User reviews

Operation Amsterdam is a no frills war thriller about a special mission to the Netherlands. British major Tony Britton is sent there accompanied by a pair of Dutch diamond merchants, Peter Finch and Alexander Knox. Their mission is to clean out as many industrial diamonds as they can from the diamond brokers which the city is known for.

Those industrial black diamonds ain't pretty and don't sparkle. But they are the hardest things on planet earth. Drill bits to shape metal are invaluable in an industrial economy, all the more so on a war footing. The Nazis could really use them and they are hours away from occupying the Low Countries.

This one moves at a nice clip with grainy black and white cinematography to demonstrate the coming darkness to fall on the Netherlands and Europe.

Along the way the men of the mission save Eva Bartok from suicide and she proves invaluable. Her own wartime experiences gave her depth to her role that was unique. No time for romance, but Finch is clearly interested and might be looking her up after the war assuming both survive.

No super heroics, just some men, Dutch and British doing a job that needed to be done in Operation Amsterdam.

Unseen Nazi jackboots are marching into Holland in the darkest days of WWII and Churchill's government is worried about all the industrial diamonds lying around in Amsterdam that could be used for the German war effort. Being British, we're obviously not going to rely on Frenchy to nip across and spirit the city's entire stock away before the invading hordes arrive so we send a rather colourless secret agent in the form of Tony Britton, the son of an Amsterdam diamond merchant (Peter Finch) and another chap who just seems to be along for the ride (Alexander Knox, who looks worrying dispensable throughout but somehow manages to emerge from the entire escapade unscathed).

Our unlikely heroes hitch a lift to Amsterdam from a distraught Eva Bartok who has just witnessed her boyfriend's boat being bombed by the Luftwaffe and is about to drive into the harbour waters to look for him. At first they fear she might be a fifth columnist, but she turns out to be a plucky heroine, picking up the machine gun of a fallen resistance fighter to sullenly strafe the enemy at one point.

Operation Amsterdam is one of those films that deserves to be better known because it's really quite good. The location photography of an eerily near-deserted Amsterdam is effective, and the tension is ramped up quite nicely until the whole thing seems to run out of steam in the final reel as our heroes make their getaway. The problem is that nobody is really aware that they are in fact getting away because their exploits haven't yet been uncovered. Anyway, when the film isn't testing our heroes it's commenting on the unenvious position in which the City's diamond merchants – many of whom are Jewish and only too aware of the treatment meted out to their creed by the Nazis. One old chap tries to bargain a place on the boat back to Britain for his sick, elderly wife but is gently rebuffed.

Perhaps the film's main weakness is the suspicion that something wasn't quite right during post-production. Midway through, the film seems to take a disconcerting leap forward, and suddenly there's little Melvyn Hayes sitting in the back of a car with our fellows. Now where did he come from? A neighbour of hero number three's mum, apparently (so that's why he tagged along), although we're never see this mother-and-son reunion – even though you suspect the scenes were filmed.

The 'flaws' noted above are not really that serious. Firstly, yes the sudden appearance of Willem suggested a cut scene, a frequent occurrence in many movies, owing to pacing and duration considerations - could have been better handled, but it was explained briefly. Secondly, the various groups of Dutch soldiers, some fighting each other, was fully explained several times in the dialogue - the city has been infiltrated with German fifth columnists, and nobody is sure who is friend or foe! In the battle scene by the canal the late arrivals have been sent by the man at the government department, to help the 'good guys'. Thirdly, you are correct that the OFFICIAL Dutch resistance was not yet organised, but the resistance fighters in the story are early volunteers who are trying to hamper the German occupation of Amsterdam, and will no doubt form the nucleus of the resistance movement that would soon follow. So, you see, not really serious flaws at all!

'Operation Amsterdam' is one that had gotten away from me. I thought I'd seen just about every WWII movie that ever was. So when I came across it on DVD, I felt nicely piqued.

And when I watched it, I felt nicely surprised, decently entertained.

