User Reviews

Just watched this on Talking Pictures. I had been expecting one of those cheesy films where some musically inclined kid is looking for his big break in order to save the local youth club/pay for his mother's operation/buy his granddad a pigeon loft etc. Instead the musical aspect was simply a backdrop to the plot which involved diamond smuggling using an offshore pirate radio station ship. Sixties, dodgy regular Kenneth Cope is manager of the Small Faces, but he has a criminal past from his army days, and his former c.o. Major Fairclough tracks him down and blackmails him into helping rob a Hatton Garden jewellers (quite topical!) Ditzy bus conductress Patsy Rowlands sees the crooked major and is able to provide a description of sorts. Policeman Conrad Phillips is helped by his teenage daughter when a photo of the culprits along with the Small Faces appears in a newspaper. Realising there is a connection, the chase is on. The stolen diamonds are hidden in demo tape boxes to be ferried out to the radio ship whence they will be picked up by a visiting Dutch music agent. Naturally, the Police manage to foil the thieves but only after the Major, played by William Lucas, nearly escapes in a stolen E-type jag which skids to a halt when he runs out of road at the docks. The pop stars perform their party pieces, but unless you were a particular fan, you probably won't recognise, or be impressed by, the songs. Apart from the Small Faces, Kiki Dee is also featured along with the Chantelles (I don't remember them at all!) For us oldies, the memories of pirate radio were fondly revived, along with the fashions and odd things like someone paying £2.07 for 8 gallons (40 litres) of petrol

Lester Benson (Kenneth Cope) is the manager of the top rock band The Small Faces, but he has a secret that he wants to keep hidden at all costs. He once did time in a military prison for impersonating an army officer and stealing army equipment. Since then all appears to have gone well until Major Fairclough (William Lucus), Benson's former commanding officer, appears and starts blackmailing him. Fairclough is now a master criminal and he forces Benson to help him steal some diamonds and smuggle them out of Britain into Amsterdam by sneaking them on board a radio ship, Radio London, hidden in a copy of vocal group The Chantelles' master tape. It will be passed on there to a Dutch agent who masquerades as a club owner and talent scout. Benson has no choice but to agree and finds himself getting drawn deeper and deeper into the world of diamond smuggling as Fairclough tightens his hold over him...

Dated, but in a pleasant way and not to the extent where you can't watch it. This swinging 60's crime caper-pop musical is a must see for all nostalgia addicts and anybody who has seen Live It Up and Be My Guest will thoroughly enjoy it. Naturally, the film's main interest lies in the music and features The Small Faces who are now regarded as one of the most seminal bands of that era. At the time this came out they had just broken into the Top 20 with their debut single 'Whatcha Gonna Do About It', but its follow up, 'I've Got Mine', is showcased here. But, excellent though it was, that one failed to chart and it was with 'Sha La La La Lee' that the boys returned to chart success. The three other songs they perform in this, 'Come On Children', 'Don't Stop What Your Doing' and 'It's Too Late' were all featured on their self-titled debut LP. There is also the opportunity here to see rare performance footage from other lesser known acts who perform excellent numbers like 'I Think Of You' (The Chantelles), 'Small Town' (performed by Kiki Dee, the best known of the lot after The Small Faces) and 'First Taste Of Love' by Rev Anton and The Pro-Form.

Ignore the plot about diamond smuggling, it's the nostalgia that counts here, but it is entertaining enough for the young audience it was aimed at at the time and it is neatly knitted together under Jeremy Summers' no nonsense direction. The setting of a pirate radio ship is an appealing one since it offers a glimpse into how pop fans and pop stars got a hearing when the mainstream radio (very limited compared to how it is today) before the British government outlawed them and Radio One was created. Look out for the ship's DJ who is none other than Kenny Everett.

There are one or two interesting faces in the cast including William Lucus who was essentially a man of the stage who occasionally made films. In a number of British 'B's' he played a variety of different roles and his performance here as the crooked ex-serviceman turned jewel thief shows just how versatile he was. Conrad Philips had by this time passed his brief period of fame as TV's William Tell is good as a dogged Scotland Yard man who is under great pressure to close down the diamond smuggling ring and it affects his home life with his wife (played by Vanda Godsell) who is threatens to divorce him due to his long periods of time spent away from home. In addition, his teenage daughter, Anna Carteret, refuses to speak him. There is an amusing little sequence at the end where she is at a dance where her favourite group, The Small Faces, are playing and she has got the opportunity to talk to the compere Kenny Everett - he recognized her because she sent in a photograph of herself with a letter she wrote in to his show asking for a record to be played. As they have a little chat, her father appears on duty as a police officer to ask him some questions as to Benson and Fairclough's whereabouts. We can see that his daughter is infuriated and embarrassed by his appearance on the scene as a cop and his attempts to make up with her at home have been ruined.

Directed by Jeremy Summers, who had a very long career in British TV and film, Dateline Diamonds is a movie that oddly mixes diamond robbery and smuggling with mid-sixties pop music. Plot-wise it concerns a gentleman diamond thief who coerces a pop group manager with a shady past to help him with his criminal activities and the efforts of the police to catch the thieves. Presumably it was made to entice the younger cinema goer with the pop music but one wonders how they viewed the lengthy robbery sequence in Hatton Garden. Maybe with boredom, though it is a good primer on how to crack a safe which might have inspired a burgeoning peterman!

The acting is standard though William Lucas as the gentleman thief is quite amusing and Patsy Rowlands is hilarious as the confused eye witness. Ms Rowlands really only had one string to her acting bow in many films but that she did very well. Interspersed in the story are the pop acts; Kiki Dee, The Chantelles, The Small Faces and Rey Anton and The Pro Form, (Whatever happened to the latter?) which would have nostalgic appeal to some.

A pleasant time filler but that's all.

The main culprit is given fair warning the the police want to catch him with the diamonds, and what does he do. Walks out of the club with the diamonds, in the tape box, the police know about, in full view.

The mind boggles, at the actions of the character that is portrayed as intelligent would do this.

The film was dire enough to sit through, but I held out until the end, and was bitterly disappointed.

Don't waste your time with this.