Movie review - "Operation Amsterdam" (1959) **

A terrific idea based on a true story - two Dutch exiles and a British officer go to Amsterdam just prior to the fall of Holland and try to retrieve some diamonds, but are worried about a traitor. But it misses. Most notably there isn't really that much of a sense of impending doom, tension or excitement - it's awfully easy for them to drive around in a car while the shooting's going on (they see people talking in a cafe), the relationship between the men and a girl who helps them (Eva Bartok) feels perfunctory, the shoot-outs are bland. They worry about there being a traitor or fifth columnist... but there is none. Even some stuff which should have been gold about the fate of Jews in Holland comes across flat - one or two plead to go back to England but our heroes just sort of say "sorry no can do" and that's that.

Peter Finch is the star but just as big a role goes to Tony Britton as the British officer. Finch and Bartok have a quasi romance but it isn't much chop (it's hardly a love story because she'snly just mourning her Jewish fiancee... who she doesn't even know is dead). A real shame - you want a top director to remake it. Finch is a believable Hollander (at least to my untrained eyes) - I believed him both as a diamond expert and someone capable of strangling a Nazi to death.