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Dateline Diamonds is a 1966 British music-film. The film was shot in black and white. The "pop and cop" genre of film was a popular concept in the UK during the early 1960s to highlight young music talent and was geared to appeal directly to the young teenage market. The film was low-budget B movie and released to support the main feature film Doctor in Clover starring Leslie Phillips.
The film's weak plot involves an international criminal gang who use the m.v. Galaxy (the 60's pirate radio station Radio London ship) to smuggle stolen diamonds from the UK to Amsterdam. The film's final sequence showing Ray Anton and Pro Forma, Mark Richardson and The Small Faces performing on stage was filmed during a genuine Radio London night at the Rank Ballroom in Watford.
In recent years Dateline Diamonds has enjoyed renewed interest mainly due to the fact that it features the original lineup of British band Small Faces (Jimmy Langwith was replaced in 1966 by Ian McLagan). Band manager Don Arden arranged for Small Faces to appear in the film as a promotional vehicle for "I've Got Mine" the follow up to their debut single "Whatcha Gonna Do About It". Unfortunately the film's release was delayed and the band received no publicity for their single, which consequently failed to chart.
Dateline Diamonds was released on VHS and is currently available on DVD format.
Lester Benson (Kenneth Cope) manages one of the biggest rock bands in 1960s Britain, the Small Faces (as themselves). He happens to be an ex-con who wants to return to the crime scene. He summons the help of Major Fairclough (William Lucas) who safe-cracks diamonds to smuggle into the Netherlands via the Big L's ship. It seems a perfect crime as no-one served as a witness, except for an intellectually-challenged bus conductress called Mrs. Edgecomb (Patsy Rowlands) who saw Major Fairclough ("a military-looking man"). Written by Reece Lloyd


