11 Harrowhouse (1974)

Really Surprised!

It is a performances centric movie

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

"11 Harrowhouse" is a heist film from 1974 starring Charles Grodin, Candice Bergen, James Mason, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, and the recently deceased Peter Vaughan.I, unfortunately, saw a bad print of this which took away from my viewing. I love heist films, and the robbery of jewels here is clever and entertaining, as is the car chase toward the end.Grodin is a diamond trader, Howard R. Chesser, though he is not a major player. The Diamond Exchange in London, address 11 Harrowhouse, monitors the control of diamonds, hoarding tons of them to keep the value high. A multi-millionaire, Clyde Massey (Howard) wants a large diamond named after him and gives the million-pound deal to Chesser. Alas, when Chesser and Maren (Bergen) go to have the diamond cut, it's stolen from them.Massey then blackmails him and orders him to steal the four tons of diamonds at the Exchange. With the daredevil Maren and an inside man (Mason), Chesser gets to work. The film painstakingly shows the planning and execution of the heist, so the real excitement is the car chase that takes place.Grodin has that wry way about him that worked for the character. Though I love Candice Bergen, I've never held her acting in high esteem - her metier turned out to be comedy. She's beautiful - it's not a great role. And you can't go wrong with people like Gielgud, Mason, and Howard, all of whom are terrific.Clever heist film, attractive stars, and entertaining.

Charles Grodin plays a small time diamond merchant jumps at the chance to supervise the purchase and cutting of a large first class diamond. But when the diamond is stolen from him, he is blackmailed into pulling off a major heist at the Diamond Exchange, located at 11 Harrowhouse, Candice Bergen, is Grodin's glamorous lover interest, James Mason also stars he aids Grodin in his scheme to rob 11 Harrowhouse in a very ingenious way! Trevor Howard is the shady Lord Massey, John Gielguld is in typical full on snob mode, '11 Harrowhouse' or if shown elsewhere or on television it is also known as 'Anything for Love' it's been unavailable for years, only on Laserdisc, but at this moment as i type it is available from the 'Shout factory label' in widescreen, 11 Harrowhouse is an enjoyable rainy day feel good film,

This could have been a fairly entertaining caper movie, but it never comes to life. It has a promising cast, but most of the performers are given nothing to do; James Mason brings the only traces of humanity to an otherwise very mechanical movie. In the last 15 minutes, the filmmakers even throw in some car chases and shoot-outs, probably hoping that the movie would gain some tension (since there are no laughs), but it remains strangely indifferent and uninvolving throughout. (**)

Charles Grodin, who co-wrote is almost always self-conscious, and it's self-consciousness that ultimately sinks this otherwise entertaining diamond heist caper. The excellent starring and supporting cast can't quite prevent the audience from being confused as to whether this is supposed to be a smart parody or a complicated thriller. The director was an excellent film editor of "Jazz On A Summer's Day", "Lilith", "The Miracle Worker", etc