Sam Carter is a jeweller's clerk who dreams of stealing a fortune in diamonds and eventually does so, but he kills a man in the process. He then embarks on the high life, but is pursued across Europe by private detective Milo March, a woman named Trudi Hall, and two thugs, Martin Lomer and Gerard Heinz. These characters end up trying to outwit each other over the largest diamond, which is worth $700,000, on a train travelling to London. March describes the diamond as "$700,000 of unhappiness" because people are willing to do anything to get it.
Alan Ladd was originally announced to play the lead,[4] and later it was announced that Victor Mature would play it.[5]
In October 1957 filming for the project was pushed back from November 1957 to April 1958 in order to allow for Warwick's challenged cash flow following the box office disappointment of Fire Down Below [1957].[1]
Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Virtually a carbon copy of the same director's Interpol [1957], this peripatetic thriller shares the previous film's faults, as well as its advantages. The picture's most notable feature is Nigel Patrick's edged performance."[6]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "This old-fashioned yarn has Nigel Patrick on the lam with a priceless diamond and Hollywood hunk Jack Palance as the private eye in hot pursuit. This dashes from one eye-catching European capital to the next, picking up the statuesque Anita Ekberg en route. With Anthony Newley as a Spanish cabbie, Donald Pleasence as an organ grinder and Sid James as a wideboy, the cast alone makes this worth watching, even if the plot is as old as the hills."[7]
British film critic Leslie Halliwell said: "Fairly modest and unenterprising British thriller which hadn't much hope of the world market it was aiming at."[8]
^Edwin Schallert, 'Alan Ladd Gets Huge England Deal; Hunting Film Stars Prime Trio', Los Angeles Times 16 Sep 1957: C11
^STUDIO SUSPENDS KIM NOVAK PACT: Columbia Acts After She Refuses Paramount Role-- Debbie Reynolds to Star Nature Has Its Way New York Times 31 August 1957: 18.
