"11 Harrowhouse" in a London-based crime caper flick based on a novel by Gerald A. Browne. Only die-hard retro movie fans are probably aware of the movie's existence and it has long been out of print on DVD. The film marked the first starring role for Charles Grodin since his acclaimed performance in Neil Simon's 1972 comedy "The Heartbreak Kid", which coincidentally is also not available on home video. (Does some fiend out there have an "in" for Charles Grodin movies?) The movie starts off with a bang when an ambitious diamond theft caper goes wrong just as the thieves are congratulating themselves. They don't live to regret it. The assassination has been secretly carried out by the diamond cartel known as "The System", which is located at a posh London mansion at the title address. Grodin plays American Howard R. Chesser, a rather small-time independent diamond broker who buys from the exchange on behalf of his clients. The System is headed by Meecham (John Gielgud), the epitome of the old-fashioned English gentleman who runs the place like a military establishment, and with good reason: 11 Harrowhouse has the largest stockpile of diamonds on the world market and they are worth tens of billions of pounds. Howard is tolerated at the cartel's headquarters, but he is considered to be small potatoes compared to some of their other clients. The System has so many diamonds in its possession that it can alter the price of the stones on the world market depending upon how many they allow to be traded.
Howard's girlfriend is Maren Shirell (Candice Bergen), a beautiful and outrageously rich young woman who has inherited her fortune. She lives recklessly to avoid being bored, driving her race car at top speed under death-defying conditions. When Howard comes up with an audacious and dangerous caper to pull off, Maren is all in on the scheme. Having visited The System headquarters on many occasions, he has befriended Charles Watts (James Mason), a loyal employee of the firm for almost 30 years. He confides in Howard that he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and isn't expected to last until his 30th anniversary with the company, which would ensure he is fully vetted in his pension benefits which would allow his family to live without hardships once he has passed away. He explains that he has told Meecham about his situation and asked him to reward him for his decades of loyal service by promising to provide the full benefits to his family if he doesn't reach his actual 30th anniversary with the firm. Meechum expresses sympathy but has told him that he would only pay 20% of the benefits to the family, should Watts pass away before his anniversary date is reached. The droll, understated Watts wants to get a measure of revenge on Meechum by enlisting Howard and Maren to assist him in pulling off the robbery of all the diamonds stockpiled at 11 Harrowhouse.
This is the crux of the caper aspect of the movie but the screenplay by Jeffrey Bloom (adapted by Charles Grodin) skips far too quickly to the execution of the crime. It presents an implausible scenario in which Watts lays the groundwork for his co-conspirators by making them familiar with how the diamonds are stored. Howard and Maren then gain access to the roof of the facility and manage to use a gigantic tube to act as a vacuum to suck the diamonds out of the drawers, with Watts having secreted himself inside the vault area to feed the diamonds into the device. All of this is clever and amusing to point, but it's illogical that two people without criminal pasts could possibly pull off the crime, which they do with relative ease. Not helping matters is director Aram Avakian's inability to squeeze even a modicum of suspense out of the sequence. It's the type of caper film young Michael Caine would have starred in a decade before and probably with better results.
There is a subplot that precedes the successful execution of the caper that involves Trevor Howard as Clyde Massey, a Goldfnger-like villain who lives on a magnificent estate. He also wants Howard for a mission, albeit not a dangerous one. He hires Howard to seek out a rare "perfect diamond" and spend up to one million dollars on the gem. How this ultimately fits into the criminal aspect of the story is too long to go into. Suffice it to say that after our heroes have stolen the diamonds from Harrowhouse, things run amock- and so does the script. The whole thing ends with double-crosses and a mad cap chase across Massey's estate with the rich man and his bodyguards pursuing Howard and Maren's diamond-packed van on horseback. The sight of the dapper Howard riding at full gallop across the fields is the closest we'd ever get to see him in a John Ford production. The stunts by the famed Joe Powell are impressive and worthy of a Bond film and they are set to a lively score by Michael J. Lewis, but the elaborate chase scene (which even involves Massey's wife, played by Howard's real-life spouse Helen Cherry) is a messy and unsatisfactory way to end the film. When the studio held a test screening of "11 Harrowhouse", audience response was dire. Thus, Grodin added a narration throughout the film that works well. Not having seen the original version, I can only say that the narration was generally believed to enhance the final cut. It should be noted that editor Anne V. Coates (who would win an Oscar the following year for her brilliant work on "Jaws") has gone on record in decrying the film, saying that Aram Avakian was out of his depth on the film and that, despite their on-screen chemistry, Grodin and Bergen did not like each other.
Given my lukewarm feelings toward the film, you may wonder why I'm hoping for a Blu-ray release. (The original DVD version is long out print but can still be bought through third party sellers on Amazon.) I feel that, despite the movie's flaws, there are enough positive aspects to merit viewing it. A primary reason is the enjoyable performances, notably by the presence British film legends Gielgud, Mason and Howard. Their presence alone makes the film worth seeing. Another reason is that I truly wish that all major films were available on home video. So, I hope that at some point, "11 Harrowhouse" returns to the market in a deluxe Blu-ray edition wherein the film's attributes and faults can be discussed in detail.
The movie is available to purchase for streaming from YouTube. If you live in America and your cable TV package includes FXM, you might be able to access the film on demand, as I did.
