Monday, February 01, 2016

Movie review - "O.S.S." (1946) *** (re-viewing) (warning: spoilers)

Paramount had Richard Maibaum bang this out quite quickly in order to beat two other OSS movies being made in Hollywood at the time and it got their first. It's not a bad film - not outstanding, episodic, but historically interesting. Alan Ladd isn't quite entirely well cast in the lead - stars make great spies when the bulk of their work consists of action and romancing but in this more (presumably) realistic depiction Ladd is required to blend in to the crowd and he's not exactly believable as someone who could pass himself off in France as a local.

However he's got charisma and something of a character arc - he's reluctant to work with Geraldine Fitzgerald (who is more believable as a spy), comes to fall in love with her, learns the importance of sacrifice and women as spies (he is a bit of a dill to not think this in the first place but Ladd often played misogynists), and helps win the war.

There are some WW2 gadgets which is interesting considering Maibaum would later write so many James Bond movies. There are also a number of effective moments - Ladd cracking the shits when Patrick Knowles asks him to stay on and insists Knowles order him; discovering a Gestapo agent wants to be a traitor (was Tarantino inspired by this for Inglorious Basterds?); the death of Fitzgerald; the death of another agent. Actually come to think of it the death toll here of the Allies is quite high - it adds a level of gravitas and seriousness.

The plot itself is episodic - training, initial mission, the stuff on the train, meeting the Gestapo agent, a final mission. Once I knew that I didn't mind as much on re-viewing.

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