Diamond Head was a so so to reasonable film about power and mixed marriage, but nothing special. I did not care for any character in this film. Richard is suppose to be unlikable, but Sloane isn't much better, she will basically have anyone who will jump into the water with her. Jumping from one brother to the next. Sloane: Feel? That's just it, I don't feel. Anything. Paul must of loved me and all I felt was a blank. I don't know how to love. Then she gets with Dean after telling him this. This is a romance?? There was no chemistry between anyone. It was an interesting and engaging enough film though.

Unless I missed it, there's not a single reference to Diamond Head in this Hawaii-set soap opera. Nevertheless, the meaningless title is not the most perplexing thing about the film. What's astounding is how seriously Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, James Darren & George Chakiris take this melodrama. Heston is Richard "King" Howland, a modern day ruler of a plantation where nothing transpires without his input. Mimieux is his extraordinarily younger sister, bent on marrying islander Darren. A lot of lurid nonsense ensues as Heston's hypocrisy is revealed. There's no action, some fairly lousy acting and some rather dull direction by Guy Green. Heston says "damn" a lot, Mimieux gets drunk a lot and France Nuyen (as Heston's kept woman) espouses a lot of common sense advice to virtually everyone. Frankly, the film is so boring, an eruption by ANY volcano would have been most welcome.

From the beginning of the film when manly Chuck Heston majestically rides his horse through the sprawling pineapple fields, to the triumphant swelling of a young John Williams' score, the viewer knows that this movie is BIG.Well, it is big in the sense that it's one of those big soap operas that were popular in the mid-50's to the mid-60's, trademarks of producer Ross Hunter (not the maker of this one, though).The plot is rather simple: plantation owner (Heston) has a little sister (Yvette Mimieux) that's carrying on with a native boy (James Darren), much to the displeasure of Heston, who himself is having a fling with a native girl (France Nuyen, looking appealing as ever). Thus, all things come out in the open, though tragically, and the hypocritical Heston finds himself a wealthy man, abandoned and alone.

A good film, Macbeth and Romeo-Juliet in a Hawaiian setting. Credible performances, but this film could have been shot in California or mostly on a soundstage. It deserves better than a 4.5 of 10 but surely not more than a 7. A poignant social, cultural commentary on Hawaii becoming a State in mid-Twentieth century.