Operation Amsterdam

Operation Amsterdam (1959)

So startling...so amazing...you must believe it actually happened!

When Germany invades Holland in 1940, a British intelligence officer and two Dutch diamond merchants go to Amsterdam to persuade the Dutch diamond merchants to evacuate their diamond supplies to England.

Date of release
1959-01-12
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (16)
Runtime
1h 44m
Genres
Drama, History, War
Director
Michael McCarthy

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios

Operation Amsterdam is a 1959 black and white British action film, directed by Michael McCarthy, and featuring Peter Finch, Eva Bartok and Tony Britton. It is based on a true story as described in the book Adventure in Diamonds, by David E. Walker. The action of the story covers 12–13 May 1940 during the German invasion of the Netherlands. The composer Philip Green composed two original pieces of music for the film, the Pierement Waltz and the Amsterdam Polka.

Production

The film was based on a true story. British intelligence smuggled out ten million pounds worth of industrial diamonds from Smit's Diamonds in Amsterdam. This was turned into a book Adventure in Diamonds by British journalist David Walker, which forms the basis of the film. Jan Schmidt, who Finch plays, was killed in 1946 and the character of Anna disappeared.

Peter Finch made the movie under his contract with the Rank organisation, which had started in 1954. Finch had been under suspension for repeatedly turning down roles and agreed to make the film in part to finish his contract with Rank. He had just made The Nun's Story for Warner Brs.

According to Tony Britton, who co-starred, Finch was unhappy with the movie and offered Britton the choice of either lead as he felt "it's all the same to me. Get the bloody film over and let me off the hook."

Filming started 7 July 1958. It was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Amsterdam. Peter Finch told the press during filming: "I like my part in the film, it is one of my strongest".

The film was one of several made by Rank around this time set in foreign countries with European co stars.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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