I Watch Films: The Man Inside (1958)

The Man Inside (the 1958 film, not the other films with the same name).

Diamond heist! A fabulous diamond is stolen in New York, but the plan goes wrong and the thief kills a man during his escape. A Pinkerton detective (Jack Palance) is given the case (his boss is Sid James in a (fairly) non-comedic role). He discovers that another thief (Anita Ekberg) is on the trail, and they head off to Europe playing a game of cat-and-mouse with each other, the original thief and some even nastier criminals. Things get a bit complicated.

The thief did business with the diamond merchant for years before the theft, leading to some musing about the crime; every man is two men, one the face they show to the world, the other the man inside, hence the title. There’s a bit of discussion of the fascination of the big diamond at the heart of the plot holds on the hearts of men (and women). The diamond is called the Tyrahna Blue, is worth $700,000 and has a dubious past inconsistently described by several of the characters.

Anyway, this is fairly fun, some tiny bits of location shooting hiding that most of it is filmed in Britain, and a lot of it in studios, Anita Ekberg is at her most Anita Ekberg and there’s a few twists and turns and the occasional good joke.

Watch This: For a look at a good but not especially great or classic 1950s crime film.
Don’t Watch This: If several people chasing a diamond is not your thing.