Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky, codenamed Hero and Yoga was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) colonel during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Penkovsky informed the United States and the United Kingdom about Soviet military secrets, including the appearance and footprint of Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missile installations and the weakness of the Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile program. This information was decisive in allowing the US to recognize that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba before most of them were operational. It also gave US President John F. Kennedy, during the Cuban Missile Crisis that followed, valuable information about Soviet weakness that allowed him to face down Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and resolve the crisis without a nuclear war.
Greville Maynard Wynne was a British engineer and businessman recruited by MI6 because of his frequent travel to Eastern Europe. He acted as a courier to transport top-secret information to London from the Soviet agent Oleg Penkovsky.
Fritz Kortner was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director.
A number of real-life inspirations have been suggested for James Bond, the fictional character created in 1953 by British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence officer Ian Fleming (1908–1964); Bond appeared in twelve novels and nine short stories by Fleming, as well as a number of continuation novels and twenty-six films, with seven actors playing the role of Bond.
Richard Bird was an English actor and director of stage and screen. Born George, Bird took the stage name Richard Bird after being nicknamed "Dickie" by his theatre colleagues.
Frederick "Fritz" Joubert Duquesne was a South African Boer and German soldier, big-game hunter, journalist, and spy. Many of the claims Duquesne made about himself are in dispute; over his lifetime he used multiple identities, reinvented his past at will, claimed family ties to aristocratic clans and famous people and even asserted the right to military titles and medals with no third-party verification.
Winifred Elaine "Wynne" Gibson was an American actress of the 1930s.
The Legion of the Condemned is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by William A. Wellman and produced by Jesse L. Lasky, Wellman, and Adolph Zukor and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Written by former World War I flight instructor John Monk Saunders and Jean de Limur, with intertitles by George Marion, Jr., the film stars Fay Wray and Gary Cooper.
The Last Illusion is a 1949 German drama film directed by Josef von Báky and starring Fritz Kortner, Johanna Hofer and Lina Carstens. It was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Fritz Lück, Fritz Maurischat and Hans Sohnle.
Midnight Menace is a 1937 British thriller film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Charles Farrell, Margaret Vyner, Fritz Kortner and Danny Green. The screenplay concerns an international arms manufacturing firm's plans to start a war in Europe by bombing London. It was released in the United States as Bombs Over London.
The Lost Squadron is a 1932 American pre-Code drama, action, film starring Richard Dix, Mary Astor, and Robert Armstrong, with Erich von Stroheim and Joel McCrea in supporting roles, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the novel The Lost Squadron (1932) by Dick Grace, the film is about three World War I pilots who find jobs after the war as Hollywood stunt fliers.
The Heirloom Mystery is a 1936 British drama film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Edward Rigby, Mary Glynne and Gus McNaughton. After being secretly commissioned by a man to create a replica piece of furniture so he can sell the valuable original without his wife knowing, Charles Marriott's firm find themselves under investigation.
Nurse Edith Cavell is a 1939 American film directed by British director Herbert Wilcox about Edith Cavell. The film was nominated at the 1939 Oscars for Best Original Score.
Abdul the Damned is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart. It was made at the British International Pictures studios by Alliance-Capitol Productions. It is set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the constitutionalist Young Turks who dethroned him.
Mata Hari: The Red Dancer, often shortened on release to Mata Hari, is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Friedrich Feher and starring Magda Sonja, Wolfgang Zilzer and Fritz Kortner. It depicts the life and death of the German World War I spy Mata Hari. It was the first feature-length portrayal of Hari.
Attack on Baku is a 1942 German thriller film directed by Fritz Kirchhoff and starring Willy Fritsch, René Deltgen, and Fritz Kampers. The film was intended as anti-British propaganda during the Second World War. It is noted for its set designs by Otto Hunte, who showed a fascination for modern technology in his depiction of the oil town. The film was shot on location in German-allied Romania, and at Babelsberg Studio in Berlin.
Atlantic is a 1929 British-made German language drama film directed by Ewald André Dupont and starring Fritz Kortner, Elsa Wagner and Heinrich Schroth. The film is a German language version of the 1929 film Atlantic made at Elstree Studios by British International Pictures. Following the introduction of sound films, leading film companies attempted to cater to different markets by producing multiple-language versions of their films. Atlantic was released in four versions: English, French, German and silent, for cinemas not yet converted to the new format. The film was the first fully talking film to be released in Germany, where it was a major hit. It is based on the 1929 play The Berg by Ernest Raymond which itself was based on the Titanic disaster.
The Purple V is a 1943 American war film directed by George Sherman and starring John Archer, Mary McLeod and Fritz Kortner. The Purple V marked German stage star Fritz Kortner's American film debut. Actors John Archer and Mary McLeod were borrowed from M-G-M for the production.
The Ship of Lost Souls or The Ship of Lost Men is a 1929 German silent thriller film directed by Maurice Tourneur and starring Fritz Kortner, Marlene Dietrich and Robin Irvine.
The Maharaja's Favourite Wife is a silent adventure film directed by Max Mack and starring Gunnar Tolnæs, Fritz Kortner, and Erna Morena. Originally produced in Denmark by Nordisk Film, whose German branch was taken over during the First World War, it was released in three parts, the first two in 1917 and the third in 1921. The third part was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin, and released by the leading German company UFA. Its sets were designed by the Hungarian art director István Szirontai Lhotka.
