Diamond City (film)

In 1870s South Africa, Englishman Stafford Parker tries to persuade Boer leader Jan Bloem to hand over control of a potential diamond field. This upsets Bloem's nephew Piet Quieman and businessman Muller; Muller has made his fortune through selling cheap rum to black workers.

New arrivals come to Hopetown: a missionary, Hart, and his daughter Mary, and David Raymond. A diamond is found on Bloem's territory. Parker persuades Bloem that he can maintain law and order and Bloem picks Parker over Piet and Muller.

Parker and a number of people from Hopetown set up a new establishment at Klipdrift. Muller tries to cause trouble but Parker beats him in a fight.

Klipdrift becomes a thriving town. David Raymond suspects Muller is buying diamonds directly from the natives, going around Parker's arrangement with Bloem. Eventually Parker confronts Muller who denies it.

Parker calls for a rule book to be drawn up and grows closer to Mary which causes saloon keeper Dora to be jealous.

Parker helps declare the first Diggers' Republic. Muller organises resistance but Parker defeats him. Parker realises that Mary has fallen for David. The diamond fields are annexed by Britain. Parker leaves to seek gold in some nearby mountains, leaving Dora.

• David Farrar as Stafford Parker
• Honor Blackman as Mary Hart
• Diana Dors as Dora
• Niall MacGinnis as Muller
• Andrew Crawford as David Raymond
• Mervyn Johns as Hart
• Phyllis Monkman as Ma Bracken
• Hal Osmond as Brandy Bill
• Bill Owen as Pinto
• Philo Hauser as Piet Quieman
• John Blythe as Izzy Cohen
• Dennis Vance as John Albert Rogers
• Norris Smith as Jan Bloem
• John Salew as Dr. Woods
• Tony Quinn as Vanderbyl
• Ronald Adam as Robert Southey
• Arthur Lane as Timothy Maxie
• Julian Somers as van Niekerk

The movie was based on the true story of Stafford Parker{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65381239 |title=Healesville Talkies. |newspaper=Healesville Guardian |location=Lilydale, Vic. |date=12 July 1952 |accessdate=27 January 2014 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} who was elected president of the Diamond Diggers Republic in 1871.[http://www.mpumalangahappenings.co.za/kaapsehoop_characters.html "Stafford Parker – KAAPSCHE HOOP CHARACTERS OF THE EARLY DAYS", Mapumalanga Happenings] accessed 27 Jan 2014[http://www.miningweekly.com/article/a-question-of-sovereignty-over-south-africas-earliest-diamond-diggings-2010-05-21 Jade Davenport, "A question of sovereignty over South Africa's earliest diamond diggings" Mining Weekly 28 May 2010] accessed 27 Jan 2014

It was announced in 1945 as Digger's Rest and was to star Stewart Granger from director Leslie Arliss. "This Parker was a born fighter, a great, husky guy", said Arliss. "He'd knocked around in the States as a young man and was tremendously impressed by the sheriff system, as he'd seen it practiced in the West.""NOTES FROM LONDON'S FILM STUDIOS: Thriller What, No Love Affair?" by C.A. LEJEUNE. New York Times 23 Dec 1945: X5. Patricia Roc was to play the Salvation Army girl with whom Parker falls in love.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Od7AAAAAQBAJ&q=%22diamond+city%22+%22david+farrar%22&pg=PA89|title=Patricia Roc The Goddess of the Odeons|page=89|first=Michael|last=Hodgson|isbn=9781481769402|date=September 2013|publisher=Author House }} However Roc was named in a divorce case involving Fay Compton and Gainsborough reportedly dropped her from the film as a result.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78265989 |title=STUDIO COMEBACK |newspaper=The Daily News |volume=LXIV |issue=22,294 |location=Western Australia |date=21 September 1946 |accessdate=7 September 2017 |page=23 (FIRST EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}}

