Hi Diddle Diddle is a black-and-white American comedy film made in 1943

1943 in film

The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....

 directed by Andrew L. Stone

Andrew L. Stone

Andrew L. Stone was an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known for his hard hitting, realistic films, Stone frequently collaborated with his wife, editor and producer Virginia Lively Stone Andrew L. Stone (July 16, 1902, Oakland, California – June 9, 1999, Los Angeles,...

 and starring Adolphe Menjou

Adolphe Menjou

Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...

, Martha Scott

Martha Scott

Martha Ellen Scott was an American actress best known for her roles as mother of the lead character in numerous films and television shows.-Early life:...

, Dennis O'Keefe

Dennis O'Keefe

Dennis O'Keefe was an American actor. Born as Edward Vance Flanagan he was the son of Irish vaudevillians working in the United States...

, June Havoc

June Havoc

June Havoc was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, writer, and theater director. Havoc was a child Vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother. She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood and stage directed . She last appeared on television in 1990 on General Hospital...

, Billie Burke

Billie Burke

Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...

, and (in a rare film appearance) Pola Negri

Pola Negri

Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...

.

The film is also known as Diamonds and Crime (American reissue title).

Plot summary

The story is of a bride's mother getting supposedly swindled out of her money by a spurned suitor. The groom's father orchestrates a scheme of his own to set things right. He is aided by a cabaret singer while placating a jealous wife.

Cast

• Adolphe Menjou
  Adolphe Menjou
  Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
  
   as Col. Hector Phyffe
• Martha Scott
  Martha Scott
  Martha Ellen Scott was an American actress best known for her roles as mother of the lead character in numerous films and television shows.-Early life:...
  
   as Janie Prescott Phyffe
• Pola Negri
  Pola Negri
  Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress who achieved worldwide fame for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles from the 1910s through the 1940s during the Golden Era of Hollywood film. She was the first European film star to be invited to Hollywood, and became a great American star. She...
  
   as Genya Smetana
• Dennis O'Keefe
  Dennis O'Keefe
  Dennis O'Keefe was an American actor. Born as Edward Vance Flanagan he was the son of Irish vaudevillians working in the United States...
  
   as Sonny Phyffe
• Billie Burke
  Billie Burke
  Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
  
   as Liza Prescott
• Walter Kingsford
  Walter Kingsford
  Walter Kingsford was a British stage, film and television actor born in Redhill, Surrey, England. He was born Walter Pearce and had several sisters...
  
   as Senator Jummy Simpson
• Barton Hepburn
  Barton Hepburn
  Barton Hepburn was an American actor who specialized in drama and comedy,Hepburn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was spotted as a stage actor in Los Angeles by the screen director Cecil B. DeMille. He starred in a 1929 production, Painted Faces, an early film with sound...
  
   as Peter Warrington III
• Georges Metaxa as Tony Spinelli
• Eddie Marr as Michael Angelo, Croupier
• Paul Porcasi
  Paul Porcasi
  Paul Porcasi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 142 films between 1917 and 1945.He was born in Palermo, Sicily and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Broadway...
  
   as Impressario
• Bert Roach
  Bert Roach
  Bert Roach was an American film actor. He appeared in 327 films between 1914 and 1951.He was born in Washington, D.C., and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* Fatty's Magic Pants...
  
   as Husband, Taxi Cab Bit
• Chick Chandler
  Chick Chandler
  Chick Chandler was an American film actor. best known for his appearances in dozens of B-Movies and his role as Tubo Smith in the short lived Universal produced series Soldiers of Fortune...
  
   as Saunders, Hector's Chauffeur
• Lorraine Miller
  Lorraine Miller
  Lorraine C. Miller of Fort Worth, Texas was the 35th Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. Replacing Karen L. Haas in February 2007, she was the first African American to serve as an official of the United States House of Representatives. Following the Republican takeover of the...
  
   as Director's Friend
• Marek Windheim as Pianist
• Richard Hageman
  Richard Hageman
  Richard Hageman was a Dutch-born American conductor, pianist, composer, and actor.- Biography :...
  
   as Boughton
• Ellen Lowe as Flory, the Maid
• Barry Macollum as Angus, the Club Cashier
• Joe Devlin as Dan Hannigan, the Bartender
• Hal K. Dawson as Dr. Agnew, the Minister
• Andrew Tombes as Mike, the Doorman
• Byron Foulger as Watson, the Brokerage Firm Clerk
• Ann Hunter as Sandra
• June Havoc
  June Havoc
  June Havoc was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, writer, and theater director. Havoc was a child Vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her mother. She later acted on Broadway and in Hollywood and stage directed . She last appeared on television in 1990 on General Hospital...
  
   as Leslie Quayle

Soundtrack

• June Havoc - "I Loved You too Little, too Late" (Written by Phil Boutelje
  Phil Boutelje
  Phil Boutelje was an American pianist, songwriter, composer, author and conductor.-Biography:...
  
   and Foster Carling)
• June Havoc - "The Man with the Big Sombrero" (Written by Phil Boutelje and Foster Carling)
• Pola Negri, Billie Burke, Paul Porcasi, Lorraine Miller and others - "The Pilgrim's Chorus" (from "Tannhäuser
  Tannhäuser (opera)
  Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
  
  " written by Richard Wagner
  Richard Wagner
  Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
  
  )
• Pola Negri - "Evening Star" (from "Tannhäuser" written by Richard Wagner)