THE DIAMOND WIZARD (1954)

Immensely likable (if too tall for his own good), Dennis O’Keefe tried to arrest ‘50s tv drift by starring in and directing a pair of European films.  How much he directed debatable with Montgomery Tully taking sole credit in this film's UK release as THE DIAMOND, and writer Edoardo Anton listed on IMDb as ‘uncredited director’ for ANGELA over in Italy.  Not that anyone’s fighting for credit!  DIAMOND, a typical low budget affair, sees a gang of counterfeiters hold a genius professor in their lab making artificial gems that match the real thing.  They’ll destabilize the diamond market and make a killing.  Actually, they’ve already made a killing, taking out a U.S. Treasury Agent hot on their trail.  Enter replacement O’Keefe, in London working the case with Brit Agent Philip Friend when the two aren’t fighting over Margaret Sheridan, daughter of that kidnapped artificial diamond inventor.  Threadbare stuff (other than a nifty chase scene that ends on a moving escalator), but stick thru drab production values, witless dialogue & insufferable upwardly mobile British accents to be rewarded by a crackerjack climax as the lab is attacked from within (feuding crooks) and without (police raid) for a proto-James Bond finale (think DR. NO meets GOLDFINGER).  (Did they bring in a third director?)  Made on a dime, with most of the budget and just about all the creativity in that climax.  It’s even more fun, as is the rest of the pic, when seen in a Blu-Ray 3D edition (see clip below) which adds life to almost every dull interior and boring camera set-up, not just the ones where they throw things toward the camera.  Britain’s first 3D release (it came out ‘flat’ in the States), the recent Kino Classics Blu-Ray edition, mastered in the old RED lens/BLUE lens system works surprisingly well.*

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *O’Keefe got a rare chance to put a twist on his likability factor a few years earlier in one of the great film noir ‘finds’ out there, starring against Ann Sheridan for actor-turned-director Norman Foster in WOMAN ON THE RUN/’50.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/12/woman-on-run-1950.html

LINK:  *Dig out that old pair of cheap cardboard glasses you stuffed in the back of your sock drawer to watch a Test Scene.   https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&sxsrf=AJOqlzVa1ISABjxSRaSDcwkoOcromt-hmg:1677180720609&q=the+diamond+wizard+3d+youtube&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0r82Isaz9AhWrE1kFHRFsC-0Q8ccDegQIDBAH&biw=1517&bih=694&dpr=0.9#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:adb9ad32,vid:X4ZFJPOnMcE