Jack of Diamonds (1967)

This cat burglar/heist movies contains an interesting cast. George Hamilton plays Jeff Hill, who is the Jack of Diamonds, a world famous cat burglar, and Joseph Cotton as his mentor, the Ace of Diamonds. The movie opens with Hamilton dressed in black, scaling a highrise in New York in the middle of the night in order to steal jewelry from actress Zsa Zsa Gabor (in a cameo). Hamilton’s cat burglar has an elaborate country-side bachelor pad set-up with a trapeze to practice his acrobatic skills and a diamond-cutting room where he can cut up his loot. The cutting room is entered by punching a boxing ball in the gym. Not very difficult for someone to discover, one would imagine!

Preparing to steal Zsa Zsa Gabor's jewels

Hamilton’s cat burglar is too obnoxious. While stealing Zsa Zsa Gabor's jewelry, he writes in lipstick on a mirror that he hated her last movie but thought she was quite fabulous! Not very subtle for a catburglar who's supposed to sneak in, do the job, and get out. As it turns out, the Jack of Diamonds has been leaving plenty of signatures behind to demonstrate his cat-burgling skills. Perhaps this explains why Jeff needs to leave New York in a bid to avoid being captured by police, as hot on the heels is a detective Von Schenk (Wolfgang Preiss who played Dr. Mabuse in the Mabuse movies). Of course, for all we know the reason is that this gives the U.S.-German co-production plenty of opportunities to show off the German country-side and making the settings for the rest of the film in Germany.

German countryside - meet Jack of Diamond's car

While in Munchen, Jeff is asked by Nicolai Vodkine (Maurice Evans) to pull of a heist for a $5million collection of jewels with Olga (Marie Laforêt) a rival cat burglar who also happens to be Nicolai’s daughter. Nicolai is an old friend of the Ace of Diamonds, which is why Jeff decides to pull off this last heist before retiring They have to steal the plans for the safe in a police bureau before doing the actual jewel heist. Naturally, Hamilton’s character sets off the alarm and a thrilling chase scene ensues across rooftops with search lights and policemen giving chase.

Ace of Diamonds (Joseph Cotton) checks the diamonds

Despite an impressive heist preparation scene rivalling Jules Dassin’s Rififi (1955) in detailed-oriented nature, things don’t go as planned. To top it off, Von Schenk is closing in on the quartet!An added bonus to this U.S.-German co-produced caper is that Hamilton's character has a quite annoying accomplice who speaks with a horrible German accent and looks quite demented. The ending is quite baffling and comes quite unexpectedly and puts it squarely in the camp of the caper movie. Not quite a classic, but memorable for the Diabolik-esque suit (Mario Bava’s Danger Diabolik (1968) would not be released until the year after) Hamilton wears and a co-starring but underused Joseph Cotton. The movies is scored by Peter Thomas (well-know for his work on the Bond-by-way-of-Germany Jerry Cotton Eurospy movies)