Operation Secret

I watched "Operation Secret" on the Fast32 streaming service (which is an excellent source of Western and war films) and was very impressed. Cornel Wilde was good enough, but Karl Malden stole the acting honours, with Steve Cochran doing well as the French resistance leader.

A couple of minor gripes: there was no way that the Resistance fighters could have filmed such close-up footage of the V1 bomber and the tunnel into the cliffs was very brightly illuminated.

Being released in 1952 the makers couldn't resist the temptation to include some anti-Communist propaganda.

But overall one of the best Resistance "B" films I've ever seen.

This is a WWII swashbuckler!

I remember seeing it as the second half of the double bill at the Avalon in Brooklyn in 1952. The feature was something "serious" like Winchester '73. Anyway, as the film progressed, I said more than once: " This is really a good movie!" – I was 15.

Forrester (Cornel Wilde) is the man of mystery. He is a Marine who does a stint with the French Foreign Legion. This was all in the European Theater. He is recruited by, maybe, the OSS to parachute into Nazi territory and check on the devastation wrought by our B 17's.

With the help of a phony nun (Phyllis Thaxter) he is able to secure films of a German top secret weapon. These real weapon films are truly fascinating. Even the combat footage of the 17's is better than average. The whole thing ends with a shoot out on a beach where the main characters are to be picked up by a submarine. We then pan to an executive board type hearing to find out ---- Who is Forrester?

Phyllis Thaxter was beautiful. Cornel Wilde was adequate but quite dashing. Karl Malden, as the Legion's Maj. Latrec, shows some of the charisma that would blossom into his great talent.

Yes. It was a B black and white movie. It WAS a good one!

Cornel Wilde stars in this World War II drama Operation Secret in which most of the film is done in flashback by witnesses at a post war French tribunal. The object of the inquiry is to determine who killed Maquis resistance leader Paul Picerni.

This film was about the only Marine who may have served in the European Theater of World War II. Wilde is quite the colorful character and what a background he has. He does a hitch in the Marine Corps during peacetime and then enlists in the French Foreign Legion where he and fellow Legionaire Karl Malden just simply refuse to surrender until wounded and ordered to by Captain Steve Cochran. After a stint in a Prison Camp he's repatriated back to France whereupon he flees to Great Britain and tries to enlist in the Marines again. The Marines take him, but rather than send him to the Pacific, Wilde is given spy training and sent back to France where he eventually hooks up with the Maquis.

That the Maquis had a lot of Communists in it is a given fact. But remember this was the beginning of the Cold War so some anti-Communism gets worked into the plot. Many members of the Resistance do not want to give plans for the new Nazi jet airplanes to the Americans and British. That sets up the conflict as Wilde has to deal with both Germans and people in the Maquis who want to do him in.

To say the least I found the whole premise quite bizarre. But I've always liked Cornel Wilde on the screen and this is far from the worst film he ever did. In fact his portrayal of a spy who has to think fast on his feet is quite good.

Tstifying at the tribunal are Malden, Cochran, Jay Novello playing a former Gestapo man, and an ersatz nun played by Phyllis Thaxter. Eventually the murder of Picerni is solved and the perpetrator faces French justice.

Why they had to invent such a wild (no pun intended)background for Wilde is beyond me. If they had just made him a Frenchman in the first place it would have made more sense. Not like Wilde never did a French accent effectively on the screen.

