CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

BasicLogic The original novel written by Gerald A. Browne is a masterpiece, an immediate classic, but it was completely ruined by this lousy film. First of all, the screenplay was horrible! How come you'd use the leading role in this novel, Chesser, played by Charles Grodin, to narrate almost every segment of this film, used him to describe what's going on and what he felt. It made this film like Chesser have become the 1st person in his memoir to talk about what he'd encountered for his revenge and heist against 11 Harrowhouse. We are watching a film instead of listening to an audio recording. What a lousy and lazy arrangement this stupid screenplay was. And then, the director seemed to be a moron who just lazily followed the script and shot the picture as it was. What a stupid moron!Secondly, signing up Charles Grodin to play the protagonist was the 2nd worse thing. This guy was not a good actor, but a deadbeat 2-tier actor with a protruding lower chin and lower lip over his upper lip, in addition to his facial features, eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth (the lower lip overbites the upper lip) all squeezed together to the center that limited his expressions to the least. What we saw was an unwelcoming face like a poorly designed mask. He in this film just looked like a deadbeat, passionless zombie. So making Maren, played by Candice Bergen, to love him without any reservation was just so impossible to swallow. Gerald A. Browne always made his heroines in his novels a headstrong, iron-willed, smart and tough ladies, never gave a damn to almost anything, a female far superior to her counterparts, i.e., either their boyfriends or husbands. All the fantastic and amazing heists were almost carried through by their female intelligence and abnormally high I.Q. Candice Bergen to play Maren was a pretty good cast but partnered with the lousy Charles Grodin was just a unmatchable waste. What a shame. James Mason played the important inside man who suffered terminal cancer was a good cast job, but again, the lousy script didn't allow him to show more of his talent.During the final car chase, so many bullets hit the van, but none of them even hit the rear tires. The chase cars explosions were just laughable. Riding horses to chase high speed car....Are you kidding me?!If compares this film with the other film, "Green Ice", also adapted from Mr. Browne's novel, the latter was far better than this 11 Harrowhouse. All the ingredients were there both in the novel and the film, the budget based upon what we've seen in this film, would be also quite sufficient, but it's just like the main theme in this film, about Diamonds, this film looked just like a poorly cut diamond, making it worthless.

joehouse86 I'm a movie buff in my mid 50's, and though I own many hundreds of movies, this is among my top 10 most enjoyable films to watch and I hate that it is not available on DVD, not to mention BluRay. I own the LaserDisc version in widescreen with the Grodin narration. I re-watch this movie every few years, and enjoy it just as much every time. Grodin and Bergen are extremely charming, and the British supporting cast is world class. Some incorrectly describe this as a spoof, which gives the entirely wrong impression, though it is certainly witty and self-deprecating. It certainly isn't entirely realistic, but the tone, mood and wit of the film are extremely engaging.

CineFan007 I am biased- I love this movie.In the theaters when I was a kid it was so much fun thanks to the added commentary over the movie by Charles Grodin. It was dry and hilarious and brought the story to life. Years later, on a video I found at a store the narration was gone and the movie seems flatter.It is a diamond heist movie filled with unique characters and it has a lighter tone than the novel it was based on which was not only darker and tougher but had a very different ending.The mostly English cast is great, Candice Bergen is gorgeous, Grodin seems like an odd choice but by the end turns out to have been right for it, Michael Lewis' score is wonderful, and I laughed a lot (as did the rest of the audience in 1974). On top of that the caper plot is very clever and overall I think it is worth your time- if you like such things.

BOUF Charles Grodin, who co-wrote is almost always self-conscious, and it's self-consciousness that ultimately sinks this otherwise entertaining diamond heist caper. The excellent starring and supporting cast can't quite prevent the audience from being confused as to whether this is supposed to be a smart parody or a complicated thriller. The director was an excellent film editor of "Jazz On A Summer's Day", "Lilith", "The Miracle Worker", etc