Theft of diamonds, diamond heists or capers-delving into my own archive of knowledge, a list from the National Archives of Pretoria, and Googling the Internet for just a few minutes, I came up with the following titles: The African Diamond Conspiracy (1914), Women Love Diamonds (1927), Desert Nights (1929), Diamond Jim (1935), Reckless (1935), Adventures in Diamonds (1940), Diamond Frontier (1940), Diamond City (1949), The Adventurers (1950), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend (1953), Leeu Van Punda Maria (1954), Diamond Safari(1957), Gevaarlike Spel (1962), Kimberley Jim (1963), Sanders (1964), Topkapi(1964), Mocambique (1964), Diamond Walkers (1965), No Diamonds for Ursula (1967), Jy Is My Liefling (1967), Dark of the Sun (1968), A Twist of Sand (1969), Banana Beach (1970), The Hot Rock(1972), Spergebiedt Diamond Area #1(1972), Killer Force(1974), Diamonds (1975), Sell a Million(1975), Daan & Doors Oppie Diggins (1975), The Diamond Hunters (1975), Diamonds of Kilimanjaro(1983), Diamonds High(1988), Laser Mission(1988), River of Diamonds(1988), Oh Schucks Here Comes UNTAG(1990), Shadow Lake (1999), Diamond Men (2000), Snatch(2000), Diamonds and Rust(2001), Femme Fatale(2002), Foolproof(2003), After the Sunset(2004), Fool n Final(2007), even the Gene Autry romp set in South Africa, with the deceptive title Roundup Time in Texas(1937) features diamonds-I could have dug deeper and deeper into this mine, and come up with many more nuggets. There are innumerable films that are obsessed with diamonds as an icon for wealth, luxury, success, even, in the form of an engagement ring, as a guarantee of a happy marriage.
In the following I aim to examine the seductive power of diamonds for cinema, and track some of the narrative settings in which these gems are placed time and again. This places the film in a long tradition of films that feature diamonds in the plot. The central theme in The Rose of Rhodesia (1918) is the theft of a large diamond.
They resonate with assumptions about Africa and Africans, with concepts of white superiority, and with racism, reflecting an ethos of control which was born in the nineteenth century and persists to this day: that of pirate capitalism. Although none can be called masterpieces of cinema, the films examined in this essay are all important as social and historical documents whose significance lies as much in what they conceal as in what they reveal. Diamond theft was the subject of the first feature film made in South Africa, Star of the South (1911), and the motif continues in our own time with films such as the blockbuster Blood Diamond (2006). In this fabulous landscape, diamonds were there for the taking-which included stealing. From the nineteenth century, diamonds were mostly found in Africa, a location wrapped in the exotic and quick with adventure. Through the impact of literature and, later, cinema, and with the decisive intervention of manipulative advertising, diamonds came to signify romance, wealth, and social success in the popular mind. From earliest times, diamonds have fascinated the purveyors of mass entertainment.
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