The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning.
Cornel Wilde was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker.
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.
Affair in Trinidad is a 1952 American film noir directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. It was produced by Hayworth's Beckworth Corporation and released by Columbia Pictures.
Forbidden Games is a 1952 French war drama film directed by René Clément and based on François Boyer's novel Les Jeux Interdits.
Gary Fred Merrill was an American film and television actor whose credits included more than 50 feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances. He starred in All About Eve and married his costar Bette Davis.
A Bell for Adano is a 1945 American war film directed by Henry King and starring John Hodiak and Gene Tierney. It was adapted from the 1944 novel of the same title by John Hersey, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1945. In his review of the film for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote, "... this easily vulnerable picture, which came to the Music Hall yesterday, is almost a perfect picturization of Mr. Hersey's book."
Murderers' Row is a 1966 American comedy spy-fi film starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm. It is the second of four films in the Matt Helm series, and is very loosely based upon the 1962 spy novel Murderers' Row by Donald Hamilton.
Pierre (Peter) Julien Ortiz OBE was a United States Marine Corps colonel who received two Navy Crosses for extraordinary heroism as a major in World War II. He served in North Africa and Europe during the war, as a member of the French Foreign Legion, the U.S. Marines and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), operating behind enemy lines several times. Ortiz also acted in Hollywood films after the war. He was one of the very few U.S. Marines to serve in combat in Europe during World War II, and one of the most decorated Marine officers of the war.
The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley Granger had a supporting role.
Two Flags West is a 1950 Western drama set during the American Civil War, directed by Robert Wise and starring Joseph Cotten, Jeff Chandler, Linda Darnell, and Cornel Wilde. The opening credits contain the following statement:
On December 8th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Special Proclamation, whereby Confederate Prisoners of War might gain their freedom, provided they would join the Union Army to defend the frontier West against the Indians.
Arthur Lester Matthews was an English actor. In his career, the handsome Englishman made more than 180 appearances in film and on television. He was erroneously credited in later years as Les Matthews. Matthews played supporting roles in films like The Raven and Werewolf of London, but his career deteriorated into bit parts. He died on 5 June 1975, the day before his 75th birthday, in Los Angeles. His ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.
Stars and Stripes Forever is a 1952 American Technicolor film biography of the late-19th-/early-20th-century composer and band leader John Philip Sousa. This 20th Century Fox feature was produced by Lamar Trotti, directed by Henry Koster, and stars Clifton Webb, Debra Paget, Robert Wagner, and Ruth Hussey. The film's title is taken from Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever", which has become the best known of his military marches. The film was released twenty years after Sousa's death.
The Scarlet Coat is a 1955 American historical drama and swashbuckler in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, directed by John Sturges. It stars Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, George Sanders, and Anne Francis. The film is based upon the events in the American Revolution in which Benedict Arnold offered to surrender the fort at West Point to the British in exchange for money.
Springfield Rifle is an American Western film directed by Andre DeToth and released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1952. The film is set during the American Civil War and stars Gary Cooper, with Phyllis Thaxter and Lon Chaney Jr.
Orders to Kill is a 1958 British drama war film. It starred Paul Massie, Eddie Albert and Irene Worth and was directed by Anthony Asquith. The film is based on a story by Donald Chase Downes, a former American intelligence operative who also acted as technical adviser to the film. Downes's story was screenwritten by George St. George and Paul Dehn.
Diplomatic Courier is a 1952 American spy film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Tyrone Power, Patricia Neal and Stephen McNally. The nightclub scene in the film features actor Arthur Blake, famous for his female impersonations, impersonating Carmen Miranda, Bette Davis, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The plot was loosely adapted from the 1945 novel Sinister Errand by British writer Peter Cheyney.
Helias Doundoulakis was a Greek American civil engineer who patented the suspension system for the at-the-time largest radio telescope in the world. During WWII he served in the United States Army and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a spy.
Manila Calling is a 1942 American black-and-white World War II propaganda war film drama from 20th Century Fox, produced by Sol M. Wurtzel, directed by Herbert I. Leeds, that stars Lloyd Nolan, Carole Landis, Cornel Wilde, James Gleason, Lester Matthews, Louis Jean Heydt, and Ted North.
Rogue's March is a 1953 American historical adventure film directed by Allan Davis, with special location sequences directed by Geoffrey Barkas, and starring Peter Lawford, Richard Greene, and Janice Rule. It was partly shot on location in the Khyber Pass.
