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.