The plot isn't terribly exciting, the script could have benefitted from a wee bit of polishing, but the production works well because tension is strung taut and relaxed, and strung taut and relaxed again and again throughout the film.

Peter Finch and Alexander Knox are two Dutch diamond experts who sail in a British destroyer with an English secret agent: destination Amsterdam. Mission: come out, before the Nazis surround or take the city, with the Dutch inventory of industrial diamonds. Object: deprive Nazi war industry of the tool-cutting, metal-shaping worth of those diamonds.

In the haunting desertion of orderly Amsterdam streets, the intrepid trio meets with Dutch diamond merchants, scampers in and out of the clutches of Dutch fifth columnists, mucks in with Dutch resistance fighters, and warily accepts guidance throughout from a Dutchwoman whom they cannot, at first, trust (played with restrained charm by Eva Bartok). Some of the diamond merchants are, as they've always been in Amsterdam, Jews. The point is made about Nazi persecution of Jews and about the dilemmas many Jews faced when the Nazis occupied their countries, but in 'Operation Amsterdam' the points are made unsentimentally - which highlights the stark panic, fear, and despair many Jews felt in that baleful time and circumstance. Indeed, throughout the film characters are beset by choices, choices they must make because time, as the story development lets us know clearly, is running out for everybody in the Netherlands.

It's the storytelling and the actors' understatement - nothing is James Bondish about these ordinary characters finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances - that make the story absorbing, believable. Abetted by the unsettling counterpoint between carnivalesque Dutch pierement (organ grinders) music - happy music playing in a bleak city, over throngs of departing refugees, during the agents' tense search for and gathering of the diamonds - and by terse snare drumming, the story keeps ratcheting up its grip on the viewer, holding tight tempo with the agents' mission and their dedication to accomplishing it.

The only serious flaw in the film's visuals owes to most of the deserted street shots having to be filmed immediately after dawn (else Amsterdam's population would be thronging its thoroughfares). This yields a bit of a crazy quilt mix of shots having long shadows intercut with shots having midday, short shadows - supposedly happening in the same instant. Otherwise, the camerawork and editing jive nicely with the unfolding of the plot.

Also ramping up the tension is the script's bareness: one really must think a lot - sometimes too much - about what's going on, about what's coming next, but the need to think that way lends the viewer a heightened sense of uncertainty, danger, and dread. It also helps that the scriptwriter avoided the worst cliches of the genre: the scenes of Eva Bartok and Peter Finch are treated as bare-bones, wartime heartbreak rather than as apocryphal "we fell in love in battle" nonsense.

Generally, props are first-rate, except for Dutch soldiers and resistance fighters toting German MP-40 machine pistols which were in short enough supply in the 1940 Wehrmacht, and for a few 1950's-era military trucks. The other weaponry is all true to period: Dutch army M1895 Mannlicher rifles, Luger pistols, period revolvers and such. Also, Dutch uniforms and personal gear are precisely from the story's 1940 time-frame. The only other minor quibble is one found in quite a few late-50's and 1960's WWII films: a four-seater Messerschmitt Bf.108 touring aeroplane stands in for the later, design-derivative Bf.109 fighter (See 'Von Ryan's Express', and 'The Longest Day' for more examples of this substitution - which was necessary since there were then no restored, flyable Bf.109E aircraft.).

'Operation Amsterdam' hasn't dated nearly as badly as have so many other WWII films made in the twenty years following the war because it sticks to its story, because it tells its story without frills, excursions into moralizing, or distracting subplots. Though it didn't benefit from a larger budget, as did 'The Counterfeit Traitor' which was filmed in the same era, 'Operation Amsterdam' delivers the goods.

Summed up: Agents voyage to Amsterdam to deprive Nazis of diamonds, return to us with a minor gem of a movie.

