NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (November 2022): Kino have transferred Dennis O'Keefe and Montgomery Tully's The Diamond Wizard to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "Newly Restored in 3-D by 3-D Film Archive".

Firstly, this Kino Lorber Blu-ray package offers both the 3D - Spacemaster 3-D (dual-strip 3-D) - and 2D (flat) versions of the film, "The Diamond Wizard". We will only review the 2D version here as I have only sampled the 3D on a friend's system and will briefly comment on it's effectiveness.
NOTE: The menu offers an option for both 3-D and 2-D playback, but when this disc is viewed on a regular 2-D monitor and 2-D Blu-ray player, the 3-D version is prohibited.

You can access the 3D Anaglyph Version by anyone with a standard Blu-ray player.

As it has the two versions sharing one dual-layered disc, the bitrate is modest and the image quality middling but there are some appealing and heavy textures. The 2-D looked fine on my system and a couple of 3-D effects sampled of the 3-D version were reasonably impressive. Contrast is somewhat faded in spots, with a few blemishes, but overall the 1080P exported a decent HD presentation with impressive shadows and lighting later in the film. See our image samples below.

NOTE: We have added 54 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language. The Diamond Wizard has a few aggressive moments - gunfire, cars etc. The, often intese, score was by Matyas Seiber (A Town Like Alice, conductor for Chase a Crooked Shadow etc.) sounding clean with consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers 11-minutes - cited as a "commentary" by Mike Ballew with a few slides. He discusses the history of 3-D and part in it later stages the process. There is also a brief video on restoring The Diamond Wizard in 3-Dimensions. These two supplements are available in 2-D and 3-D - as is the menu. Lastly are the alternate opening credits (2-D) with the actual The Diamond Wizard title and a 2-D theatrical trailer. 3-D glasses are included.

Dennis O'Keefe and Montgomery Tully's The Diamond Wizard is cited as a British film noir. It has known as Britain's first 3-D film as stated by the BFI. It was shown in 3-D only once, on September 13th 2006 - in Hollywood. It has an interesting premise regarding a scientific process for producing synthetic diamonds. Dennis O'Keefe had over 280 acting credits in notable Noirs like Abandoned, Woman on the Run, Raw Deal, T-Men as well as Jacques Tourneur's The Leopard Man. The Diamond Wizard is only one of two of his directorial credits. It was shot by Gordon Lang who acted, in bit parts, in the TV series Doctor Who (1966) and The Avengers (1962.) The Diamond Wizard  is heavy in police procedurals around London. It's entertaining if more remarkable for its 3-D status. Completists - both Noir and 3-D - should consider it. The Kino Blu-ray would have benefited from a feature commentary, but there are worthy positives here.

Gary Tooze