Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

SimonJack "Operation Amsterdam" is an excellent movie about a little known espionage mission and rescue raid early in World War II. The movie is based on true events from a novel by David E. Walker. Walker was a war correspondent and was connected with British military intelligence. After the war, he wrote 10 novels. Most were war-related. The most famous of his works was "Adventure in Diamonds," on which this movie is based. It went through 30 printings in four languages from 1955 to 1980. The story is about a special mission put together hastily to get the industrial diamonds out of Amsterdam after the Germans invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Amsterdam then was the diamond capital of the world – handling the bulk of the world's uncut diamonds. Today, that distinction goes to nearby Antwerp, Belgium. One wonders if author Walker had something to do with the operation, or if he just learned of it in his intelligence and journalist functions. Anyway, it's a nice plot with excellent technical production and other values. At least one other reviewer commented about the starkness of the street scenes and reality of the scenes around the harbor. I agree. This movies was made within 14 years after the end of the war, when it was possible to stage such scenes, and when the lay of the land hadn't changed so much form the war years. There were yet no modern buildings, ships and other things that one would see today. One or two people found it a slow-moving film. Well, if one expects lots of war action, that's true. But that's not what the story was about. I think the director and others did an admirable job in portraying the sense of uneasiness mixed with fear, confusion and worry among the people in Amsterdam as they awaited the German occupation. The cast are all very good. The leads especially are excellent. Peter Finch is Jan Smit, Eva Bartok is Anna, Tony Britton is Major Dillon Alexander Knox is Walter Keyster, Malcolm Keen is Johan Smit and Christopher Rhodes is Alex. I think the film showed very well what we learned in history – how many of the Jews were conflicted about giving up their wealth which might be used for bargaining chips later on. At that time, the Holocaust was just beginning and there was little knowledge of what would happen. To most people then, it probably seemed so heinous as to be unbelievable. But for our hindsight today, most people living now may have felt and believed as they did then. Even with the warnings of the persecution and oppression of Jews since Kirstallnact of 1933, many people couldn't fathom the depths of depravity to which the human race could fall in the ensuring Nazi pogrom. One other aspect of this movie is noteworthy. This film, made in 1959, depicts an ugly side of some of the Dutch population at the outbreak of the war. A significant number of people were sympathizers with Germany, if not with the Nazi party. And, there were quite a few collaborators. A couple of other later movies about the Dutch Resistance during the war bring that point home. It was in Amsterdam that a family hid Anne Frank's family, but a suspicious neighbor eventually betrayed the Franks and their protectors. In this film, a sizable number of the Dutch military in Amsterdam seem to have been won over to the German cause. German paratroopers were used to take some key places and foment disorder, but it's not likely that they replaced so many Dutch soldiers in uniform.While not a film with lots of action, there is considerable suspense and intrigue in "Operation Amsterdam" to keep viewers on the edge of our seats. It's historical value make it an important film to include in any serious World War II film collection.

blanche-2 "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.

JoeytheBrit 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.

manuel-pestalozzi 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.