11 Harrowhouse is a 1974 British heist film with Charles Grodin, James Mason and Candice Bergen. It's based on a novel by Gerald A Browne, Charles Grodin did the adaptation, Jeffrey Bloom wrote the screenplay, Aram Avakian did the directing. I'm not much of a fan of Charles or Candice but they do OK for the most part. Charles is a small diamond merchant, he often deals with The System, a prestigious diamond house at 11 Harrowhouse Street in London.
Charles gets involved with millionaire Trevor Howard who hires him to obtain a big fancy diamond for his collection. Charles takes the million dollar check, the stone is bought, cut and stolen all in a week. Now Charles is in hock to Trevor for a million bucks. Trevor blackmails Charles into stealing all the diamonds from The System. John Gielgud s the head of the firm, James Mason is one of his employees. There's a whole sad sub plot with James that makes him turn against his employers.
The robbery is a success. The System had a lot of uncut diamonds but selling them could crash the market. Charles has a fun plan to keep them secure and out of anyone's hands. It's fun enough but it's not going to be something I'd bother buying.
The Black Shield Of Falworth is a 1954 Tony Curtis film set in English when Henry the 4th was King. It's based on a Howard Pyle novel called Men Of Iron, screenplay by Oscar Brodney, directed by Rudolph Maté. Tony is a peasant who is really the son of a nobleman who had been accused falsely of treason. Tony's dad was murdered by the Earl of Alban and his lands taken. Tony winds up in training for The Earl of Macworth. He doesn't believe that Tony's dad was a traitor but he has no proof. He had Tony trained up and eventually the day for Tony to fight the evil Earl does come.
Every now and again I like these big Hollywood adventure tales. It was fun with all the usual knights in armor stuff going on. There's a bit of romance, plenty of court intrigue, a few punch ups, and jousting. This is one that I might want to watch again, Tony's no Errol Flynn but he's alright, so is the movie.
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