O.S.S. 07/13/21
Hollywood acknowledges the existence of America’s proto- C.I.A. intelligence agency with this espionage tale of Yanks working with the resistance in occupied France. It’s basic cloak ‘n’ dagger action, with intrepid Alan Ladd and the daring Geraldine Fitzgerald risking life and limb to plant plastic explosive bombs. The details are fairly interesting: Ladd outwits the Gestapo by working with a turncoat inside their ranks. The outcome is grimly realistic, even if that old Paramount glamour is part of the package. The writer-producer is Richard Maibaum, who would later write almost thirty years’ worth of James Bond’s adventures: why, what 007 collector can be without this? With Patric Knowles, John Hoyt, Gloria Saunders, Richard Webb, and Richard Benedict. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
07/13/21