himself a thief. With the use of a small submarine, Brad manages to cut a hole in the side of an ocean liner and remove the gem. This scene was well staged. After he has the gem, it is stolen. He gets it back and plans to have it Cut only to loose it again. In the end Brad has to settle for the reward from the Insurance Company. He does end up with Elaina da Witt who helped him throughout the adventure. In the image section I have posted a nice poster which Brad Harris sent to me year ago. Larry Anderson.

This is neither "The Sicilian Clan" (1969), "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971), "Snatch" (2000), "Topkapi" (1964), "Diamonds" (1975) with Robert Shaw, nor "Diamonds" (1999) with Kirk Douglas, nor "Blood and Diamonds" Original title: Diamanti sporchi di sangue (1977), "7 uomini d'oro" (1965) or one of many other films with diamond or gold thefts. This is a miserable film with one of the worst actors of all time, Brad Harris, embarrassing in all the films I've seen him in (all those with Tony Kendall from the Commissioner X series), in a stupid story (idea stolen from other films), poorly interpreted by a handful of other embarrassing actors. Nothing special, nothing spectacular, nothing worthy of any interest. As filler, two scenes in which two songs from the '60s fashion are sung. The diamond is stolen, found, and stolen again, the film could have continued like this endlessly.