Watch The Devil Diamond For Free

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This film often made very little sense and it made me wonder if perhaps the studio let children or lemurs. The film begins with some businessmen discussing a so-called 'Devil Diamond'--a supposedly cursed large diamond. In order to be able to sell it, they decide to secretly cut it into smaller diamonds. So far, so good. However, they are going to mail it (uninsured even) to a retired diamond cutter and have him do the work. Considering the stone was nearly the size of a doorknob, it was simply insane to imagine anyone handling it in such a cavalier manner.The scene switches to a group of crooks. They have found out about the plan and are going to the town where the diamond is being sent, as they want to steal the stone. However, and here's where it gets goofy, they create a cover story about why they are in this small town--they are there to train a young and relatively dim boxer (Frankie Darro). The only trouble is, Darro looks about as menacing as a jelly donut and the 'trainers' seem to care less about his workout regimen. To make it worse, a couple of the dumb crooks keep picking fights with Darro--making anyone with half a brain to assume they have no interest in training the guy. And, in the process, they are about as incognito as a group of strippers at a Baptist convention! Staying in the diamond cutters home are not just these guys, but a secret agent for the diamond industry (handsome Kane Richmond). Can Richmond thwart these no-goodnicks? And, for that matter, can stupid Frankie Darro figure out that he is NOT in training?! In recent months, I've seen quite a few of Darro's films--mostly ones he co-starred with Mantan Moreland. The sum total of these films sure make me wonder why Darro was a star--even for a tiny independent studio. He just came off as a bit annoying and completely lacked charisma. If I had been in charge of the production, I would have just focused on Richmond--he at least looked and sounded like a leading man. And, while I was at it, I would have tried to find a competent writer or two! Oh, and I would have found some way to make at least a single moment in this film interesting!

I'm on record as a Frankie Darro fan, but whoever had the idea of portraying him as a boxer probably never saw a real athlete. Darro's character is about the most uncoordinated guy trying to perform his scenes I've ever seen. Like when he's doing his training run or working the speed bag. Working the speed bag - there's a misnomer. One punch at a time was the best he could do to keep up with it.So the battling messenger boy is used as a cover by a bunch of hoodlums to steal an expensive, but seemingly cursed diamond with a history of bad luck for it's owner. I'm trying to understand why once the deal was made with Stevens (Edward Earle), Moreland (Robert Fiske) needed the other four thugs to hang around and make a nuisance of themselves. And really, couldn't the writers have come up with two different cover stories for Moreland and Jerry Carter (Kane Richmond)? Did they both have to be researching the exact same story about Joaquin Murietta? Another eye roller if you ask me.When I see pictures like this, I have to wonder what audiences of the time really thought about them. The character dialog is totally unnatural, and the situations are so forced they don't make any sense at all. Like Darro's character picking fights with the henchmen at the drop of a hat and usually for no reason. And the brawl at the restaurant where the guy gets his nose in a piece of toast not once, but three times! What are the odds? But I can't stop. I have a Mill Creek Entertainment collection with two hundred fifty of these gems on sixty DVD's. It's their Mystery Collection, and if you're a fan of stuff like this, it's about the best value you can find for the money. Frankie Darro's in there a bunch of times, including another boxing flick with Kane Richmond as his fight manager in 1936's "Born to Fight". Darro wasn't too coordinated in that one either.

Kane Richmond and Frankie Darro were a screen team and they seemed to have a rapport together. Richmond was the romantic lead and Darro had the interesting role which was central to the action.When the Van Groode Jewellry Company purchase the Jarvis Diamond, also known as the Devil Diamond - they decide to get the diamond cut up to lessen the curse that is upon it. One of the jewelers' has gambling debts so he hires a thug to steal it. Frankie Darro plays Lee, a messenger boy with a good right hook. The gang of crooks plan to train Lee for a fight - but only as a front for their real operation - diamond stealing!!!Dorothy and her father, who has been given the job of cutting the diamond, run the rooming house where the thugs are holed up. Gerry (Kane Richmond) comes to the boarding house, outwardly studying the life of Joaquin Murietta but really he is a special agent for the Jewellers' Association, and is hired to see that the diamond isn't stolen. Fern Emmett - a Margaret Hamilton look alike, plays a mysterious lodger, Mrs. Wallace, whose daughter is very keen on Lee.Lee is getting frustrated. He doesn't think they care about his fighting future and confides his cares to Gerry. Frankie Darro has a couple of nifty fight scenes and considering he does his own stunts, makes them doubly impressive. A mysterious assailant is getting rid of the jewelers - one is shot on the highway and then Dorothy's father is kidnapped. Gerry is around to save the day and get the girl and Lee has to be content with Mrs. Wallace's pesky daughter.It's Okay.

The Van Groode Jewelry Company purchases the Jarvis Diamond, worth a quarter of a million dollars, but also named the Devil Diamond because the owners or possessors of the stone become cursed. Hoping to make the diamond more marketable (as well as eliminate or lessen the curse), the jewelry company decides to have the stone cut. The job is handled by Peter Lanning, an expert gemologist who operates low key out of a boarding house in San Juan, where he lives with his daughter Dorothy. Stevens, a member of the company, conspires with a jewel thief Morgan to have the stones stolen. To make a front for his activities, he has his henchman train a young kid Lee for a prizefight, while Morgan, aka Moreland, researches for a book on Joaquin Murietta. Jerry Carter, an insurance adjuster hired by the jewelry company, also stays at the boarding house also researching a book on Murietta. When Morgan has Lanning abducted and Stevens killed (to get the stones for himself), Jerry, Lee, and Dorothy have to act. The film is strictly run of the mill with no surprises or anything new going for it. Darro's character seems to be picking fights with Morgan's henchmen every 5 minutes (and weak fights at that). Richmond spends the entire film walking around and looking through windows (as does Fiske as the Morgan). I did enjoy Baker's character (Yvonne) as the teenage girl with a crush on Lee and unable to take his hints to scram. The production values are nothing to write home about either. Rating, based on B-movies, 4.