The Diamond Wizard (1954)
"The Diamond" (original title)

An American Treasury agent teams up with a Scotland Yard inspector to track down a group of thieves that are creating artificial diamonds out of sugar.

Directors:

Dennis O'Keefe, Montgomery Tully

Writers:

John C. Higgins, Dennis O'Keefe (story),

Stars:

Dennis O'Keefe, Margaret Sheridan, Philip Friend

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dennis O'Keefe	...	Joe Dennison
Margaret Sheridan	...	Marline Miller
Philip Friend	...	Insp. McClaren
Alan Wheatley	...	Thompson Blake
Paul Hardtmuth	...	Dr. Eric Miller
Francis De Wolff	...	Yeo
Eric Berry	...	Hunziger
Michael Balfour	...	Hoxie
Gudrun Ure	...	Sgt. Smith (as Ann Gudrun)
Cyril Chamberlain	...	Castle
Seymour Green	...	Lascelles
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Donald Gray	...	Commander Gilles

Storyline

U.S. Treasury Investigator Joe Dennison is sent to England on the trail of a gang of thieves responsible for stealing a million dollars from a U.S. Treasury vault. One of the crooks is on his way to England to spend the money on phony diamonds. Scotland Yard Inspector McClaren, assigned to work with Dennison on the case, is also working on the disappearance of Dr. Eric Miller, an atomic scientist. Dennison discovers while interviewing Miller's daughter Marlene that she is wearing a brooch containing a phony diamond, and the brooch had been made by her father.

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Plot Keywords:

3 dimensional | based on novel

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Taglines:

3000 Miles Of Desperate Man-Hunt!

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Genres:

Crime | Sci-Fi | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 July 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Diamond Wizard

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gibraltar Films Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Montgomery Tully is credited as sole director on British prints; Dennis O'Keefe is only credited on US prints.

User Reviews

There are so many scenes and shifts of teon, you're sure to like some of it.

The Diamond Wizard (1954)

A goofy, lighthearted, sprawling smuggling and international crime film. Yes, a contradiction. But boy are there zany aspects, like the low-tech high stakes attempts to make diamonds artificially. And the main characters are a British and an American agent both after the same charming American woman who is suddenly in town.

You might enjoy this as a spoof (which it is not), or as pure camp (which it almost is). There are false foreign accents, talking and reading from criminal files, and constant back and forths (with literal winking) between the two men, who seem to work well together by doing the same thing at the same time.

The odd thing is it's all kind of fun. It helps to have something else to do while watching--you won't miss any details, I think, since it putters along with easy to follow twists. The one scene to watch is the opening one, which gives away not only the very low budget limitations but also the basic characters involved. At other points there are little delights--like when the ship's whistle blows and we see the top of a ship, until the camera pulls back and you find we are looking at a model.

So, if you don't mind a little silly romp with lots of scenes and a fairly ambitious scope, but with a frivolous and frankly low quality aspect, you might just like this. It's not awful, which is something. Parts of it look like they were shot in Frankenstein's castle. And there is a really terrific escalator scene that is almost worth it right there, toward the end, better than the movie deserves. And what are "pure galvanized iron filings" you might ask?