The Kingfisher Caper | Old Drama Movie | Love | Family | South Africa | English | Classic Film
South African Drama Movie (Love) Starring Hayley Mills: The Kingfisher Caper - Young lovers find themselves placed at odds with each other, after reigniting a fued between their families over a valuable diamond mine.
The Kingfisher Caper (1975)
Director: Dirk de Villiers
Writer: Roy Boulting, Lee Marcus, Wilbur Smith
Stars: Hayley Mills, David McCallum, Jon Cypher
Genre: Drama
Country: South Africa
Language: English, Afrikaans, Italian
Also Known As: Diamond Hunters
Filming Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Storyline:
Benedict (David McCallum) and Tracey Van Der Byl (Hayley Mills) are the offspring of wealthy Hendrich Van Der Byl (Bill McNaught), who owns and operates Van Der Byl Diamond Mines, one of the smaller yet still very lucrative diamond mining operations in South Africa. Benedict and Tracey grew up with Johnny Lance (Jon Cypher), who Hendrich brought into their house when orphaned and has treated him like another son which Benedict has always resented. While Benedict is a ne'er do well who spends his time chasing women, and on the side steals a diamond here and there from the company to give to whomever his female companion at the time, the current being Johnny's gold-digging wife Ruby (Volenté Bertotti), Johnny, who has overshadowed Benedict all of their lives, has learned the business, and is one of the most respected diamond men in the country. With what Johnny believes is a large cache of diamonds sitting within the reef at Thunderbolt Gap which the larger mining operations have the rights, he has developed Kingfisher, a new vessel which he believes will revolutionize the dredging for such diamonds. The bank has loaned the company over two million dollars thus far, with Kingfisher actually being operational within sight. When Hendrich receives a terminal medical diagnosis which he tells no one in his family, he hands over the reigns of the company one-third each to Benedict, Tracey, and Johnny. Benedict assumes the role of President and C.E.O. in Hendrich giving him the chance to prove himself, something that Benedict said he wanted.
Reviews:
"This sporadically engaging action melodrama was prepared as a feature film for television in South Africa before that internationally beleaguered nation was forced into a state of anarchy, and was aired within the United Kingdom and the United States shortly after its completion, with the action set in and about Capetown, and making appropriate use of that venue's picturesque quality in addition to its significant diamond industry. The film's graceless assembly of scenes is composed of two primary segments, thoroughly disparate in their natures. A prominent "diamond man" and corporation executive, Hendrich Van Der Byl (Bill McNaught), after being informed by his doctor that he is soon to die, bequeaths his extensive properties and other assets evenly to his son Benedict (David McCallum), daughter Tracy (Hayley Mills), along with his adopted son Johnny (Jon Cypher), with Benedict selected as new director of the firm. Unfortunately for the other two, Benedict is hungry to acquire ultimate power with the company, hoping to ingurgitate the resources left to his sister and foster brother, among these being the latter's diamond dredging craft Kingfisher. When his hopes to completely take over through guile and cunning are obviously not about to succeed, Benedict decides upon more violent means with which he may achieve his goals. The film's initial portion is the more interesting, as emotions of the three principals are undressed, but when violent action comes to the fore in the storyline, the work is converted into a routine time-passer, although the striking location of Capetown adds pictorial splendour. There are numerous sequences depicting methods by which diamond dredging from shoals is achieved, of principal interest, perhaps, solely to engineers, being simply an example of the fading fount of creativity evidenced within Roy Boulting's final screenplay. Boulting's wife, Mills, is top billed, but it is McCallum who earns acting laurels with an intense performance in this choppily cut film that is further burdened with a grating big band score contributed by John Dankworth." Written by rsoonsa on IMDb.com
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