Diamonds Are a Man's Best Friend (1966)

- Ray Master l'inafferrabile

I’m still shaking my head in disbelief, 19 August 2019

The Quick Pitch:  A thief comes up with an elaborate scheme to rob a diamond valued at $1 billion from a heavily guarded museum in Thailand. 

Diamonds are a Man’s Best Friend is the kind of 60s heist movie I usually go for.  European and other exotic locations, a well-crafted scheme, reasonably good acting, a groovy 60s soundtrack, and plenty of twists and turns along the way – that’s what you find in a lot of my favorite heist movies.  And while you get a lot of that in Diamonds Are a Man’s Best Friend, what it lacks is believability. The movie features one of the most ridiculous looking robberies ever put on film. It all starts to go horribly wrong about half-way through the heist.  Earlier in the movie, the characters had mentioned something about a vacuum, but when I, as a viewer, saw exactly what the thieves were up to, I had to laugh in disbelief. I thought they planned to use a vacuum to extract the diamond from the room where it was kept.  I had no idea they intended to create / build a vacuum in the museum room so they could fly overhead and pluck the diamond from its resting spot. I’m not a scientist, but I’m confident this wouldn’t work the way it’s presented. What about gravity? And even if it would, watching the robber float about the room in what amounts to a spacesuit is mind-bogglingly stupid.  The movie does redeem itself in the last act, but the damage had already been done.

4/10