DIAMONDS FOR BREAKFAST
US, 1968, 102 minutes, Colour.
Marcello Mastroianni, Rita Tushingham, Elaine Taylor, Warren Mitchell, Leonard Rossiter.
Directed by Christopher Morahan.
Diamonds for Breakfast must have looked good in the planning stages. A Carlo Ponti production, the screenplay was co-written by offbeat English comedy writer N. F. Simpson (One Way Pendulum), French director Pierre Rouve and playwright Ronald Harwood (The Dresser). There is good location colour photography and some humorous fantasy. However, the film does not really come off. Marcello Mastroianni partly enjoys himself (a bit awkward and embarrassed) in the central role. He is supported by Rita Tushingham, Warren Mitchell, Leonard
Rossiter and others in good character roles. There are also some glamorous and athletic leading ladies. Direction is by Christopher Morahan, film and television director. Perhaps the film was too much influenced by the psychedelic effort of the late '60s.
1. An international comedy? British style? Continental? Ambitions? Achievement?
2. Colour photography, English locations? Special effects - for the robbery, for the martial arts? For the exhibition and photography? For the dreams and fantasies? Musical score?
3. The film's use of the robbery genre? The preparations for the robbery, the devices, the execution - humour and suspense? Comparisons with films of its kind?
4. The basic plausibility of the plot: the Grand Duke, Nicky, and his owning of a boutique, the visit to Westbury Castle, the accidental (literal banana-skin) encounter with Bridget? The ghosts of his ancestors? His grand-aunt Anastasia? The idea of the robbery? The recruiting of the girls - and Nicky as a ladies' man? The preparations, the impositions on the Russians, the English police and their investigations? Success - and the final irony of Anastasia losing all the diamonds at the casino? The satirical elements?
5. Marcello Mastroianni as the ladies' man? The Russian background? His work in the boutique? The encounter with Bridget? The humour of his dreams - and his looking like Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible? The romantic seduction of the female accomplices? The jokes about sexual prowess? The relationship with Bridget? The preparations for the charity show? The Russian security agent? Police protection? His participation in the robbery? The finale?
6. Rita Tushingham's style as Bridget? Liverpool and Ireland! The encounter with Nicky, the banana-peel, her work as an artist, metal sculpture, her ability with safes? The plan, preparations, the execution?
7. The gallery of the female accomplices: Victoria the confidence trickster, Honey the cat-burglar, Jeanne Silkfingers the conjuror, the triplets and the judo, ju jitsu, karate? Comparisons with Bridget and her lack of glamour? Their role in preparation, the modelling and the wearing of the jewels, the robbery? The sex jokes?
8. Warren Mitchell's impersonation of the Russian security guard, his gullibility, care, quotations from Marx, his sign of the cross? The satirical touch?
9. The sketch of the British police? Serious, comic?
10. Aunt Anastasia and the play on her name, Russian aristocracy, her gambling and losing the diamonds?
11. The popularity of the robbery film? The details of the preparation? The happily amoral tone? Too self-conscious in this film?
