Il diamante del re

This is one of those movies that I didn't know existed until I picked up a VHS copy on a market stall recently.

It is about two men who are sent to India to search for a particular type of diamond. While in India, they meet Queen Maya and end up in all sorts of adventures. They get captured by some natives and, not surprisingly, one of the men falls in love with Queen Maya. They escape the natives at the end, after some fighting.

The movie is shot nicely in colour and has some scenic locations.

The cast includes Fermando Lamas and Jay Novelle, who were to be reunited in the 1960 version of The Lost World, Arlene Dahl (Journey To the Centre of the Earth) and Gilbert Roland.

Though not brilliant, I rather enjoyed watching this movie and is a good way to spend 80 minutes one evening.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

This preposterous bit of period hokum is a major disappointment even to those like myself who love nearly everything swashbuckling. The color is nice but neither Lamas nor Roland are convincing as Frenchman sailing half way around the world to India to find a diamond worthy of the crown of France. After a suspiciously rapid transit (via lines on a map) the two arrive in India and are almost immediately involved in the local power struggles when they meet a rani (Dahl) traveling on her way to her intended bridegroom in another kingdom. The only thing Indian about Arlene Dahl is her last name. In return for her hand in marriage, the new queen is guaranteed the return of the precious diamond eye of her home goddess, stolen long ago. The plot is (appropriately) far-fetched and the acting is pedestrian at best. Will these two boring characters manage to glom onto the diamond and return to France in time to have it set for the coronation? Will you even care if they do?

In the early 1950s, Hollywood tried to compete with television's small, b&w screens by offering a number of Technicolored adventure movies filled with glamorous stars and exotic backgrounds. It was a Golden Age for movies about pirates, the French Foreign Legion, Arabian nights, jungle safaris, lost cities of gold, etc. "The Diamond Queen" fits neatly into this category but it's a minor effort and, not surprisingly, has largely been forgotten.

A bigger budget would have helped. The movie begins in the France of Louis XIV but all we see there is one mundane set showing a jeweler's workshop. The transition to India is largely conveyed by a stock-shot of a sailing ship at sea. Aside from a few more stock-shots of monkeys and other wildlife, India consists of nothing more than a few sets which seem to be left-overs from other movies.

As for the cast, neither Fernando Lamas nor Gilbert Roland seem to have a drop of French blood in them, and trying to pass Arlene Dahl off as the "Queen of Nepal" is downright laughable. However, a much bigger problem is the script. It lacks the snappy dialog which can enliven this sort of thing and its plotting seems tired and perfunctory. One never gets a sense that its two heroes might be in serious danger. When they're thrown into the Mogul's dungeon, for example, the tortures to which they're subjected seem no worse than a frat-house hazing, though the sight of a sweaty Lamas stripped to the waist and in bondage is one of the movie's few highlights. Also, the romance between Lamas and Dahl never strikes any sparks, which makes the closing scene of the ship returning to France with its starry-eyed lovers seem both flat and implausible.

At a brisk 80 minutes, however, the movie never sinks to boredom, though it never comes close to enthralling, either.

This is a pretty inert India-set costumer of the watch-where-you're-poking-that-sword-or-you'll-knock-the-set-over variety. Given the title, there is no notable coruscation besides the Technicolour, which is gorgeous and illuminates Eugene Lourie's surroundings to excellent effect (he'd just production-designed Renoir's 'The River' and was about to embark on 'The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms). Lamas tried as he might but was never able to break Hollywood's market for even the B-costumer rogue (even John Derek managed more tried-and-tested prolificy); and Dahl's sireny is less than compensatory enough to inspire bravado in the climactic duel between her 2 potential suitors.

Update - the print shown on More4 in the UK in November 2006 is terrible, and will not reflect the technical qualities mentioned above.

Paris in 1659 and it's the year of the coronation of King Louis XIV. The royal court is making a desperate search for a rare jewel to cap the new crown of France. This is the story of how Jean Baptise Tavernier, the known adventurer, brought back from India the fabulous blue stone that is today known as, The Hope Diamond.

Balderdash! Z grade production with Z grade actors in a lazily dull Z grade picture. Directed by John Brahm {The Lodger}, the only thing going in this films favour is the costumes from Laure Lourie and the use of SuperCineColor, with the latter only viable if you can see a decent enough print of the film. The fact that nobody cares enough to restore this effort speaks volumes, it has moments of merriment, lots of them unintentional one feels, a little bit of sword play, and in spite of her dreadful acting, Arlene Dahl is pretty as a picture. But what good moments there are are submerged by the tepid script written by Otto Englander, the kind that makes one feel they made it up as they went along. Sheldon Leonard at least gives it a go as the Villain, Mogul, but Fernando Lamas and Gilbert Roland are as rickety as the sets around them.

Avoid. 3/10