I wanted to like Operation Amsterdam, but for some reason I could never get absorbed into it the way you have to to enjoy a movie. It had a good cast, led by the excellent Peter Finch and the beautiful Eva Bartok. Alexander Knox was there, too. His presence is usually an asset, but in this one he was given little to do. I was hoping to see him as a Dutch fifth columnist baddie, since nasty was what he did best, but he played a bland little fellow with few lines. His character was in practically every scene but seemed to have no real function.

The World War II intrigue story showed much promise. Dutch diamond merchants (Finch and Knox) with a British special forces officer (Tony Britton) sneak into the Netherlands at the time Amsterdam is about to fall to invading German forces. Their purpose is to smuggle all of the diamonds they can back to England in order to keep these invaluable industrial items out of German hands. The two main hurdles to overcome will be convincing all of the Dutch diamond dealers to hand over their goods and to keep from being shot by one of the groups of "fifth columnists", Nazi sympathizers in regular Dutch army uniforms, who are roaming the streets. With loyal soldiers around, too, it is hard to tell friend from foe. The diamond commandos are aided by the beautiful Bartok driving her beautiful Mercedes automobile like a bat out of you-know-where and an underground resistance group, strangely well-organized and well-armed considering that the Nazis have not yet taken over their government.

The cinematography was good, though not outstanding. Being a sucker for the black & white widescreen movie, a format which was not popular for a very long period, is one of the reasons I bought the DVD of Operation Amsterdam. The wide screen is used very well, especially in panoramic shots of civilians fleeing down a dike road and in the street fighting scenes. There is lots of action with all of it well staged and some effective suspense.

So why did I not like this movie better. Flabby direction by Michael McCarthy and sloppy editing were two problems. Tony Britton was simply not up to the pivotal role of the tough British secret service officer. He just was not dynamic enough. It is a shame we couldn't have had Trevor Howard or Richard Harris, both of whom excelled at this type of role. Worst for me, was the jazzy score by Philip Green. Rather than enhancing the action and the suspense, it was irritating and inappropriate for the historical period.

Well, maybe it was just me. My grouchy old wife, who is usually more picky about movies than I am, liked it better than I did, and so did most others who have reviewed it and posted on the message board. It was sincere and historically authentic, typically good points of British movies from this era. It was over all pretty good, but should have been much better. With Trevor Howard and a Dimitri Tiomkin score -- who knows?

From a purely historical point of view, "Operation Amsterdam" is a really cool film. That's because most movies about WWII focus on big, loud and obvious topics--like battles. However, "Operation Amsterdam" is instead about an equally serious problem--what to do with all the diamonds (particularly the industrial grade ones) in Amsterdam--the capital of the diamond industry. This is because lots of war-time machinery (such as precision drill bits) depended on these diamonds and the British were scared the Germans would confiscate them when they overran Holland in 1940.

As far as the film itself goes, it is mildly interesting and has some very tense moments. My only reservation is that the film, at times, seems a tad bland. While it stars Peter Finch--a rather distinguished Oscar-winning actor. Here, however, he isn't given a lot to do other than hide from Germans and Nazi sympathizers. This is not a huge complaint, but the overall film is a bit on the sterile side. Worth seeing, yes, but not a rousing adventure, that's for sure.

Operation Amsterdam is a pleasant surprise. It has both a strong story and some unusual cinematic touches to keep the viewer interested.

The story of the British secret service agents who are sent to Amsterdam to recover industrial diamonds before the German invasion is a familiar one, and their eventual safe escape is predictable enough.

What interested me was the atmosphere of fear and bleakness that the producers manage to convey. The empty streets, in bright sunlight; the columns of fleeing people; the confusion of not knowing who are enemies or friends, makes for a better than average effects.

Added to this a score made only with drums, and some very abrupt editing that is almost painful to watch, makes this a worthwhile watch.

This movie has a premise with a lot of potential: a small group of agents has a just 14 hours to get into Amsterdam and take out all the industrial diamonds there. But the movie is ruined by three gigantic flaws.