Eventually the make starring role was given to David Farrar who had received acclaim for his performance in Black Narcissus. It was directed by David MacDonald, who had just directed The Bad Lord Byron and Christopher Columbus for Gainsborough. Diana Dors played the role of the saloon keeper when Jean Kent was unavailable.[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1174593/index.html Diamond City] at BFI Screenonline It was Dors' biggest part to date.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22692775 |title=Prize-winning Biscuits... |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=31,943 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=18 January 1949 |accessdate=1 September 2017 |page=3 (The Argus Woman's Magazine) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|title=A Tale of Two Blondes: Diana Dors and Belinda Lee|date=September 7, 2020|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/a-tale-of-two-blondes-diana-dors-and-belinda-lee/}} Dors says she was paid £30 under her contract to Rank and Farrar received £18,000 but she did not mind as it was "the biggest break of my career".{{cite book|first=Diana|last=Dors|title=Swingin' Dors|year=1960|publisher=World Distributors|page=25}}

The film was seen as an attempt by producer Sydney Box to compete with Eureka Stockade (1949), another British film set and shot in a former colony.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59495880 |title=Film Gossip From London And Hollywood CHALLENGE TO EUREKA BY OLD RIVAL. |newspaper=The Sunday Times |location=Perth |date=2 October 1949 |accessdate=14 February 2012 |page=2 Supplement: Sunday Times Comics |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

It combined location filming in the Kimberley region of South Africa with studio work at Denham Studios in England.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22697239 |title=400 Horsemen. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=11 January 1949 |accessdate=27 January 2014 |page=3 Supplement: The Argus Woman's Magazine |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

MacDonald arrived in South Africa in November 1948 for location filming. This was meant to take 25 days but MacDonald finished it in 12, due to him using only local crew.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety173-1949-01/page/n352|magazine=Variety|title=Fast action on S Africa diamond film|date=19 January 1949|page=11}} Studio work began at Denham in January 1949.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191838242 |title=SCREEN AND ITS STARS |newspaper=Warwick Daily News |issue=9177 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=3 January 1949 |accessdate=30 April 2016 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} The film's sets were designed by the art director George Provis.

Filming was held up when David Farrar fell ill.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55925865 |title=FILM CLOSE-UPS. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=26 February 1949 |accessdate=27 January 2014 |page=2 Supplement: SUNDAY MAGAZINE |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Bombardier Billy Wells taught Farrar how to box for the film.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55925092 |title=NOVELLO HIT TO BE SCREENED. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=23 April 1949 |accessdate=27 January 2014 |page=3 Supplement: SUNDAY MAGAZINE |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

The film's box office performance was poor.

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Saloon-bar brawls and Salvation Army meetings combine to make a lot of noise."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1949 |title=Diamond City |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305807607 |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=16 |issue=181 |pages=180 |url-access=subscription |via=ProQuest}}

Filmink called it "a hilariously inept version of a fascinating true tale... with David Farrar as a gun-totin' Stafford Parker, Diana Dors and Honor Blackman perfectly cast if just five years older, and extremely dodgy racial politics (if you wonder why Farrar didn't become a star after Black Narcissus, this film is part of the reason)."{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/roast-beef-westerns/|date=17 May 2020|title=Roast Beef Westerns}}

Other reviews were more positive. BFI's Screenonline notes that the film "makes good use of [David Farrar's] particular brand of sensual virility as Stafford Parker'" and adds that "Diana Dors makes the most of one of her biggest roles to date... She pulls this off with surprising conviction".{{cite web |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1174593/index.html |title=BFI Screenonline: Diamond City (1949) |website=www.screenonline.org.uk |access-date=11 September 2020}}

• [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1174593/ Diamond City] at BFI Screenonline
• [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041294/ Diamond City] at IMDb
• [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/73051/diamond-city Diamond City] at TCMDB

{{David MacDonald}}

Category:1949 films

Category:1940s adventure drama films

Category:1940s historical films

Category:British historical films

Category:British adventure drama films

Category:British Western (genre) films

Category:1940s English-language films

Category:Films directed by David MacDonald (director)

Category:Films set in South Africa

Category:British drama films

Category:British black-and-white films

Category:Films scored by Clifton Parker

Category:Films set in the 1870s

Category:Films shot at Denham Film Studios

Category:Gainsborough Pictures films

Category:1949 drama films

Category:1940s British films

Category:English-language historical films

Category:English-language adventure drama films