Code Name: Diamond Head

I just watched it on MST3K on the MST3K channel. I missed it when it was first on because I didn't have cable. But I digress. It wasn't that incoherent. It just wasn't that good. But seeing it on MST3K really is the only way to see it. I loved it when it was on, except not so much when it was on SyFy. Anyway, another reviewer said he didn't recognize anyone other than IM. Really? Then you didn't grow up in the '70's, my friend. Because I recognized Alex Hentiloff. He played a lawyer on Barney Miller. And Roy Thinnes, the star. France Nguyen. I know her from St. Elsewhere. And Dennis Patrick. A very recognizable villain.

Another turgid action/adventure flick from the Quinn Martin Productions factory. Roy Thinnes plays undercover agent Diamond Head (Mr. Head, to you), working for his G-Man handler "Aunt Mary", looking for "Tree", who's on a mission to...well, just watch the movie.

This one deserved and got the full MST3K sendup. As the boys and various reviewers have pointed out, the movie "Fargo" had more Hawaiian locations than this film. Apparently shot on a puny budget, this movie highlights Hawaii's broken-down dive shops, gas stations, and cheapo hotels. Zulu -- later to star as Kono in Hawaii-Five-O -- appears as Thinnes' lumpy, inept sidekick, while France Nguyen models the Jenny Craig diet gone horribly wrong. Others sharing the flickering screen include a drunken Richard Harris knockoff, a George Takai imitator, a not-so-smart hit-man with sprayed-on Sansabelt slacks, and the villain "Tree", sporting a veddy British accent. You can pretty much figure out the plot halfway through the opening credits, but relax--just enjoy the giddy mediocrity of this 70's movie-of-the-week.

Whenever I think of this movie (and I think of this movie often), I catch myself humming the theme, written for flute and tuba...no one knows why.

Trivia note--Diamond Head was directed by Jeannot Szwarc, one of three contract directors at Universal who would go on to make much bigger films, in his case Jaws 2. The others were John Badham (War Games), and a young fellow named Steven Spielberg...

My favorite MST3K movie EVER!! Ian McShane our beloved Lovejoy as a preacher & Eric Braeden as a bad guy, the fierce Victor Newman from CBS The Young and the Restless are incredible in this movie (-; Definitely a movie to keep in your library! Get your movie snacks & be ready to laugh guys! #DrDi

To appreciate just how bad "Code Name Diamond Head" is, you have to compare it to one of the early Bond Films, with Sean Connery, such as my favorite "From Russia with Love."

Bond: suave and sophisticated, droll sense of humor, dressed in an elegant dinner jacket.

The secret agent in this film? Bland and dull, dressed in too-tight pastel polyester, and about as funny as a roll of wet toilet paper.

And this is NOT one of my favorite MST 3K episodes. To get into that category, the movie has to be bad but fun to watch. This movie is BORING.

This movie was on TV on May 1, 1977. I did not watch it at that time. I tore out the TV guide page and filed it. Recently I was going through those pages and decided to look on Y?T and there it was. I watched and enjoyed it regardless of the obvious plot and limited action scenes and locales. It was just a fun lively TV movie. Enjoyable.