First, it is incompetently edited. It is obvious that some key scenes were left out and as a result, the plot is hard to follow. For example, at one point the agents go off to visit the mother of one of them. The next time we see them, they are back from the visit and have a new character, Willem, with them. All we get is a one sentence explanation for who he is and why he is with them.

Second, the motivations of the various Dutch army units are baffling and never explained. Some of them help the agents while others try to kill the agents. At some points, different Dutch army units shoot at each other. We are never told why some of them are trying to kill the agents. Are they disloyal soldiers trying to help the Germans? Or do they believe that the agents are working for the Germans? Or do they think the diamonds should stay in Holland even if it is overrun by the Germans? Or do they think the Germans will fail to capture Amsterdam and, thus, it is unnecessary to take the diamonds out?

Third, a group of about a dozen Dutch civilians help the agents get diamonds out of a bank safe and blow up a oil storage facility. It is never explained who these people are. They are not the Dutch underground. That was formed only after the Germans overran Holland; but this movie is set before they'd captured Amsterdam.

The movie makes the best out of a fairly unique story that is probably based on true historical facts. It is about a one day expedition to Amsterdam in May 1940, shortly before the arrival of the invading German troops. In a race against time exiled Dutch jewelers try to get all the industrial diamonds out of the country and bring them to Britain before the Germans can take them. It is a quick in and out operation organised by the British government that has to be accomplished in one day - and no easy task as the jewelers have to be convinced by sheer argument it is the right and sensible thing to do (hard to decide in the Netherlands in May 1940, I am certain).

In a strange way this movie is surrealistic and realistic at the same time. There is a lot of good location shooting, the sun drenched streets of Amsterdam are virtually deserted, the atmosphere is ghostly. At times there is gunfire in the distance. There are some disoriented Dutch soldiers hanging around, or shall I say loitering? The effect is strangely threatening. At one time two groups of soldiers start shooting at each other. In another scene, one of the day trippers steps into a pub in a totally empty square. And there they are, the Dutch! Sitting peacefully behind their pints and discussing the latest news from the front. The transition really took me completely by surprise, it was incongruous but strangely effective and somehow totally believable.

There are harrowing scenes. When the day trippers disembark, the harbour is in chaos and full of refugees – a strong contrast to the mentioned deserted streets in the town center. When they finally succeed in organising a meeting with all of Amsterdam's important jewelers, their Jewish colleagues express the opinion that for them it might be wiser not to make the Germans angry by giving away the jewels. They can be convinced to agree to the evacuation of the stones that are invaluable to the armament industry, although it is made perfectly clear that the day trippers can take no refugees with them. All these issues are treated in a rational and unemotional way which actually strengthens the impact of the tragic situation.

In addition the movie also has some action scenes, a car chase and, as the culmination of the absurd general situation, the heist of a jewel depository by partisans who help the day trippers, with an ensuing fierce shootout with a detachment of Dutch troops. The acting is good, Peter Finch (Network) is cool as usual and gives a convincing performance as the son of an eminent Amsterdam jeweler and leader of the expedition. Eva Bartok is stylishly beautiful and enigmatic as a Dutch woman with uncertain alignments who joins the day trippers after they saved her from a suicide attempt (driving her car over the pier in the harbor, a car, incidentally, that comes in mighty handy). So, a hell of a lot goes on in Operation Amsterdam.

Peter Finch ("Smit") and Tony Britton ("Maj. Dillon") are charged with trying to relocate a considerable supply of Dutch diamonds to Britain after the Nazis invade the Netherlands during World War II. It's a treacherous operation as the occupying forces are keen to get hold of these gems for themselves and are closing in on them, and on their local allies - not least "Anna" (Eva Bartok). It's quite well put together, this film. There is quite a sense of menace, nobody is ever entirely sure whom they can trust and a strong supporting cast from the likes of Alexander Knox help keep it interesting, if not exactly enthralling. The score is a bit overpowering at times, and the pace dawdles a bit after about an hour - but it does pick up well towards the end. Finch is fine, as is Bartok. Tony Britton was never the most versatile of actors, but he does well enough here to keep this differently themed wartime film worth a watch.

