SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Please don't spend money on this.

A lot of fun.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Apparently someone had a really good idea to save 11 Harrowhouse. They added a voice-over narration by star Charles Grodin, sharp and laconical that really lifts the film from the mediocre to the good. There seems to be another version of the film without it, but I can't imagine it being as good as this.11 Harrowhouse is the name of the address where a few people headed by John Gielgud control the diamond market of the world. They have billions of dollars or English pounds if you will of gems in their vaults and manipulate the world market value like a yo-yo. Gielgud is a cold and forbidding man and he's one who delights in screwing the little people in his employ. One of them is diamond cutter James Mason who is as reliable as Alec Guinness was in The Lavendar Hill Mob. He's also got a plan. When Grodin and Candice Bergen come up short with 'the System' as Gielgud's consortium is called, Mason has them as allies.The three of them have the backing of billionaire Trevor Howard who also likes messing with people. He messes with Grodin and Grodin has no choice but to aid in the robbery.The best part of the film is the robbery itself. Someone has to be sacrificed, but the idea is incredibly ingenious and bloody simple.Mason comes off best in this, a little man who just wants to get even with those who have treated him like a doormat all his working life.An enjoyable caper film, diamond exchange in Amsterdam, take note.

Charles Grodin plays a small time diamond merchant jumps at the chance to supervise the purchase and cutting of a large first class diamond. But when the diamond is stolen from him, he is blackmailed into pulling off a major heist at the Diamond Exchange, located at 11 Harrowhouse, Candice Bergen, is Grodin's glamorous lover interest, James Mason also stars he aids Grodin in his scheme to rob 11 Harrowhouse in a very ingenious way! Trevor Howard is the shady Lord Massey, John Gielguld is in typical full on snob mode, '11 Harrowhouse' or if shown elsewhere or on television it is also known as 'Anything for Love' it's been unavailable for years, only on Laserdisc, but at this moment as i type it is available from the 'Shout factory label' in widescreen, 11 Harrowhouse is an enjoyable rainy day feel good film,

Considering the pedigree of the cast it's odd that this film didn't do better. There's much to recommend this story of a diamond broker being maneuvered into robbing a London diamond exchange of its inventory (a caper involving such tools as a desperate employee, a piece of chocolate cake and a cockroach). The dialogue is liberally peppered with Grodin's wry voice-over commentary, and this film is one of the few places where his style of humor actually manages to work. It's no Topkapi, but a pleasant way to waste some time. Considerably more light-hearted than the Gerald Browne book on which it was based.

This could have been a fairly entertaining caper movie, but it never comes to life. It has a promising cast, but most of the performers are given nothing to do; James Mason brings the only traces of humanity to an otherwise very mechanical movie. In the last 15 minutes, the filmmakers even throw in some car chases and shoot-outs, probably hoping that the movie would gain some tension (since there are no laughs), but it remains strangely indifferent and uninvolving throughout. (**)