Just Ask for Diamond

The basic plot of this movie is two brothers (the world's worst private detective and his wisecracking younger brother) are given a package to look after, but just about every major criminal in London is also after it.

This film is really a mixed bag. The story (based on The Falcon's Malteser, which is essentially a send-up of classic movies such as Casablanca and, of course, The Maltese Falcon) is great as it sticks pretty close to the book, unsurprisingly as the script was written by Anthony Horowitz, the author of the The Falcon's Malteser. Most of the actors/actresses are good especially the late Dursley McLinden, who plays Tim Diamond (real name Herbert Timothy Simple), Patricia Hodge (who plays Brenda von Falkenberg), Peter Eyre and Nickolas Grace (who play Gott and Himmel respectively), but unfortunately Colin Dale, who plays Nick Diamond (real name Nick Simple), and who is the main character, is hopelessly miscast.

Also, I'm not sure that Anthony Horowitz is that good at writing a script for a full length feature film (he has proved he is more than capable of scripting an episode of a TV show, as he has written for, amongst others, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War and Agatha Christie's Poirot), but it may just be that The Diamond Brothers books (The Falcon's Malteser, Public Enemy Number Two, South by South East, The French Confection, The Blurred Man, I know what you did last Wednesday and The Greek who stole Christmas) just don't make for good adaptations, as a lot of the humour in the books is text based (one example from SbSE: "I can't say I'm a big fan of fun fairs. I can't afford the fares so I never have any fun").

I would recommend this movie, however, even to people who have never read the book, as it does not rely upon people having read the book to be able to understand it. It is entertaining, just don't expect it to be brilliant.

Saw this when I was but a wee nipper - and I remember loving it dearly. It never insulted my intelligence, and the plot has momentum.

Would love to see it again now, were it not impossible to find!

I have been a great fan of all Anthony Horowitz books and the Falcon Malteaser was the very first one i read. The afternoon after seeing 'Stormbreaker' i was in the supermarket and found this film on sale for 99p.

I brought it home fully prepared to be disappointed but instead found it to be thoroughly entertaining. Nick is absolutely adorable and streetwise. Tim is dopey without being too over the top (which would have been very easy to do).

Often with book-films the screenwriter gets bogged down with what he is 'supposed' to put in and you often feel the story is thin and stretched, more like an assembly of memorable moments - racing to get through the story. The best thing about Horowitz (and you can see this in stormbreaker too) is that he writes a film that can completely stand alone and doesn't need the novelty of having a book behind it. (something that really comes across in the Harry Potter films) He knows the book and the characters inside out and isn't afraid to break from it a little. (not too much, just at those moments that seem to jar when a writer has stayed 'too true') Anyway. The film is based around two brothers, Herbert and Nick. Their parents have moved away and Herbert is looking after his 13 year old brother alone. Herbert has renamed himself 'Tim Diamond' and is working as a private detective. I don't want to give the story away - but it is engaging and satisfyingly intricate with plenty of enjoyable characters and plot twists.

Definitely worth an hour and a half of your time - silly theme tune and all!

Of course the film Just Ask For Diamond, directed by Stephen Bayly, is different from the novel by Anthony Horowitz. Time (and budget too) demands the story is edited so as to fit over 200 pages of text into 90 minutes of film. Indeed, the result is that a lot of interesting events are cut from the plot as well as many of the novel's original and charming characteristics. Dialogues are shortened, the narrator is more or less removed, violence is toned down. Where the novel has a tough and very cynical 13-year-old who has not got a good word for anyone or anything he has to deal with -the city of London, for instance, is presented as if it were the capital of Hell, the film presents us with sweet and adorable-looking Colin Dale who seems concerned more with maintaining a Received Pronunciation accent than playing a poor kid on the brink of the precipice. And London has come to look about as menacing as the green pastures where the TeleTubbies live. Still, the man responsible for the screenplay is the same as the one who wrote the book and he leaves us with enough to enjoy Just Ask For Diamond (a.k.a. Diamond's Edge). Dursley McLinden is the perfect cast for clumsy Tim, Susannah York makes a wonderful numbed-by-grief Lauren Bacardi, Patricia Hodge is a hit in two widely differing roles, Jimmy Nail looks exactly like what we have in mind when we think of a fascist London cop, there's a half a dozen of talented actors playing the crooks, and even Colin Dale, despite the posh accent, makes a nice lead and makes you wish you could stay a little boy for all your life. A lot of the humour is still there, but since it's mostly on a verbal level one should not rely on subtitles.

This film is fantastic Colin Dale is excellent as the brains of the Tim Diamond detective agency and noone could better Patricia Hodge's performance as the common charlady turned sleekly seductive Brenda Von Falkenberg.