OPERATION AMSTERDAM's synopsis and the iniitial voiceover narration seem to suggest a gripping film based on a real WW II operation, but very soon you realize that it is just some news item transferred to the screen with larger than life but rather wooden characters - apart from Anna, played by the gorgoeous Eva Bartok.

Director Michael McCarthy sadly died at just 42, shortly after completing OPERATION AMSTERDAM, but even earlier films - thankfully shorter - like THE TRAITOR (1957) and MYSTERY JUNCTION (1951) stew in a mire of mediocrity, so I doubt he would have reached any quality podium had he lived to 84. What is more, in this film he co-wrote the similarly stall-sputter-jump screenplay.

Pedestrian cinematography and editing by Reginald Wyer and Arthur Stevens, respectively.

OK but unremarkable acting. Finch is described by the narrator as the key man in the operation, a Dutch citizen who knows diamonds inside out and whose father is a diamond cutter, and holds a personal fortune in diamonds that the UK so badly needs to bore and drill as part of the war materiel production effort. He keeps showing unusual interest in the suitcases that Britton carries and never lets anyone touch for a second. Other than his loving relationship with his father - well portrayed by Malcolm Keen - Finch has the unenviable role of trying to seem to matter. In the end, what is best remembered from his performance as Jan Smit is that he gets the girl.

Tony Britton plays the British major leading the operation and he certainly pulls rank several times, otherwise he just goes around with those suitcases and disappears for a long stretch. At the end we learn that the cases contained explosives to blow up the main Shell oil deposit in Amsterdam - the aim being to deprive the Germans of its use, just as with the diamonds.

Saving the best for last. Beautiful Bartok may speak English with a raw accent, and wear trenchcoat most of the time, which does not reveal her fabulous figure, but she steals the show without trying. 6/10.

I'll keep this brief as many others already cited the plot. The smuggling of industrial diamonds out of Amsterdam lest the Nazis get their hand on them to expand their war effort is just the Maguffin. This could easily have been an episode of the Mission: Impossible TV show.

It's plausible enough (despite my title) and the cast is capable. The fact that it's filmed in an almost documentary style helps considerably. Sans the typical trappings of a romantic subplot and other nonsense it comes off as a tough and gritty mission, though had Hitchcock directed the suspense would've been amped up considerably.

As mentioned elsewhere, some of the editing is a bit choppy. What bothered me the most was the reliance on rear projection for almost all of the car scenes. Yes, it was still being employed in 1959, but such old fashioned trickery was obvious and going out of style.

Enjoyable, semi-realistic espionage. NOTE: the print used on Amazon is not widescreen.

Peter finch. Period piece. Britain's mission is to get the valuable diamonds out of amsterdam before the germans can take them. And turn them into tanks, gasoline, weapons. World war two drama, with lots of suspense, as the team works to get the precious cargo back to england. But they will need the help of anna, a local, to get around town. Some heavy hitters in this...finch won the oscar for network. Alex knox was oscar nominated, and tony britton was nominated for a bafta. It's pretty good. Not perfect, but good suspense! Directed by michael mccarthy, who died so young at 42. He passed away just a couple months after this was released! Based on the book by david walker... had two films made from his works.

OPERATION AMSTERDAM is a strong WW2 movie with a great premise: a team including a Brit and two Dutch are sent into Amsterdam just as the Nazis are invading the country. They've been tasked with retrieving a priceless cache of diamonds from the city's jewellers and thus preventing them from falling into German hands. Along the way they must contend with German mines, bombing, Fifth Columnists, and the German soldiers who have already begun arriving in the city.

It's one of the strongest backdrops I can remember seeing in a film and the suspense goes through the roof from the outset. What I liked about OPERATION AMSTERDAM is that, despite the outlandish premise, the whole thing is rooted in realism; there are no gung-ho heroics, just characters struggling through as best they can. The production values are excellent and while there isn't a wealth of needless action in the film, a climactic firefight is expertly choreographed and one of the best filmed ever (eat your heart out, HEAT!).

