JohnHowardReid Operation Amsterdam (1959) sounds promising, but the film has a number of irritating defects. True, some of the atmosphere in the imperiled city is conveyed thanks to location lensing in Amsterdam which involved a considerable amount of organizing like removing traffic from the streets, replacing it with contemporary vehicles and making sure all the extras wore the correct wartime clothing. Unfortunately, all this admirable location lensing is somewhat undercut by the continuous and obvious use of studio cut-ins against a process screen. On the other hand, the editing of the action spots is nice and sharp, particularly the sequence in which the car goes over the wharf. This is most effective indeed! I was also thrilled by the sequence in which we wait for the time lock to come off which features shorter and shorter cross- cutting. Elsewhere, however, the editing tends to be rather slack, dragged out and as placidly routine as Michael McCarthy's direction.. There's also far too much padding in the script. At least 30 minutes should have been jettisoned, including all Malcolm Keen's scenes. True, he's a competent actor, but here his delivery is uncomfortably slow. And worse, what he has to say is of little importance and just time- consuming. Alexander Knox is also saddled with some of the script's most pious platitudes. The other players make an effort to overcome their banal dialogue, though Peter Finch also struggles to make an impression. And as for the miscasting of one of my favorite comedians, John LeMesurier, as a colonel in the Dutch War Ministry, the less said the better! Fortunately, the film does gain attention with a brilliant use of musical sound effects. In fact the music score throughout is a major asset.

rangeriderr I had never heard of this movie until I stumbled across it on Instant Netflix. I just loved it and found it to be more exciting than I could expect. It was extremely realistic and had many strong aspects.The B&W photography was perfect. It totally captured the despondent feeling of the day, between the deserted city streets and the road to the harbor packed with refugees -- old & young. The scenes with boats in the water clearly looked like film stages, but the street scenes looked very realistic. One reviewer seemed to imply that they were actual streets.The editing was extremely tight, perhaps just a little too tight, as some other reviewers have commented, since it wasn't totally clear why there were Dutch soldiers fighting the "good guys". Yes, there was the comment that you couldn't tell who the fifth columnists were, but one does not expect the fifth columnists to be soldiers in Dutch uniforms.The music fit the film perfectly -- between the street organ and the snare drums. But what especially contributed to the suspense were the times when the film was virtually silent and the camera switched from one face with tension to another. One reviewer commented on how little Alexander Knox had to say, but his expressions, along with his silence, actually added to the tension. Overall, the casting was perfect.Eva Bartok was superb. I can't recall ever having seen an actress who was so beautiful seem so realistic. (If you read her biography at this site, you can understand why she played her role so convincingly. She had already suffered considerably, being forced to marry a Nazi officer at age 15 who continually raped her.) Nothing was overplayed by her or by anyone. As opposed to all the James Bond type movies these days, this was far more realistic, and the tension was palpable.I've now started to watch the film a second time (about 20 minutes so far), which I think this movie lends itself to doing. When you watch it the second time, you pick up many clues that become important as the story unfolds, such as the Dutch soldiers who are, indeed, Nazi sympathizers, and the policeman on the dock, in an early scene, who thinks that the spies are additional Germans in disguise, like the parachutists dressed in civilian clothes, whom he had already shot. The terse dialogue and context for many of these opening scenes may be missed the first time around. Also, when watching it again, one has the opportunity to catch more of the details and verisimilitude of the film.

watching_movies 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!

Rickee 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.