I had never heard of this movie until I stumbled across it on Instant Netflix. I just loved it and found it to be more exciting than I could expect. It was extremely realistic and had many strong aspects.
The B&W photography was perfect. It totally captured the despondent feeling of the day, between the deserted city streets and the road to the harbor packed with refugees -- old & young. The scenes with boats in the water clearly looked like film stages, but the street scenes looked very realistic. One reviewer seemed to imply that they were actual streets.
The editing was extremely tight, perhaps just a little too tight, as some other reviewers have commented, since it wasn't totally clear why there were Dutch soldiers fighting the "good guys". Yes, there was the comment that you couldn't tell who the fifth columnists were, but one does not expect the fifth columnists to be soldiers in Dutch uniforms.
The music fit the film perfectly -- between the street organ and the snare drums. But what especially contributed to the suspense were the times when the film was virtually silent and the camera switched from one face with tension to another. One reviewer commented on how little Alexander Knox had to say, but his expressions, along with his silence, actually added to the tension. Overall, the casting was perfect.
Eva Bartok was superb. I can't recall ever having seen an actress who was so beautiful seem so realistic. (If you read her biography at this site, you can understand why she played her role so convincingly. She had already suffered considerably, being forced to marry a Nazi officer at age 15 who continually raped her.) Nothing was overplayed by her or by anyone. As opposed to all the James Bond type movies these days, this was far more realistic, and the tension was palpable.
I've now started to watch the film a second time (about 20 minutes so far), which I think this movie lends itself to doing. When you watch it the second time, you pick up many clues that become important as the story unfolds, such as the Dutch soldiers who are, indeed, Nazi sympathizers, and the policeman on the dock, in an early scene, who thinks that the spies are additional Germans in disguise, like the parachutists dressed in civilian clothes, whom he had already shot.
The terse dialogue and context for many of these opening scenes may be missed the first time around. Also, when watching it again, one has the opportunity to catch more of the details and verisimilitude of the film.
The B&W photography was perfect. It totally captured the despondent feeling of the day, between the deserted city streets and the road to the harbor packed with refugees -- old & young. The scenes with boats in the water clearly looked like film stages, but the street scenes looked very realistic. One reviewer seemed to imply that they were actual streets.
The editing was extremely tight, perhaps just a little too tight, as some other reviewers have commented, since it wasn't totally clear why there were Dutch soldiers fighting the "good guys". Yes, there was the comment that you couldn't tell who the fifth columnists were, but one does not expect the fifth columnists to be soldiers in Dutch uniforms.
The music fit the film perfectly -- between the street organ and the snare drums. But what especially contributed to the suspense were the times when the film was virtually silent and the camera switched from one face with tension to another. One reviewer commented on how little Alexander Knox had to say, but his expressions, along with his silence, actually added to the tension. Overall, the casting was perfect.
Eva Bartok was superb. I can't recall ever having seen an actress who was so beautiful seem so realistic. (If you read her biography at this site, you can understand why she played her role so convincingly. She had already suffered considerably, being forced to marry a Nazi officer at age 15 who continually raped her.) Nothing was overplayed by her or by anyone. As opposed to all the James Bond type movies these days, this was far more realistic, and the tension was palpable.
I've now started to watch the film a second time (about 20 minutes so far), which I think this movie lends itself to doing. When you watch it the second time, you pick up many clues that become important as the story unfolds, such as the Dutch soldiers who are, indeed, Nazi sympathizers, and the policeman on the dock, in an early scene, who thinks that the spies are additional Germans in disguise, like the parachutists dressed in civilian clothes, whom he had already shot.
The terse dialogue and context for many of these opening scenes may be missed the first time around. Also, when watching it again, one has the opportunity to catch more of the details and verisimilitude of the film.