The original novel written by Gerald A. Browne is a masterpiece, an immediate classic, but it was completely ruined by this lousy film. First of all, the screenplay was horrible! How come you'd use the leading role in this novel, Chesser, played by Charles Grodin, to narrate almost every segment of this film, used him to describe what's going on and what he felt. It made this film like Chesser have become the 1st person in his memoir to talk about what he'd encountered for his revenge and heist against 11 Harrowhouse. We are watching a film instead of listening to an audio recording. What a lousy and lazy arrangement this stupid screenplay was. And then, the director seemed to be a moron who just lazily followed the script and shot the picture as it was. What a stupid moron!Secondly, signing up Charles Grodin to play the protagonist was the 2nd worse thing. This guy was not a good actor, but a deadbeat 2-tier actor with a protruding lower chin and lower lip over his upper lip, in addition to his facial features, eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth (the lower lip overbites the upper lip) all squeezed together to the center that limited his expressions to the least. What we saw was an unwelcoming face like a poorly designed mask. He in this film just looked like a deadbeat, passionless zombie. So making Maren, played by Candice Bergen, to love him without any reservation was just so impossible to swallow. Gerald A. Browne always made his heroines in his novels a headstrong, iron-willed, smart and tough ladies, never gave a damn to almost anything, a female far superior to her counterparts, i.e., either their boyfriends or husbands. All the fantastic and amazing heists were almost carried through by their female intelligence and abnormally high I.Q. Candice Bergen to play Maren was a pretty good cast but partnered with the lousy Charles Grodin was just a unmatchable waste. What a shame. James Mason played the important inside man who suffered terminal cancer was a good cast job, but again, the lousy script didn't allow him to show more of his talent.During the final car chase, so many bullets hit the van, but none of them even hit the rear tires. The chase cars explosions were just laughable. Riding horses to chase high speed car....Are you kidding me?!If compares this film with the other film, "Green Ice", also adapted from Mr. Browne's novel, the latter was far better than this 11 Harrowhouse. All the ingredients were there both in the novel and the film, the budget based upon what we've seen in this film, would be also quite sufficient, but it's just like the main theme in this film, about Diamonds, this film looked just like a poorly cut diamond, making it worthless.

After so many years, I need to acquire a copy of this movie. I was ten years old when I saw it at (what is now) America's oldest drive-in theater (1934), Shankweiler's, in Orefield, Pa. near Allentown (this drive-in theater is still open during the summer and I encourage all enthusiasts and movie buffs to support it).I remember enjoying watching it and as the years have gone by, I seem to imagine that it was even better than I remembered it. I do recall Grodin's voice-over giving me the biggest laughs, and other moments of tension and timing during the heist made it all the more charming.I did have a crush on the younger Candace Bergen and I'm eager to see what she looked like back then. I am curious to see whether or not the 36 years in between will alter my opinion of the movie.

I am biased- I love this movie.In the theaters when I was a kid it was so much fun thanks to the added commentary over the movie by Charles Grodin. It was dry and hilarious and brought the story to life. Years later, on a video I found at a store the narration was gone and the movie seems flatter.It is a diamond heist movie filled with unique characters and it has a lighter tone than the novel it was based on which was not only darker and tougher but had a very different ending.The mostly English cast is great, Candice Bergen is gorgeous, Grodin seems like an odd choice but by the end turns out to have been right for it, Michael Lewis' score is wonderful, and I laughed a lot (as did the rest of the audience in 1974). On top of that the caper plot is very clever and overall I think it is worth your time- if you like such things.

The only redeeming feature of this movie is that it ends. It's a complete waste of time. The film is wretchedly photographed. The music often sounds as though it emanated from a high school group. Long car chases, exploding cars. Charles Grodin has exactly one facial expression. Candice Bergen has two. Sexless. Humorless. Adventureless. Not even the fifteen-year-old males for which the film is obviously ended could keep from falling asleep. It should have aired only on the USA channel.Leonard Maltin gave this three stars. He couldn't possibly have sat through it. I, alas, did. And the ending is the most absurd part of the film. Spare yourself. You could better spend your time in a chat room.