
Continuity mistake: When the crash occurs, Klaus pulls out the key on a keychain. In the first shot, Klaus is not wearing a pinky ring on his right hand while holding the key with the round charm dangling, but in the closeup Klaus is now wearing a pinky ring on his right hand and is instead holding the keychain charm, with the key dangling. (00:08:15)
Answer: The diamonds were "blood money" that were stolen at the expense of many Jewish lives during the holocaust and also resulted in Babe's brother, "Doc" being murdered. For that reason, Babe would not want them, nor would he allow others to profit from them. Szell needed to risk being recognized in New York in order to retrieve the entire cache of diamonds from the bank safe deposit box after his brother, Klaus, was killed. Klaus would retrieve as many diamonds as Szell needed to sell to support himself in South America. Once Klaus was dead, no-one else could gain access to them for Szell, or if they could, probably would have stolen them.
raywest ★