Walker David E Groves R (1 results)

First Edition. [Literary and cinematic critique] Elstree Studios' highly favourable report of Walker's account of a daring wartime commando operation. 7pp., typed report on rectos only, reader's delivery stamp to first page dated 17 January 1956. Report: Perforations down left edge from office binding. Very well preserved. Book: Small contemporary ownership signature to front free endpaper, otherwise a near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. War correspondent David E. Walker's Adventure in Diamonds was published by Evans Brothers in 1955. A true-life account of the British intelligence operation to smuggle industrial diamonds out of Amsterdam before they fell into the hands of the Nazis, the book gets a rave review in ABPC's report, and is earmarked for possible production: 'An exciting and unusual story. Wartime adventures are still good box office, and this one is different enough and thrilling enough to make a very successful movie. Strongly recommended.' Adventure in Diamonds was filmed in 1959 - but not by ABPC. Re-titled Operation Amsterdam, the film, directed by Michael McCarthy and starring Peter Finch and Eva Bartok, was produced by Maurice Cowan and the Rank Organisation. It was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location in Amsterdam. Covering more than a century of film-making, the archives of the various film production companies based at Elstree have been variously dispersed, destroyed or lost down the years. A unique and hitherto unknown document from the surviving ABPC reader reports, never before offered for sale, and unseen since its composition seventy years ago - and accompanied by a near fine first edition of the book.…