The cast is very fine and includes Peter Finch in a solid hero-type role. My favourite character was that of the lovely Eva Bartok, who plays a resistance fighter with courage and determination, even more so than the men she helps. The real star of the show, though, is director Michael McCarthy, who had previously only helmed TV fare and low budget B-films. In OPERATION AMSTERDAM he was given a proper budget and ran away with it, although the success was bittersweet; he died in the same year the film was released.

"Operation Amsterdam" from 1959 stars Peter Finch, Alexander Knox, Tony Britton and Eva Bartok in a Rank film based on a true incident. In 1940, there was a British move to get industrial diamonds out of Holland so that the Germans could not make use of them.

A British Major (Britton) travels to England with two diamond experts (Knox and Finch) to persuade diamond merchants in Amsterdam to give over their industrial diamonds, which would be brought to England.

There is danger all around them, with soldiers, shootings, and bombings everywhere. At a harbor, a young woman, Anna (Eva Bartok) tries to drive into the water to commit suicide after her fiancée's parents are killed, as she blames herself for inadvertently causing their death. The men are able to stop her and make use of her car, and her knowledge of Amsterdam, all the while not sure if they can even trust her. No one, in fact, can trust anyone, since German parachuters are disguised as Dutch soldiers.

Jan (Finch's) father, who is a diamond merchant in Amsterdam, appeals to his circle to relinquish their stashes so that the major and the men can bring them to a destroyer on which Churchill is allowing them to travel. The time is short -- will the merchants cooperate? Or have they come a long way for not very much? I found this film very exciting and very moving. The atmosphere was tense throughout. Peter Finch gives a wonderful performance as Jan, and he was so handsome and had good chemistry with the beautiful, mysterious Anna of Bartok. Alexander Knox seemed to be an afterthought, not given much to do.

Knowing what the Dutch suffered during the war made this an emotional experience watching the courage of the people who helped the men along the way. This wasn't the officially formed resistance, but an earlier group who didn't want the Nazis in Holland and probably were the core people when the official Resistance began.

Highly recommended. I think the story is compelling enough to overcome editing criticisms, the time of release criticisms and the like. Powerful stories are timeless.

The Germans have invaded Holland and are in the process of occupying Amsterdam, some of them masquerading as Dutch fighters called Fifth Columnists. The British dispatch British Army Intelligence Officer Tony Britton with Dutch diamond men Alexander Knox and Peter Finch to get the industrial grade diamonds out of Amsterdam before Hitler can get them for use in machine processing for weapons production. Eva Bartok drives the trio from the dock into Amsterdam after being prevented from committing suicide and then sticks around to assist in the mission. Based on a true story this is well made with great acting and very suspenseful. Beautiful on location filming in and around Amsterdam. The movie so effectively puts the viewer into the frightening situation the Dutch were facing that it plays as good as a documentary. Highly recommended!

Put together fine british actor's and tell the story of well organized and plans to ship the entire stock of Diamonds from Amsterdam to the UK under occupied Germany.

This chapter of the Second World War is hardly known by anyone, while this film makes a good show of it, reminding you above all of "Rififi" and its classic bank robbery sequence - there is a touch of Rififi here, but the other way around - a bank is robbed to save its jewels, not to dispose of them. Peter Finch is the lead finding Eva Bartok on the point of suicide, while he and his friends succeed in converting her enough to make her save them and Holland. It's a great thriller and war drama at the same time, while you easily overlook and forgive its flaws for the general sustained suspense. At the same time it gives a very realistic and almost documentary insight into the trauma of the German invasion of Holland early in May 1940, and the finest scenes are perhaps those with the diamond business men in their life's greatest quandary in their business club, with some very gripping moments of old old men being compelled to make desperate decisions. The music from a pianola also plays a most significant part almost furnishing the film with something of a golden framework not of diamonds but of the delicacy of human values.