The Amsterdam Kill (1977)

Director:

Robert Clouse

Writers:

Robert Clouse (writer)
Gregory Teifer (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 December 1977 (Denmark)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

He was the Hunter and the Hunted! - The Web Stretched from London - Amsterdam to Hong Kong [UK]

Plot:

Former DEA Agent Quinlan, removed from the force some years earlier for stealing confiscated drug money...

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Drug Enforcement | Independent Film

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Quinlan
Richard Egan	...	Ridgeway
Leslie Nielsen	...	Riley Knight
Bradford Dillman	...	Odums
Keye Luke	...	Chung Wei
George Cheung
Sing Chen
Stephen Leung
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Billy Chan
Ching-Ying Lam
Biao Yuen
Wah Yuen

Also Known As:

He jing die xie (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)

Runtime:

Hong Kong:88 min | USA:90 min

Country:

Hong Kong | USA

Language:

English | Cantonese

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:U | Iceland:16 | Norway:16 (1980) | Sweden:15 | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2005) | UK:15 (video rating) (1990) | UK:AA (original rating) | USA:R

Company:

Fantastic Films S.A.

Trivia:

When shooting was going on (at least in Golden Harvest's Hong Kong studios) the film had two working titles -– ‘Kill Him in Amsterdam’ and ‘The Amsterdam Killing’.

MITCHUM FACES TALL ODDS

Although not listed among favourites of cinema critics, this work, filmed primarily in Hong Kong and Amsterdam, proves to be a very competently made affair, with good performances by such old hands as featured player Robert Mitchum and supporting actors Bradford Dillman, Richard Egan, and Keye Luke. Mitchum, as "Quinlan", a sullied former agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency, is hired by one of his erstwhile targeted criminals: Chung Wei (Luke), a leader of Amsterdam's major narcotics league, to discover who is murdering, on two continents, large scale heroin dealers. During the course of his investigation, Quinlan is re-hired by the DEA in return for supplying the agency, now under the aegis of his former boss "Odums" (Dillman), information concerning major supply locations serving Hong Kong's dope derby. As Quinlan attempts to assist both Chung Wei and the DEA, he discovers that sabotage of his operation stems from an unknown confederate, and he is made to realize that he remains less than popular with the drug enforcement administrators. The film is paced correctly by director Robert Clouse, who controls the many action scenes very well indeed, with his script spending exactly the proper amount of time filling gaps which might betray logic. It is a fair statement that dialogue is of above-average quality for an action production, with one remarkable monologue delivered by Mitchum in his character's Hong Kong hotel room as he propels the plot past a conundrum, a highly accomplished piece of acting. As there are no females in the cast other than extras, the complicated pickle in which Quinlan finds himself is not diluted by the normally obligatory romantic subplot, freeing an audience to concentrate upon a well-told scenario, incidentally marked by Dillman's strong performance and by the creative camerawork of Alan Humes.