ID

FBW001267      Fiction

Country / Year

USA, 1946

Original Title

O.S.S.

Directed by

Irving Pichel

Produced by

Paramount Pictures, Inc., Los Angeles, CA / New York, NY

Staff

Producer: Richard Maibaum; Script: Richard Maibaum; Camera: Lionel Lindon; Editing: William Shea; Art direction: Hans Dreier, Heldane Douglas; Technical consultant: John H. Shaheen, Lt. Raphael G. Beugnon; Set decoration: Sam Comer, Stanley J. Sawley; Special Effects: Farciot Edouard, Gordon Jennings; Musical arrangements: Daniele Amfitheatrof, Heinz Roemheld

Cast

Alan Ladd (John Martin); Geraldine Fitzgerald (Ellen Rogers); Patric Knowles (Cmdr. Brady); John Hoyt (Col. Meister); Gloria Saunders (Mary Kenny "Sparks"); Richard Benedict (Bernay); Harold Vermilyea (Amadeus Braun); Don Beddoe (Gates); Onslow Stevens (Field); Gavin Muir (Col. Crawson); Egon Brecher (Marcel Aubert); Joseph Crehan (Gen. Donovan); Bobby Driscoll (Gerard); Richard Webb (Gates); Julia Dean (Mme. Prideaux); Crane Whitley (Arnheim); Leslie Denison (Lt. Col. Miles); Roberta Jonay (Gracie Archer); Jean Ruth (Brady's Secretary); Frederick Voltz (Trainee); Lawson Houghton (Trainee); George J. Fannon (Trainee); Harlan Warde (Trainee); Fred Zendar (Trainee); Paul Lees (Trainee); William Meader (Trainee); Albert Ruiz (Trainee); Charles Victor (Trainee); Catherine Craig (Williams' Secretary); Albert Van Antwerp (Guard); Frank Ferguson (Research Man); Murray F. Yeats (Tall Man); Edward Harvey (Mr. Williams); Patrick McVey (Plainclothesman); Tom Schamp (Plainclothesman); Walter Pietila (Mansion Attendant); Bog Wegner (Gateman); James Westerfield (Stout Man); Tom Stevenson (Instructor); Vern Anders (Sentry); Janna De Loos (Woman Refugee); Andre Charlot (French Importer); Archie Twitchell (Officer); Will Thunis (Young Man); George Sorel (Husky Refugee); Jean Del Val (Conductor); Frank Dae (Scientist); George Barton (Handyman); Jean Ransome (Elevator Operator); Dorothy Barrett (Brady's Secretary in London); Ed Kerr (Courier); Herbert Wyndham (Copilot); Anthony Marsh (British Pilot); Paul Barrett (British Pilot); James Craven (Jumpmaster); John Bogden (Assistant Jumpmaster); Carl Ekberg (German Soldier); Leo Schlesinger (German Soldier); Eric Steiner (German Soldier); Eddie Bauer (German Soldier); Walter Rode (German Soldier); Zane Megowan (German Soldier); Jack Sterling (German Soldier); Bob Templeton (German Soldier); Paul Stupin (German Soldier); Len Hendry (German Soldier); Holger Bendixen (German Sergeant); Frederick J. Waugh (British Noncom); Robert Cordell (Major at Airport Shack/Trainee); Jack Lambert (German Lieutenant); Monica Folts (Little Girl with Kitten); George Bruggeman (M.P. Noncom); Rene Dussaq (French Artillery Officer); John Maxwell (LaFevre); Albert Petit (Resistance Man); Paul Diamond (Resistance Man); Carmen Beretta (Resistance Woman); Tony Merlo (Reynal); Helen Chapman (Resistance Girl); Kathleen Terry (Operator Next to Kenny); Philip Ahlm (German Officer); Edmund Porada (German Sergeant Operator); John Dehner (German Radar Captain); Jon Gilbreath (German Radar Lieutenant); Henry Vroom (German Corporal); Peter Michael (German Noncom); Fred Kohler, Jr. (Fireman); Jimmie Dundee (Sentry); Joseph Granby (Engineer); Edward Clark (French Waiter); Renee Randall (Cashier); Louise Colombet (Old Frenchwoman); Maj. Fred Darrell (Old Frenchman); Dorothy Adams (Claudette); John Harmon (Pierre); Fred Nurney (Major Courier); Frank Pulliam, Jr. (B-25 Pilot); George Taylor (Gestapo Plainclothesman); Hans Moebus (Gestapo Man); Richard Elmore (German Army Private); Eugene Gericke (als: Gene Garrick) (Operator); Henry Guttman (German Major); Jerry James (Pilot); Byron Poindexter (Copilot); James Andrews (Radio Operator); Carl Saxe (S.S. Man); Roger Creed (S.S. Man); Charles Andre (Col. Hesiter's Aide); Jerome Alden (British Noncom); Billy Burt (Lieutenant J.G.); Billy Lechner (U.S. Soldier); Carl Russell (U.S. Soldier); Fred Datig, Jr. (U.S. Soldier); Frank Chalfant (U.S. Soldier); Charles Ferguson (U.S. Soldier); George Billings (U.S. Soldier)

Length

107'

Format

35mm/sw/1:1,37

Abstract

Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.), the precursor to the CIA) opens by following a group of volunteers through spy school, including John Martin, a former public relations executive, sculptress Ellen Rogers, railroad equipment salesman Gates, and hockey player Bernay. When completing their training, the new members are parachuted into France with the assignment of destroying the Corbett Mallon tunnel, along the main artery of the French railway system. Ellen Rogers proves to be an effective spy, ingratiating herself to German staff officer Col. Meister and learning secrets from him. Feeding his vanity in having some knowledge of art, Ellen Rogers even gets Col. Meister to pose for her and does a bust of him. She discovers that Col. Meister will be taking a train through the tunnel she and the other American agents are to blow up. Hiding plastic explosives in the bust, Ellen Rogers accompanies Col. Meister and her work of art on the train which is stalled in the tunnel by French partisans. John Martin arrives and takes Ellen Rogers off the train just before it and the tunnel are blown to bits. But Ellen Rogers tells him that he has violated the first rule of espionage by disobeying orders. When John Martin and Ellen Rogers join a stream of refugees, they are stopped by Gestapo agents, but their venal leader, Amadeus Braun, sells John Martin information which is transmitted later by Bernay over a secreted short-wave radio to England. Col. Meister surprisingly appears on the scene. He lives only to find and punish Ellen Rogers. But all he snares is Amadeus Braun as John Martin and Ellen Rogers escape once more. The Americans next get a vital information about the impending Normandy invasion. Martin goes to a distant field and signals the secret information to a British aircraft. Gerard arrives to beg him to come back to the farmhouse because Gestapo officials have arrested Ellen Rogers and Dean, but this time John Martin heeds Ellen Rogers' caution of never going back for her. He continues sending out the message until the plane acknowledges receipt. Then he races back only to find the farmhouse empty. Knowing Ellen Rogers will be executed, Martin sinks helplessly into a chair and sobs loudly. Martin and Cmdr. Brady, one of the O.S.S. commanders who trained John Martin's group, are later seen standing along a French roadway beneath a gnarled tree, watching American troops, fresh from the landings at Normandy, advancing up the road.

Subject Terms

Anti-Nazi films (US); French, the; Partisans; Political agents; Foreign agents; Espionage; USA

Bibliography

- Nash, Ray R. / Ross, Stanley R. / Conelly, Robert B. (Ed.): Motion Picture Guide. Chicago, IL: Cinebooks, 1987