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The Kingfisher Caper | |
---|---|
Directed by | Dirk DeVilliers |
Written by | Roy Boulting Lee Marcus |
Based on | the novel The Diamond Hunters by Wilbur Smith (uncredited) |
Produced by | Ben Vlok |
Starring | Hayley Mills David McCallum Jon Cypher Bill McNaught |
Cinematography | Ivo Pellegrini |
Edited by | Kenneth Connor |
Music by | John Dankworth |
Distributed by | Cinema Shares International Distribution Corporation (USA) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | South Africa |
Language | English |
The Kingfisher Caper (released as Diamond Hunters in South Africa and as Diamond Lust on video) is a 1975 South African film directed by Dirk DeVilliers for Kavalier Films Ltd. It stars Hayley Mills (as Tracey van der Byl), David McCallum (Benedict van der Byl), Jon Cypher (Johnny Lance), Volente Bertotti (Ruby Lance), Barry Trengove (Cappy) and Bill McNaught (Hendrich van der Byl).
Film rights were bought by Philip Vrasne, who wanted to make it in South Africa. [1]
Kingfisher Caper writer Roy Boulting was married to star Hayley Mills at the time of the filming. This was his final writing credit. [2]
Filmink magazine called it "typical of several South African movies from the 1970s that attempted to crack the international market ( The Shangani Patrol , Funeral for an Assassin , Killer Force , Target of an Assassin , Golden Rendezvous , Game for Vultures ): a half-baked action piece with B-list stars (Hayley Mills, David McCallum), iffy handling and one or two decent moments. Roy Boulting, married to Mills at the time, gets a script credit, his last; the film helped kill her career as a movie star." [3]
It was remade as the 2001 miniseries The Diamond Hunters with Alyssa Milano, Roy Scheider, Sean Patrick Flanery and Michael Easton in the Mills, McNaught, Cypher and McCallum roles respectively; Jolene Blalock, Armin Rohde and Hannes Jaenicke also featured.
John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting, known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they founded in 1937.
Sir John Mills was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portrayed guileless, wounded war heroes. In 1971, he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ryan's Daughter.
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Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is an English actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961.
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