Themes: Jewel Theft, Unlikely Criminals, Dishonor Among Thieves
Main Cast: Charles Grodin, Candice Bergen, John Gielgud, Trevor Howard, James Mason
Release Year: 1974
Country: UK
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Based on the novel by Gerald A. Browne, 11 Harrowhouse is a 1974 heist spoof with an all-star cast. The story concerns millionaire Clyde Massey (Trevor Howard) pressuring diamond merchant Howard R. Chesser (Charles Grodin) into robbing a London diamond exchange owned by Meecham (John Gielgud. Howard gets help from his girlfriend Maren Shirell (Candice Bergen), discontented employee Charles D. Watts (James Mason), and a cockroach in order to execute the plan. Once he has the fortune, Massey tries to double-cross his team of forced thieves, but his wealthy partner-in-crime Lady Anne Bolding (Helen Cherry) helps them escape. Charles Grodin, who also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation, provides voice-over commentary. 11 Harrowhouse is also known as Anything for Love and Fast Fortune. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Helen Cherry - Lady Bolding; John Bindon - Security Officers; Larry Cross - Whitman; Glynn Edwards; Jimmy Gardner - Man in Snack Bar; Leon Greene - Toland; Richard Montez - 2nd Manager; Clive Morton - Sir Harold; David Rowlands - Club Manager; Cyril Shaps - Wildenstein; Warwick Sims - Maren's Friend; Donald Tandy; Peter Vaughan - Coglin; Jack Watling - Fitzmaurice; Jack Watson - Miller; Joe Powell - Hickey; Trevor T. Smith - Men in Vault
Credit
Peter Mullins - Art Director, Anthony Mendleson - Costume Designer, Jack Causey - First Assistant Director, Aram Avakian - Director, Anne V. Coates - Editor, Michael J. Lewis - Composer (Music Score), Arthur Ibbetson - Cinematographer, Elliott Kastner - Producer, Jack Stephens - Set Designer, Danny Daniel - Sound/Sound Designer, Vic Armstrong - Stunts, Charles Grodin - Screenwriter, Jeffrey Bloom - Screenwriter, Gerald Browne - Book Author
Set, in England, this comedic heist film involves a small time diamond merchant who is unexpectedly offered the chance to supervise the purchase and cutting of an extremely large diamond to be named for its wealthy owner. When the diamond is stolen from him, he is blackmailed into pulling off a major heist at "The System," located at 11 Harrowhouse with the help of his beautiful and wealthy girlfriend.
Reviews
Time Magazine reviewed the film positively, and described the cast as "poised and stylish."
Relevance
A prominent theme of the film revolves around how the primary world diamond producer controls the price of diamonds by creating artificial scarcity.
Versions
This film has been screened in two versions in the past - both with and without a retrospective commentary from Grodin's character, H.R. Chesser. Only the version without commentary seems to be widely available in published form, and neither version seems to have been screened to great extent on TV, though the original version with commentary holds up very well today. The film was released on LaserDisc by Fox Video in Widescreen Format and with the commentary intact.
