Diamond City

I guess that the two very recent reviews were prompted by DC being screened on the excellent British TV channel Talking Pictures. (I watch more films on it than all the other TV channels together.) The film's based on fact though I couldn't find much about Stafford Parker on the Web, save that he customarily wore a large white top hat!

David Farrar didn't fully convince as Parker, his slight build making him an unlikely victor in his gritty fistfight with the far larger Niall MacGinnis. But generally the acting was very acceptable and I was impressed with the realistic grubbiness of Klipdrift and its residents - a welcome contrast to the neat towns and smarty-turned out actors of most American Westerns.

At least three of the cast had appeared together in "A Boy, a Girl and a Bike", released the same year as DC: Honor Blackman, Diana Dors and John Blythe.

David Farrar is "Parker", a man trying to bring some sense of law and order to a diamond mining community in pre-colonial South Africa. Most of his fellow citizens welcome his proposals save for "Muller" (Niall MacGinnis). The former wins a concession from the local chief to mine and export the diamonds after a bit of fisticuffs with his nemesis, but that just serves to sow the seeds for the constant undermining of his ideals until a final denouement with both men fighting for their lives, and for control of "Hopetown". Filmed on location, it looks quite good but the adventure elements are all too often dragged into melodrama by the romantic ones. Diana Dors ("Dora" - who does a decent on-stage number here) and Honor Blackman ("Mary") find themselves the object of not just the desires of "Parker" but of his friend "David" (Andrew Crawford) and there is a touch of bible-based do-gooding from Mervyn Johns to further clutter up the narrative. The script is very wordy at times, and I could have done with a better lit production too. Farrar tries his best here, but sadly this is just another routine, and pretty forgettable, effort from all concerned.

I've had the pleasure of seeing several movies just recently directed by David MacDonald and this is the best. Looking through his IMDb page I noticed that he turned to television in the 1950's as so many directors and big name actors did and he directed some of the series I used to watch and enjoy as a boy but It's Diamond City that has made me aware of his name at last. This is a rousing adventure film set in the gold mines of South Africa where a true life character named Stafford Parker temporarily became President of the Republic of the area before the British government annexed it. Played with gusto by the underrated David Farrar, Stafford Parker bulldozes his way through the picture, never shy of physically fighting off the villains intent of getting the gold for themselves. Niall McGuinness gives a convincing portrayal of the big brawling adversary, Diana Dors (only 18) is the barmaid who is besotted by Farrar who in turn falls in love with the missionary's (Mervyn Johns) daughter played by a young Honor Blackman, who sadly passed away recently aged 94). I smiled at one point as Diana Dors refers to Honor as the 'Kid'. Blackman was 6 years older than Diana in reality although Diana has much more impact than the mousy (at the time) Blackman who changed all that later through The Avengers (TV) and Goldfinger. This film plays much like a western and I was very impressed with sets, dirty, muddy, ramshackle buildings, much like it may have been and reminding me of the Dodge City sets in the great TV series Deadwood. There are some really great fight scenes like in a John Wayne western and an impressive charge on horseback by the gold diggers against the villains near the closing scenes. Intelligently written and acted, particularly by Farrar, I loved this movie.

David Farrar wears a realistically ugly mustache in this movie about Stafford Parker, the leader of the diamond miners along the Vaal during the period when the Boers and the British were wrangling peacefully for control of the land. He loves Salvation Army lass Homor Blackman, and is loved by bar girl Diana Dors, and has the villainous Niall MacGinnis as his adversary; it was all right when he was selling whiskey to the Blacks, but now MacGinnis is buying diamonds from them. Gasp.

Given that all we know about the real Stafford Parker is there was one, it's a surprisingly warty portrait of the period, with the air of an A Western. Farrar acts somewhere between Errol Flynn and Preston Foster in his performance. The movie is peppered with stage extravaganzas of "Up in A Balloon, Boys" and lynchings and battles, so that the editing has an almost stroboscopic effect. It's always at least watchable, and frequently better. I just wish the print was a little lighter.

This film is set in the newly discovered diamond fields of Southern Africa, in the 1870s, and is loosely based on real events. This area was arguably wilder than the wild west, for a while. The discovery of diamonds alongside the Vaal river created quite a rumpus at the time; in a disputed area, claimed by various parties, the only law and order was one that the 10000-odd diggers made for themselves. Eventually the region was annexed by the British and later became part of the Orange Free State, but in the meantime, following an attempted takeover by the Transvaal Boers, a short lived "Digger's Republic" was declared.

Instrumental in the creation and administration of the Digger's Republic was Cpt Stafford Parker; that much is historically accurate, beyond that however it is most likely artistic licence having precedence over historical fact. However that few of the protagonists speak with anything like a South African accent is probably quite accurate; most of the diggers were British emigrants and the characters that are variously Boers and Native Africans do have accents that are not a million miles from those they might have had in reality.

As a film, it isn't a bad film; it would have been immeasurably improved by being shot in widescreen colour, but presumably the budget did not permit this; the arid landscape is pretty much lost in shades of grey here. However for modern movie buffs the main interest is probably in the cast; David Farrar (of Black Narcissus fame) has the lead, with a decent supporting cast including a very young Diana Dors and an equally young Honor Blackman. Bill 'Compo' Owen has a decent role too. Honor Blackman plays a prim, "butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth" type, in stark contrast to the later roles such as 'Pussy Galore' and in the Avengers for which she is better known. Dors has her largest role to date in this film; here she throws a mean bottle! Although there is a plot with more than one love triangle that could have been explored in subtlety and depth (as per Black Narcissus), all played out to the harsh backdrop of the African scenery, here it is something of an opportunity missed.

So a film that is worth watching for sure, but not for the reasons for which it was originally made. For once I think the average score (6.0 at the time of writing) isn't a bad reflection of this film's quality.