Operation Secret
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Lewis Seiler
Cornel Wilde
Steve Cochran
Phyllis Thaxter
Karl Malden
Paul Picerni
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Three men travel to Paris for a meeting of the French secret police: Marcel Brevoort, a businessman and former Maquis or French guerrilla fighter; Herr Bauer, an ex-Gestapo agent who was stationed in Schweinfurt during World War II; and Mr. Robbins of the British Foreign Office. Their agenda is to investigate the murder of the Maquis Armand Dubois, which occurred during the last days of World War II. Brevoort believes that he was killed by an American, Peter Forrester, who is probably now dead. After several people in the hearing room confirm that Forrester was a master of languages, implying that his war sympathies may be suspect, Brevoort tells the committee how he met Forrester while fighting the Nazis during the invasion of Paris: On 16 Jun 1940, Brevoort and the other fighters are ordered to surrender, but Forrester and Latrec, two Foreign Service soldiers fighting from the same abandoned building as Brevoort, refuse to stop shooting until Brevoort's captain forces them at gunpoint. After the group surrenders, they are sent either to work and prison camps or the firing squad. Back in the hearing room, Brevoort claims that he lost track of Forrester and Latrec after that. Believing that Latrec is long dead, Brevoort is surprised when the man, now a major in the Foreign Service, is brought into the hearing room and resumes the story of Forrester. Latrec recalls: After their surrender in 1940, he and Forrester are taken to a prison camp. They escape separately, but are later reunited at a Maquis hideout in Marseilles. Hearing that the Americans have joined the war, Forrester, an ex-Marine, leaves the hideout to sneak into England and rejoin. Back in the hearing room, Mr. Robbins is able to continue the story of Forrester where Latrec leaves off: After his office finds Forrester in London in 1943, Robbins interrogates him. While harassing the multi-lingual Forrester about his unusual career of flunking college, joining the Marines and the Foreign Service and publishing pulp fiction novels, Robbins discreetly confirms that Forrester has excellent memory and observation skills. He then recommends Forrester to Maj. Dawson of the Marines for a special undercover operation, called "Danger Forward." After being briefed, Forrester and two others, Duncan and Zabreski, are flown into Germany and dropped near Schweinfurt with orders to observe the results of Allied bombing of the war factories there. Although Zabreski is killed during the parachute drop, Duncan and Forrester carry on. To make their report, they disrupt the radio broadcast of a German musical program at a specific time, a code which alerts the waiting Allies in England that the raid was a success. Meanwhile, the Nazis discover the parachutes and Zabreski's body and instigate a search for the Allied spies. Duncan is captured, but Forrester escapes with the help of a nun, Sister Maria. With Forrester disguised as a priest, they make their way to France, where Maria reveals that she is not a nun, but a member of the Maquis. At Forrester's rendezvous point, Latrec is waiting for him with new orders to connect with a Maquis called "The Torch," whom they later discover is Brevoort. Under Brevoort's command, the Maquis steal film footage of new secret Nazi aircraft weapons, during which Latrec gets separated and Brevoort orders that he be left behind. Back in the hearing room, Latrec says that he was captured and did not see them again. The hearing proceeds by calling in another witness, Maria, who continues the story: At the hideout, after the Maquis discover that the film contains blueprints of technologically advanced aircrafts, they prepare to deliver it to an Allied submarine. Revealing that he is a Communist, Brevoort takes the film for the Russians, but Armand, a fellow Communist, opposes him for going against the wishes of the group. Brevoort shoots Armand, then leaves with the film. As Maria and another Maquis proceed to the beach to signal the submarine, Forrester goes after Brevoort. Although Nazis interfere with their plans, Forrester gets the film from the injured Brevoort, and just before she is captured by the Nazis, Maria sees Forrester running toward the submarine in what seems to be a futile attempt to deliver the film. Back in the present, Maria accuses Brevoort of arranging for her imprisonment to continue long after the war ended, and others in the room condemn him for masterminding several assassinations for the Russians. Brevoort denies the charges and challenges them to show proof. In response, Forrester is brought into the room. Brevoort is informed that, with Forrester's statement, they have enough evidence to bring him to trial for the murder of Armand, and when he hangs, he will hang for all the others he has killed.
Director
Lewis Seiler
Cast
Cornel Wilde
Steve Cochran
Phyllis Thaxter
Karl Malden
Paul Picerni
Lester Matthews
Dan O'herlihy
Jay Novello
Wilton Graff
Dan Riss
Harlan Warde
Kenneth Patterson
William Leicester
Gayle Kellogg
Wayne Taylor
Ed Foster
Claude Dunkin
Baynes Barron
Philip Rush
Robert "buddy" Shaw
Henry Rowland
John Beattie
George Dee
Rudy Rama
Monte Pittman
Fred Eisley
Joe Espitallier
Harry Arnie
Paula Sowl
Peter Michael
Gary Kettler
John Logan
Tom Browne Henry
Ted Lawrence
Don Harvey
Roy Jensen
Craig Morland
Elizabeth Flournoy
John Nelson
William Slack
Frank Jaquet
Larry Winter
Greg Barton
Frances Zucco
Len Hendry
John Marshall
Charles Flynn
John Pickard
Bob Stevenson
George Magrill
Jack Lomas
Carlo Tricoli
Crew
Gordon Bau
Henry Blanke
Sid Cutner
Oliver S. Garretson
Ray Heindorf
Alvin Josephy
William Kissel
Clarence Kolster
William L. Kuehl
Leo K. Kuter
Ted Mccord
Harold Medford
Lt. Col. Peter Ortiz U.s.m.c.r.
Peter Pohlenz
Leo Shuker
John Twist
James R. Webb
Roy Webb
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Working titles of the film were Top Secret and Danger Forward. According to reviews, Alvin Josephy and John Twist's screen story was "suggested by" the wartime exploits of Lt. Col. Peter Ortiz. German Signal Corps footage of the first Messerschmidt jet plane and the first V-1 pilotless bombs was used in the film.
