A Casa dos Brilhantes

I am biased- I love this movie.

In the theaters when I was a kid it was so much fun thanks to the added commentary over the movie by Charles Grodin. It was dry and hilarious and brought the story to life. Years later, on a video I found at a store the narration was gone and the movie seems flatter.

It is a diamond heist movie filled with unique characters and it has a lighter tone than the novel it was based on which was not only darker and tougher but had a very different ending.

The mostly English cast is great, Candice Bergen is gorgeous, Grodin seems like an odd choice but by the end turns out to have been right for it, Michael Lewis' score is wonderful, and I laughed a lot (as did the rest of the audience in 1974). On top of that the caper plot is very clever and overall I think it is worth your time- if you like such things.

This is an entertaining caper film given a little extra special something by Charles Grodin's deadpan voice-over. I'm alarmed to note from other comments that there's a version without the voice-over at large, wreaking untold damage and stopping the film gaining the cult rep it would surely otherwise enjoy. This is a desecration and those responsible must be hunted down with hounds.

Grodin is by turns funny and cool as hell as a small-time gem dealer forced to mount an ingenious large-scale heist against London's biggest diamond monopoly, the snobbish and deadly cabal at 11 Harrowhouse, enjoyably personified by an ice-cold John Gielgud and Peter Vaughan in full troll mode. James Mason is touching as the only decent man in the organisation and Trevor Howard on great form as the shady/barking-mad aristocrat who finances the robbery. Candice Bergen is adorable as Grodin's smart, beautiful, feisty paramour and accomplice.

In some ways the film is of its time (1974), mostly in a good way. In fact the only potentially laughable/winceable groovy-London moment is when Bergen casts the I-Ching while speeding along in her sports car; even that struck me as pretty cool actually. The schmaltzy piano-bar soundtrack works wonderfully, I think. London itself - buildings, vehicles, Pools-playing cockney security guards - looks gorgeously down-at-heel and I never watch this film without a twinge of nostalgia.

Catch it if it's ever on TV and you're in the mood for escapist fun - do make sure it's the version with the voice-over, though.

Apparently someone had a really good idea to save 11 Harrowhouse. They added a voice-over narration by star Charles Grodin, sharp and laconical that really lifts the film from the mediocre to the good. There seems to be another version of the film without it, but I can't imagine it being as good as this.

11 Harrowhouse is the name of the address where a few people headed by John Gielgud control the diamond market of the world. They have billions of dollars or English pounds if you will of gems in their vaults and manipulate the world market value like a yo-yo. Gielgud is a cold and forbidding man and he's one who delights in screwing the little people in his employ. One of them is diamond cutter James Mason who is as reliable as Alec Guinness was in The Lavendar Hill Mob. He's also got a plan. When Grodin and Candice Bergen come up short with 'the System' as Gielgud's consortium is called, Mason has them as allies.

The three of them have the backing of billionaire Trevor Howard who also likes messing with people. He messes with Grodin and Grodin has no choice but to aid in the robbery.

The best part of the film is the robbery itself. Someone has to be sacrificed, but the idea is incredibly ingenious and bloody simple.

Mason comes off best in this, a little man who just wants to get even with those who have treated him like a doormat all his working life.

An enjoyable caper film, diamond exchange in Amsterdam, take note.

Considering the pedigree of the cast it's odd that this film didn't do better. There's much to recommend this story of a diamond broker being maneuvered into robbing a London diamond exchange of its inventory (a caper involving such tools as a desperate employee, a piece of chocolate cake and a cockroach). The dialogue is liberally peppered with Grodin's wry voice-over commentary, and this film is one of the few places where his style of humor actually manages to work. It's no Topkapi, but a pleasant way to waste some time. Considerably more light-hearted than the Gerald Browne book on which it was based.

Charles Grodin, who co-wrote is almost always self-conscious, and it's self-consciousness that ultimately sinks this otherwise entertaining diamond heist caper. The excellent starring and supporting cast can't quite prevent the audience from being confused as to whether this is supposed to be a smart parody or a complicated thriller. The director was the excellent film editor of "Jazz On A Summer's Day", "Lilith", "The Miracle Worker", etc