Such a frustrating disappointment

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"Hot Diamonds In Cold Blood" is one of the weakest Eurospy movies out there, and this is coming from someone who enjoys this particular genre considerably more than the average person. What makes it even more disappointing is that it has an experienced genre cast; 3 exceptionally beautiful women (Diana Lorys, Alida Chelli, Rosalba Neri) are largely wasted in brief and underdeveloped (figuratively speaking of course, wink wink) parts, while both the hero and the villains are pretty bland. And there are also a few too many underwater sequences - the kiss of death for almost any action movie, since they are usually so murky and slow. The music score is about the only thing that drives this film forward. *1/2 out of 4.

A rich Arab sheik's diamonds--valued at a cool $300,000,000--are stolen from a fiery Lebanese plane wreck in this reasonably enjoyable spy thriller. When Her Majesty's Government become concerned that the loss might actually be part of a plot to undermine the value of sterling, they hire professional photographer, amateur lady-killer, and undercover agent Steve Norton (Richard Harrison, more charismatic than usual) to get to the bottom of things. The proceedings are fairly predictable sub-Bond carryings on, but there's a groovy Robby Poitevin score--including a great nightclub scene reminiscent of the one featured in 1966's Tecnica di un Homicido--as well as a super opening credit number called Diamonds, Diamonds, sung by the enigmatic 'Raul'. Noting terribly special, but a reasonable way to wile away 90 minutes on a cold winter's night.