Decent and thrilling WWII espionage film with the great Cornel Wilde excellently accompanied by a known support cast . This is an espionage flic dealing with O. S. S. Operatives working behind enemy lines and based on fact , it concerns secret agents and a double-agent who encounter themselves working for both contenders in the 40s , as the Russian secret service and Allied Secret service , while being mercilessly pursued by Nazis . A few years after the end of WW2 a special French military commission is put to judge a past happening , that's why they summon witnesses who could shed light on an incident that took place during the war . It is followed by a long flashback in which one group of mostly French Foreign Legion soldiers , they are all French except one who is American (Cornel Wilde) , refused to surrender to the Germans and being holed-up in a farm house continued to offer hard resistance and defence to the Germans . Their officer, Capt. Armand Dupree (Paul Picerni) asks for the surrendering . While under attack by German forces, the French army unit discovers there is a traitor in their midst , feeding the Germans information. After the Armistice some of them, prisoners of war in German POW camps, go away and joined various resistance groups . The American , Peter Forrester , joins the US Army and is recruited by US Intelligence. O. S. S for his language skills and for the fact he had lived in Germany and France before the war . Then he accepts a dangerous mission behind enemy lines , in occupied France , Operation Secret starts and along the way Forrester meets a mysterious nun , Maria Corbet (Phyllis Thaxter) who helps him . Later on , things go wrong .

This agreeable film packs intrigue , noisy action , suspense , warlike feats, twists, turns and being quite entertaining, adding a first-rate main and support cast . However , there's a lot of WWII stock footage , including bombing , allied attacks and planes . The story was based on Peter Ortiz who was an OSS agent in World War II in France and was also originally based on the World War II director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In fact , this role was also essential on the film 13 Rue Madeleine (1946) by Henry Hathaway with James Cagney , Richard Conte , but due to military intelligence and secrecy reasons, Hollywood studios were prevented by the U. S. government from mentioning the OSS in movies during World War II, which is the case here . Cornel Wilde gives a good acting as a spy who finds out one of the agents-in-training is actually a double agent and takes the risk of going in after him. Ample and stunning supporting cast providing magnificent acting , such as : Steve Cochran , Karl Malden , Paul Picerni , Lester Matthews , Dan O'Herlihy , Harlan Warde , Jay Novello, among others.

This well-paced in cracking style flick was competently directed by Lewis Seiler, as he usually works very well , being capable handled in spectacular photography -though is really necessary a perfect remastering- , and adding enjoyable scenarios . Seiler was assistant director before directing a number of two-reel comedies . He was closely associated with Tom Mix Westerns during the 1920s. He spent much of the 1930s at Warner Brothers, resulting in some of that studio's "grittier gangster pictures" and "social drama" films as Crime School (1938), King of Underground (1939), Hell's Kitchen (1939), to name a few and making movies in all kind of genres , such as : Over-Exposed , Battle Stations , Women's Prison, The Bamboo Prison, The System , The Winning Team , The Tanks Are Coming, Day D, hora H , Whiplash , If I'm Lucky , Molly and Me , standing out in wartime genre, as he was responsible for what is generally deemed to be one of the finest war pictures to come out of Hollywood : Guadalcanal (1943). Retiring from motion pictures in 1958, he turned to television where he kept busy up to the time of his death. Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth watching . Essential and indispensable watching for WWII buffs.

Most of the film consists of flashbacks. It begins at a court in France investigating the death or murder of one Armand (Paul Picerni) of the resistance, supposedly committed by an American (Cornel Wilde) assisting the resistance by secret missions conducted from England. The stage here is very international, involving French, English, American and German actors, and all the proper languages are spoken authentically. The story is based on true adventures of a French-American working for the French resistance inside France, and the film exhibits the story clear enough with authentic documentary materials to underline the realism. All the actors are good if not excellent, you didn't see Phyllis Thaxter in many films, but she always made a sincerely honest and tender impression, here both as a nun and a resistance fighter with guts, but the character you will enjoy most and remember best from this film is Karl Malden as a 100% jovial Frenchman always enjoying his Cognac and never flinching from a battle or decision. He brings cheers into the film into every scene of his appearance. The division within the resistance does not enter the story until towards the end, but when it does that becomes the major interest of the film and the main thriller. What did really happen, who did what, what happened to whom, who survived and how and so forth - that's the extensive investigation here and all questions are answered - nothing is left unsolved. To bring clearance into this complicated confusion of destinies is actually the major feat of the film.