# Diamonds for Breakfast (1968)

### reviewed by
Brian Koller

    Diamonds For Breakfast (1968)

    Grade: 55

"Diamonds For Breakfast" is a comedy with surrealistic elements. It fittingly stars Marcello Mastroianni, whose most famous film is the surreal "8 1/2". While the comedy often doesn't work, the fantasy elements keep things interesting.

Mastroianni is the son of a Russian nobleman. The nobleman gambled away the family jewels, and now they reside in a British museum. Mastroianni decides to steal the jewels. To do this, he recruits a series of beautiful women, each of whom will do his bidding once he makes love to them. In an elaborate bait-and-switch scheme (the women are the bait, and the jewels are switched) the jewels are his again! But then things begin to unravel...

To keep Mastroianni onscreen as much as possible, he plays other roles as well, especially a bearded ancestor who appears now and then to offer advice and encouragement. Mastroianni also sings the title song, where we learn that there are limits to his talents.

Because of the mix of reality and fantasy, and a first-time director apparently without anyone looking over his shoulder, "Diamonds For Breakfast" is confusing and muddled. Much of the storyline is difficult to accept even in a comedy, such as the ease in which the diamonds are switched, and Mastroianni's success with "the family gift", which appears to be the ability to bed any woman and convert her into a slave. Also curious is that with all these beauties to choose from, the woman he prefers is also the least attractive.

Not quite there either as a comedy or as an art film, "Diamonds For Breakfast" is doomed to obscurity. It is recommended only to Mastroianni fans.

http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html

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