The Sex Thief
Encyclopedia
The Sex Thief is a 1973
British sex film starring David Warbeck
, Diane Keen
and Christopher Biggins
. It was an early film credit for director Martin Campbell
.
The film was released in America (in January 1976) as Her Family Jewels, with added hardcore inserts performed by stand-ins for the original cast members.
Keen, quoted in the book The Worlds Greatest Scandals of the 20th Century, claimed "Times were pretty hard and this is a comedy which I am not ashamed at having made. But it was bought by a company which drafted in other actresses to make it look like I was doing erotic things from start to finish. It became incredibly filthy". The hardcore version was later released on video in Holland (under the name Handful of Diamonds).
The film was written by Tudor Gates
and Michael Armstrong under the name Edward Hyde.
During the 2007 series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, Biggins failed to get a question right about his character's name in the film, as part of a bushtucker trial, "The Sex Thief, god, that was a million years ago," he groaned.
The soft version of the film was shown on Movies for Men channel on Sky TV on 24 April 2008.
1973 in film
The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
British sex film starring David Warbeck
David Warbeck
David Warbeck was a New Zealand actor best known for his film roles in Europe.-Career and move into Italian cinema:...
, Diane Keen
Diane Keen
Diane Keen is an English actress.Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British TV drama Doctors which she has been in since 2003 , and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz and Rings on Their Fingers.-Personal life:Keen has one daughter, actress Melissa Greenwood, from...
and Christopher Biggins
Christopher Biggins
Christopher Kenneth Biggins is an English actor and media personality.-Career:Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England and brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he took elocution lessons and participated in local drama groups...
. It was an early film credit for director Martin Campbell
Martin Campbell
-Life and career:Campbell was born in Hastings, New Zealand. He directed two James Bond films, 1995's GoldenEye, starring Pierce Brosnan, and 2006's Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, and was the first Bond director since John Glen to direct more than one film, as well as the oldest director in...
.
The film was released in America (in January 1976) as Her Family Jewels, with added hardcore inserts performed by stand-ins for the original cast members.
Keen, quoted in the book The Worlds Greatest Scandals of the 20th Century, claimed "Times were pretty hard and this is a comedy which I am not ashamed at having made. But it was bought by a company which drafted in other actresses to make it look like I was doing erotic things from start to finish. It became incredibly filthy". The hardcore version was later released on video in Holland (under the name Handful of Diamonds).
The film was written by Tudor Gates
Tudor Gates
Tudor Gates was an English screenwriter and trade unionist.-Biography:Gates was involved in stage management by the early 1950s and began scriptwriting in his spare time. After The Guv'nor was broadcast on television in 1956, he took to writing full time...
and Michael Armstrong under the name Edward Hyde.
During the 2007 series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, Biggins failed to get a question right about his character's name in the film, as part of a bushtucker trial, "The Sex Thief, god, that was a million years ago," he groaned.
The soft version of the film was shown on Movies for Men channel on Sky TV on 24 April 2008.
Plot
Grant Henry (David Warbeck) a writer of trashy paperbacks like The Dirty and the Dying, moonlights as a masked jewel thief who is usually caught in the act but is able to get away with his crimes by luring his female victims to bed. After these women lie to the police about the thief’s identity (“who could disguise himself as a clubfooted coloured midget one week and a 6'6" Russian with a harelip the next”) and seem to want to get burgled again, the Inspector in charge of the case (Terence Edmond) and a Kung-Fu trained insurance investigator (Diane Keen) decide to lay a trap for the thief.Censorship history
The Sex Thief was heavily cut by the British censor on its original release; cuts were made to the scene where the naked girl dances in front of Grant, and the inter-cutting between a further sex scene and a wrestling match. The film's speeded-up sex scene was ‘considerably reduced’ as was the scene where a handcuffed Grant is seduced by Judy. The current US and UK DVD releases are uncut.Alternative version
The US Her Family Jewels/Handful of Diamonds version runs approx 81 minutes (as opposed to the original 89-minute running time) and adds hardcore inserts to every sex scene as well as an innocuous scene in which characters played by Terence Edmond and Diane Keen discuss the thief in a crowded pub, in which the hardcore inserts imply the two characters are masturbating each other under the table. Her Family Jewels deletes several narrative scenes that appear in the original version of the film (most notably the end credits and a subplot involving two detectives trying to sell blue films) but adds several newly shot hardcore scenes in which footage of David Warbeck (taken from elsewhere in the film) has been briefly inserted. These scenes are scored to a pop song “Well Here I Go”, which does not appear in the original film.Cast
- Jennifer Westbrook .... Emily Barrow (as Jenny Westbrook)
- David WarbeckDavid WarbeckDavid Warbeck was a New Zealand actor best known for his film roles in Europe.-Career and move into Italian cinema:...
.... Grant Henry - Henry Rayner .... Constable
- Gerald Taylor .... Herbert Barrow
- Michael ArmstrongMichael Armstrong (cinematographer)Michael Armstrong is a British writer and directorArmstrong trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was writing and directing films at the age of 22 with the award-winning short, The Image starring David Bowie and Michael Byrne...
.... Sgt. Plinth - Terence EdmondTerence EdmondTerence Edmond was an English actor, who played PC Ian Sweet in 78 episodes of Z-Cars between 1962 and 1964....
.... Insp. Robert Smith - Diane KeenDiane KeenDiane Keen is an English actress.Keen is possibly best known for her starring roles in the British TV drama Doctors which she has been in since 2003 , and in the 1970s comedy series The Cuckoo Waltz and Rings on Their Fingers.-Personal life:Keen has one daughter, actress Melissa Greenwood, from...
.... Judy Martin - Christopher Neil .... Guy Hammond
- Harvey HallHarvey HallHarvey L. Hall is the current mayor of Bakersfield, California, serving his third term, having last been re-elected in June 2008. Hall was first elected in 2000, and first re-elected in 2004...
.... Jacobi - Christopher BigginsChristopher BigginsChristopher Kenneth Biggins is an English actor and media personality.-Career:Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England and brought up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he took elocution lessons and participated in local drama groups...
.... Lord 'Porky' Prescott - Christopher MitchellChristopher MitchellChristopher Mitchell was a British actor most notable for his role in the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum as Gunner Nigel 'Parky' Parkins....
.... Ian Wensleydale - Eric DeaconEric DeaconEric Deacon is a British actorperhaps best known for his role in the 1985 film A Zed & Two Noughts, directed by Peter Greenaway, in which he acted alongside his brother Brian....
.... Crabshaw