Diamonds (1975 film)

Diamonds
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Menahem Golan Arik Dichner
Written by	Menahem Golan David Paulsen
Produced by	Yoram Globus Menahem Golan
Starring	Robert Shaw Richard Roundtree Barbara Hershey Shelley Winters
Cinematography	Adam Greenberg
Edited by	Dov Hoenig
Music by	Roy Budd
Distributed by	AVCO Embassy Pictures
Release date	October 22, 1975 (1975-10-22) (U.S.)
Running time	120 minutes
Countries	Israel United States
Language	English

Diamonds is a 1975 Israeli-American heist film directed by Menachem Golan and Arik Dichner. Robert Shaw stars in a dual role as twin brothers. Richard Roundtree, Barbara Hershey and Shelley Winters are co-stars. The film was also released as Diamond Shaft, although it has no relation to the Shaft films other than having Roundtree in the cast.

Plot

Charles Hodgson (Shaw) is a British aristocrat who decides to become a thief as a way of getting at his twin brother, Earl (Shaw), a security expert who has built a supposedly impregnable vault in Tel Aviv, which holds a cache of diamonds. For the caper, Charles enlists Archie (Roundtree), a heist expert, and Sally. He also becomes acquainted with an American woman, Zelda Shapiro (Winters), who is in Israel looking for a new husband.

Cast

• Robert Shaw as Charles Hodgson / Earl Hodgson
• Richard Roundtree as Archie
• Barbara Hershey as Sally (credited as Barbara Seagull)
• Shelley Winters as Zelda Shapiro
• Shaike Ophir as Moshe
• Yosef Shiloach as Mustafa
• Gadi Yagil as Gaby
• Yehuda Efroni as Salzburg

Production

Casting

Menahem Golan, the film's director, aimed to create an international picture with a foreign cast and in the English language, in the hopes of securing distribution beyond Israel. Golan met with veteran agent John Gaines in Hollywood to discuss casting English actor, Robert Shaw, who was in final negotiations to star End of the Game (1975). Upon reading the script, Gaines encouraged Golan to consider casting his other clients, Barbara Hershey and Richard Roundtree. Golan was interested in Hershey but was considering Michael York and David Hemmings for the role of Archie.

Filming

The film directors, Menachem Golan and Arik Dichner were inspired by the Israel Diamond Exchange in Tel Aviv and decided to shoot the film on location in Israel. Scenes were also filmed in London on Bond Street. Towards the end of filming, Shaw's actress wife Mary Ure died at their recently rented Mayfair home from an accidental overdose, and was discovered by Shaw.

Reception

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars in a review published by the Chicago Sun-Times on 1 January 1975. Ebert was impressed by the casting but felt that it did not hold up compared to masterpiece films from the heist film genre.

See also

• List of American films of 1975

External links

• Diamonds at IMDb
• Diamonds at Rotten Tomatoes
• Diamonds at the TCM Movie Database
• Diamonds at AllMovie