Diamond Head ** (1962, Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, George Chakiris, James Darren, France Nuyen, Aline MacMahon) – Classic Movie Review 11,043

The creaky, old-style 1962 drama film Diamond Head is a case of well-meaning, but badly dated and overheated melodramatics in Hawaii, with Charlton Heston over-egging the pudding as a bigoted, bullying Hawaiian landowner.

‘The Giant Story of Modern Hawaii!’

Director Guy Green’s creaky, old-style 1962 Eastmancolor romance drama film Diamond Head is a case of well-meaning, but badly dated and overheated melodramatics in Hawaii, with Charlton Heston over-egging the pudding as bigoted, bullying Hawaiian landowner Richard ‘King’ Howland, a rich pineapple grower and US Senatorial candidate, who stops his sister Sloane (Yvette Mimieux) from marrying a local boy, Paul Kahana (James Darren).

The big location-based production is very pretty, and prettily shot too in Panavision widescreen and Eastmancolor by Sam Leavitt, which mostly distracts attention from the daftness of the script. There is useful work though for France Nuyen as Mai Chen, George Chakiris as Dr Dean Kahana and veteran Aline MacMahon as Darren’s mother, Kapiolani Kahana. Plus there is an early score by John Williams.

Hugo Winterhalter composes the theme, and Darren sings the title song.

Marguerite Roberts’s screenplay is based on Peter Gilman’s bestseller novel Such Sweet Thunder. Roberts makes several significant changes from Gilman’s story, with several characters  eliminated and the ending changed.

Also in the cast are Elizabeth Allen as Laura Beckett, Vaughn Taylor as Judge James Blanding, Marc Marno, Philip Ahn, Harold Fong, Edward Mallory and Richard Loo.

Publicity announced the return of Billie Dove to the screen after a 30-year absence, but her scenes were deleted.

Budget: $3,000,000; box office gross $4.5 million (US/ Canada); production company: Jerry Bresler Productions; distributor: Columbia Pictures; runtime: 107 minutes.

It was released on December 27, 1962 (Japan), January 30, 1963 (Honolulu, Hawaii) and February 13, 1963 (US).

Heston’s role was intended for Clark Gable but died before production began.

The cast are Charlton Heston as Richard ‘King; Howland, Yvette Mimieux as Sloane Howland, George Chakiris as Dr Dean Kahana, France Nuyen as Mai Chen, James Darren as Paul Kahana, Aline MacMahon as Kapiolani Kahana, Elizabeth Allen as Laura Beckett, Vaughn Taylor as Judge James Blanding Philip Ahn as Mr Immacona, Edward Mallory as Robert Parsons, Marc Marno, Harold Fong, and Richard Loo.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,043

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