Diamonds for Breakfast * (1968, Marcello Mastroianni, Rita Tushingham, Elaine Taylor) – Classic Movie Review 9309

Italian idol Marcello Mastroianni came to Britain to play the Grand Duke Nicholas Wladimirovitch Goduno, a poor but sexy Soviet noble, in director Christopher Morahan’s weird 1968 Swinging Sixties heist caper comedy Diamonds for Breakfast.

The Grand Duke is the rightful Russian heir and plans to snatch the Russian Imperial royal gems carelessly kept in an English country house, and he uses his charm to attract seven pretty thieving assistants.

It is difficult to believe either in the yarn or Marcello Mastroianni here, although everybody tries hard to please, and the three legendary British funny men in the cast – Warren Mitchell, Bill Fraser, Leonard Rossiter – help to make it worth a look.

TV veteran director Christopher Morahan (1929–2017) stumbles in his film debut.

It is the last film of David Horne (as the Duke of Windemere).

Also in the cast are Rita Tushingham, Elaine Taylor, Margaret Blye [Maggie Blye], Francesca Tu, Nora Nicholson, Bryan Pringle, Charles Lloyd Pack, and Anne Blake.

Diamonds for Breakfast is directed by Christopher Morahan, runs 102 minutes, is made by ABC Pictures, Bridge Films and Paramount Pictures, is released by Paramount, is written by N F Simpson, Pierre Rouve, and Ronald Harwood, is shot in Eastmancolor by Gerry Turpin, is produced by Carlo Ponti and Pierre Rouve, scored by Norman Kaye, and designed by Reece Pemberton.

Filming took place at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, and in London.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9309

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