11 Harrowhouse

11 Harrowhouse
11 Harrowhouse promotional movie poster
Directed by Aram Avakian
Produced by Elliott Kastner
Denis Holt (associate producer)
Written by Charles Grodin (adaptation)
Screenplay by Jeffrey Bloom
Based on 11 Harrowhouse
1972 novel
by Gerald A. Browne
Starring Candice Bergen
James Mason
Charles Grodin
John Gielgud
Trevor Howard
Narrated by Charles Grodin
Music by Michael J. Lewis
Cinematography Arthur Ibbetson
Edited by Anne V. Coates
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • 1974 (1974)
Running time
 94 min
Country United Kingdom
Language English

11 Harrowhouse is a 1974 British DeLuxe Color film directed by Aram Avakian and starring Charles Grodin, Candice Bergen, James Mason, Trevor Howard and John Gielgud in Panavision. It was adapted by Charles Grodin based upon the novel by Gerald A. Browne with the screenplay by Jeffrey Bloom.

Plot synopsis

In England, a small-time diamond merchant (Charles Grodin) is unexpectedly offered the chance to supervise the purchase and cutting of an extremely large diamond to be named for its wealthy owner (Trevor Howard). When the diamond is stolen from him, he is blackmailed into pulling off a major heist at "The System," located at 11 Harrowhouse, with the help of his beautiful and wealthy girlfriend (Candice Bergen). The key figure in the theft, however, is the inside man Watts (James Mason) who works in the vault at The System. Watts is dying of cancer and wants to leave his family financially secure.

Although "The System" has an elaborate network of defenses and alarms against intruders, the robbery is carried out at night by gaining access to the roof from an adjacent property and threading a hose down a conduit into the vault, where Watts uses it to vacuum up thousands of rough diamonds out of their drawers. The thieves leave before the robbery is discovered, and when found in the vault in the morning, Watts claims to have eaten the gems. Before he can confess, Watts swallows poison and dies at 11 Harrowhouse. Most of the loot is buried in concrete, to prevent it flooding the market.

Cast

Reviews

Time magazine reviewed the film positively, and described the cast as "poised and stylish."

Relevance

A prominent theme of the film revolves around how the primary world diamond producer controls the price of diamonds by creating artificial scarcity, much as oil producers do today.

Versions

The film has been screened in two versions in the past - both with and without a retrospective commentary from Grodin's character, H.R. Chesser. The version without commentary plays under two alternate titles, either Anything for Love or Fast Fortune. Neither version was broadcast often on television; the version without the commentary was the most widely available for purchase for a time. The film was released on LaserDisc by Fox Video in Widescreen Format and with the commentary intact.

DVD release

On 2 February 2011, Shout! Factory is to release the film for the first time on DVD, but only on Region 1 (USA) Disc.[1]

References

  1. ↑ http://chud.com/articles/articles/26675/1/SHOUT-FACTORY-UNLEASHES-A-LOAD-OF-DVDS/Page1.html


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