In the Vault

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

11 HARROW HOUSE

Directed by ARAM AVAKIAN Screenplay by JEFFREY BLOOM

For a good time, check in at 11 Harrow House. That is the London address -so this movie says-of the wealthiest, stuffiest and best-guarded diamond exchange in the world. Needless to say, such an institution is likely to cause a certain amount of envy and resentment among those forced to do business with it. Among them you can number a smalltime diamond dealer (Charles Grodin), who is always being put down for violating its dress code or smoking in the waiting room, and a power-crazed tycoon (Trevor Howard) who wants to crack the vaults just for the hell of it. The third malcontent is an employee (James Mason) who is dying of cancer after 30 years of service, but just before the firm's unbending insurance program would cover his family.

Abetted by Candice Bergen, as a thrill-seeking but good-natured deb, they determine to crack the uncrackable safe. At this point, what looked like just another spoofy heist picture takes on a wayward comic life that is about as refreshing as any adventure movie around these days. The grand plan calls for the orchestration of such oddly diverse elements as hand-painted cockroaches, an enormous piece of chocolate cake and a giant vacuum cleaner. Better still, it requires Grodin to convert himself from a chronically depressed victim into a man of action. That development-as his voice-over narration, rather like a rehearsal for a Woody Allen monologue, makes clear-does nothing to alleviate his deep existential dread. "She is a very good person," he says with heartfelt gratitude as Bergen volunteers for a particularly dangerous bit of criminality. "This is a very frightened truck," he observes as their robbery vehicle draws up in front of 11 Harrow House to begin the caper. His comment, when Howard's mistress comes to their rescue after Howard has turned against Grodin and troops of bad guys are wildly pursuing him over hill and dale: "I wish I'd been nicer to her."

It is all very silly, but Grodin, doing a total switch on his role in The Heartbreak Kid, is as funny as a schlemiel as he was as a Lothario; Bergen has never been more loose and natural; Mason is touching as a defeated man given a miraculous opportunity to close out life with a big win; and no less a figure than Sir John Gielgud is humorously on hand as the fussy manager of No. 11. This poised, stylish cast shines quite as impressively as the quarry in the vault. sbRichard Schickel

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