"Ambrose C. Park. That's the name they gave me. On account of that' s where they found me. Ambrose Central Park". Red Skelton tells us the premise of the film in another of his madcap capers, in his prime. The film opens with Ambrose in the park, hoping to meet up with the parents who had left him in there all those years ago. He meets up with a shady character who is determined to help him find his long lost parents, for a fee. His new lawyer "friend" Remlick (James Whitmore) quickly puts together a family for Park to meet, and then the adventure begins. Keep an eye out for Reginald Owen, who was in SO many films.. notably as the Admiral in Mary Poppins. It's entertaining, but Skelton plays it pretty serious in this one, for a change. Cara Williams plays his sister Maggie, with Dorothy Stickney as "Mom". Park also gets into scrapes with Maggie's boss, and his own boss at work. This is listed as a comedy, but while the script moves right along, there are many sad moments, and the actual comedy is pretty sparse. His big, happy "family" of small time hoods tries to talk him into doing some un-ethical things at work, and he has some un-expected help leading up to big finale. This was the last time Skelton worked with Director Robert Leonard, and in fact, Leonard only made a couple more films after this one. If you are not familiar with Leonard's stellar list of projects, check out his list of films at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Z._Leonard ; he made some real biggies, and was Oscar-nominated for the Great Ziegfeld and for The Divorcée. The Great Diamond Robbery isn't any Shakespeare piece, but historically, it's one of Skelton's films, and a whole lot easier to watch than a Shakespeare! Written by László Vadnay, who had also written Copacabana (Groucho and Carmen Miranda) and Tales of Manhattan (WC Fields).
Review of The Great Diamond Robbery
