Fortune in Diamonds (1951)
"The Adventurers" (original title)

As the Boer War ends a South African soldier hides a cache of diamonds he finds on a body. He returns to the town he left three years earlier where his girl has married a disgraced English ... See full summary »

Director:

David MacDonald

Writer:

Robert Westerby

Stars:

Jack Hawkins, Peter Hammond, Dennis Price

Cast

Cast overview:
Jack Hawkins	...	Pieter Brandt
Peter Hammond	...	Hendrik van Thaal
Dennis Price	...	Clive Hunter
Grégoire Aslan	...	Dominic
Charles Paton	...	Barman
Siobhan McKenna	...	Anne Hunter
Bernard Lee	...	O'Connell
Ronald Adam	...	Van Thaal
Martin Boddey	...	Chief Engineer
Philip Ray	...	Man in Restaurant
Walter Horsbrugh	...	Man in Restaurant
Cyril Chamberlain	...	Waiter

Storyline

As the Boer War ends a South African soldier hides a cache of diamonds he finds on a body. He returns to the town he left three years earlier where his girl has married a disgraced English officer. Needing funds to get back to pick up the diamonds the Boer enlists the help of a fellow soldier as well as the Englishman and a local hotel keeper. This ill-assorted bunch set off into the bush intent on finding their fortune.

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Plot Keywords:

adventurer

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Genres:

Adventure

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 December 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Great Adventure

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mayflower Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

User Reviews

Unexciting lost treasure tale

This is , to all intents and purposes , a Western although set in post Boer War South Africa rather than in the American West . The year is 1901 and the Boer War is over -two Boer soldiers , Brandt (Jack Hawkins ) and Hendrik ( Peter Hammond ) are returning home when Brandt stumbles across a body with a fortune in diamonds on his person

He conceals the treasure -fearing he may be waylaid by the British and on returninbg home finds his fiancee is now married to the worthless Clive Hunter (Dennis Price ) a former British officer now scrounging a bare existence from petty crime and card sharping . Brandt organises an expedition to locate the diamonds -Hendrik and Hunter go along as does the saloon owner " Dominic " who is funding the venture

Bitter rivalries soon break out and one of the party fails to return -it is believed he was murdered and the last section of the movie turns on who did the deed .

The plot has overtones of the vastly superior " The Treasure of the Sierra Madre " in its highlighting of the conflict between expedition members but is too limply directed and staged to really develop this in any striking way

All the actors did better work and the whole enterprise seems tired and under budgetted

Just about passable time filler on a rainy afternoon when you dont feel like doing much beyond slumping in front of the television set