loloandpete Review of Adventure in Diamonds

Adventure in Diamonds (1940)

Uneven style but when it's witty, it works!

[8/10 · 24 January 2022]

At only an hour and a quarter, this is evidently a B feature and despite its uneven tone it's a good watch with some lovely attention to detail in the character acting stakes. There is a great deal of wittiness and comedy to be found and when this is front and centre, it is a really enjoyable piece. One's attention drifts when it becomes po faced and takes itself too seriously, and we can certainly do without the in depth documentary style lecture on the refinement of diamonds. But the casting from the leads down to the cameos is exceptional. George Brent has an easy charm as a leading man and a good sense of humour. Certainly an underrated star, though Bette Davis realised his quality, he was her favourite leading man and appeared opposite her 11 times! Isa Miranda as the bad girl turned good, has exoticism, great chemistry with Brent and spars with him delightfully throughout. Chemistry is also shared between Brent and Nigel Bruce, the latter flitting between fun, roguish charm and stern authoritarianism. Elizabeth Patterson is also good value as an incorrigable old crim. One of the most enjoyable sequences is when Brent and Miranda are charged with infiltrating a diamond smuggling gang and are given the tip off that their contact is a whistler, which leads to some jolly mix ups, including a meeting with a dour old couple played by E E Clive and Vera Lewis in a gem of a comic cameo appearance. When they finally meet the real contact, it is Rex Evans, a pianist who specialises in comedic songs at the keyboard and even improvises his dialogue in the form of song in a real scene stealing turn. If you ignore the occasional jarring notes of style, there is a great deal to enjoy here.