Everyone remembers the action climax in this one where Mitch boards a bulldozer and proceeds to demolish acres of glasshouses. It must be one of the most effective, dramatic, original, and excitingly staged action sequences ever put on film! Originally photographed in anamorphic Panavision, the movie is much less effective of course if truncated on video or TV. Some of the movie's other action sequences are also quite memorable, including a chase through the Utrecht flower auction and a car chase through Amsterdam that ends with its spectacular plunge into a canal. Other far-flung locations such as Hong Kong are also well utilized by our hero, Robert Mitchum, who is always actually on the spot! Unfortunately, the screenplay itself is another matter. As a peg for the action set-ups, the plot is satisfactory, but in other respects the movie tends to be over-talkative, sluggish, familiar, clichéd and banal. Its characters are pasteboard figures and its suspense ho-hum at best. The direction is even worse and is seemingly designed for TV with its proliferation of ugly close-ups and its almost total avoidance of drama, artistry or style. As it happened, director Robert Clouse was totally deaf. Yes, only in Hollywood would a deaf man land a job as a top movie director! Clouse hadn't the slightest idea how to direct his players. The best he could do was to employ assistants who could signal him if a player missed his cue or didn't deliver a line as written. Few of the cast members here were able to rely on their own resources and rise above the lack of direction. Only Leslie Nielson gives it a game try! Thus the movie's emphasis on stunts and special effects. Fortunately, the movie's action climax is something you'll never forget!
Review of The Amsterdam Kill
