Movie Monday: O.S.S.

Movie Monday: O.S.S.

Everyone loves a good spy flick, and throughout the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood put out their fair share, but as soon as World War II ended, executives scrambled produce a film about the O.S.S., the Office of Strategic Services and precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. Paramount won the race with the May 1946 release of O.S.S. Written by Richard Maibum, a WWII veteran who later wrote twelve of the first fifteen James Bond movies. Maibum also narrates O.S.S.

The movie stars Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald, a prolific Irish American actress who unfortunately has been long forgotten despite winning a Daytime Emmy Award and nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Initially studying painting at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, she was inspired to move into acting in 1932 by her aunt actress Shelah Richards. Relocating to London she was successful almost immediately and appeared in several films before crossing “the pond” to America where she went to Hollywood and was cast in many well-known films such as Wuthering Heights (1939), Dark Victory (1939), and Watch on the Rhine (1943). Her portrayal of Elaine Dupress in O.S.S. is strong with just enough “braininess and class to get the job done.”(1)

O.S.S. was Alan Ladd’s first film after The Blue Dahlia that released in April 1946.

, and he does a brilliant job as an undercover agent working in occupied France during the war. In intriguing twist to his character is that he is sent to work for the OSS after being arrested for espionage while attempting to steal an electric circuit from a Baltimore, Maryland manufacturing plant. Apparently, thievery was a skill in demand for the organization! His character isn’t quite Bondesque but as one source put it, the flavor of the film suggests later Bond elements.

John Hoyt, who would go on to star in many film noir, makes his noteworthy debut in O.S.S. as a darkly twisted Gestapo agent who falls for Fitzgerald and manipulates her into romantic relationship (or so he thinks). He manages to live after she attempts to kill him and spends the remainder of the movie trying to find the woman “who did him wrong.”

The movie is directed by Irving Pichel who began his acting career when studios were hiring theater-trained actors for the “new fangled” talkies. He secured a contract with Paramount and worked extensively through the 1930s as a character actor. He also performed on radio and narrated two of Hollywood’s most popular movies, How Green was my Valley and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. When acting jobs began to dry up just before WWII commenced, he turned to directing and was tapped to direct several B-movies before moving to 20th Century Fox to direct their leading actors and actresses. Many of his movies were pro-British and anti-Nazi. Tragically, he would later be part of the “Hollywood Nineteen” who refused to name suspected Communists to the House Un-American Activities Committee, were blacklisted, and saw their careers implode as a result.

Alan Ladd and Richard Benedict reprised their roles in a 60-minute adaptation for the “Lux Radio Theater” broadcast that aired on November 18, 1946.

Have you seen this classic?

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Dutch Dawn

Will they survive the 500-mile journey to freedom?

Isak Westgard is only six missions short to be rotated stateside. Then the unthinkable happens, and he crashes in the occupied Netherlands where the chances of him making it back to England are slim to none. The beautiful and tough-as-nails resistance courier begs to differ and claims she hasn’t lost anyone yet. The problem is the longer they’re together, the less he wants to escape.

 
Annaliese Claasen has escorted her fair share of refugees and downed Allied pilots to safety - too numerous to remember. Until now. There’s something different about the Norwegian-American lieutenant, and it’s more than his good looks. Can she get him out of the country before losing her heart?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/bMjoxV

Photo credits:

Movie Poster: By Unknown - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038794/, Fair use

Movie Stills: Courtesy Paramount Pictures

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.S.S._(film)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038794/
https://mikestakeonthemovies.com/2020/02/15/o-s-s-1946/

(1) https://mikestakeonthemovies.com/2020/02/15/o-s-s-1946/