 |
| Title: DATELINE DIAMONDS Year: 1965 Rating: ***1/2 |
An otherwise nifty heist caper... with an agenda to promote the British band SMALL FACES... has two fitting actors, old and young, both having starred in several crime b-pictures, beginning with William Lucas, who played every incarnation of criminal... from cold-blooded to cowardly from THE BREAK to CALCULATED RISK to PAYROLL... and the intensely vulnerable Kenneth Cope from JUNGLE STREET, THE CONVICT and THE DAMNED...
Herein, Cope is the crooked manager of the band, and Lucas has his number... an intense actor never using costumes but here he resembles Inspector Clouseau if originally cast Peter Ustinov played him more straight, and his anti-chemistry with the younger Cope works surprisingly well... yet they mostly work together by remaining apart...
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
One scene shows Lucas stealing the diamonds for a suspenseful ten-minutes where it seems anything can happen, especially with detective duo Conrad Phillips and George Mikell garnering more sporadic screen-time than the first-billed crooks: but what's supposed to matter is a rushed ending where the band plays a song or two, and the previous dirty work means nothing (plus the camera only sticks to a boring closeup of the lead singer's face)...
A shame since the terrifically pulpy-titled DATELINE DIAMONDS ultimately wastes a potentially good villain AND cop duo, entangled in an interesting plot... all so a music group could get a number one hit, which never panned-out: at least not because of this mostly forgotten programmer.
 |
William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS
|
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| Conrad Phillips and George Mikell in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| The Chantells in DATELINE DIAMONDSl |
 |
| Conrad Phillips and George Mikell in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas and Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| The Small Faces in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| Kenneth Cope in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| Credits for DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| Credits for DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| Credits for DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
| William Lucas in DATELINE DIAMONDS |
 |
William Lucas & Kenneth Cope in 1960's Earlier British New Wave Crime Films
|
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.