A Twist of Sand
1968 film by Don Chaffey
A Twist of Sand is a 1968 British adventure film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Richard Johnson, Jeremy Kemp, Honor Blackman and Peter Vaughan. The screenplay was by Marvin Albert was based on Geoffrey Jenkins' 1959 novel of the same name.
Plot
A former British naval officer now makes his living by smuggling goods around the Mediterranean. After being forced to dump his cargo when nearly caught by the authorities in Malta, he is eager to recoup his losses. When a former colleague appears and tells a wild story about smuggling diamonds out of south-west Africa, he sees his chance to make a lot of money. The diamonds are hidden in a shipwreck buried in the sand dunes of Namibia's Skeleton Coast.
In recurring flashbacks, the captain relives his wartime experiences as the commander of a Royal Navy submarine, sent to South African waters to destroy an experimental U-Boat.
Cast
Richard Johnson as Geoffrey Peace
Honor Blackman as Julie Chambois
Jeremy Kemp as Harry Riker
Peter Vaughan as Johann
Roy Dotrice as David Carland
Guy Doleman as patrol boat commander
Jack May as Diamond Security Police Inspector Seekert
Kenneth Cope as Flag Officer
Tony Caunter as Sonarman Elton
Clifford Evans as Admiral Tringham
Production
Geoffrey Jenkins initially sold the rights for his 1959 novel to filmmaker Nunnally Johnson at 20th Century Fox. Johnson intended to write the script himself and have Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr cast in the starring roles. It was one of several leading roles for Richard Johnson in the late 1960s.
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The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1968 film by Don Chaffey. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4660376. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968 and 1959.
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This entry incorporates text from “A Twist of Sand” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.