O.S.S. - Blu-ray (Paramount, 1946) Kino Lorber

Alan Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald star in director, Irving Pichel’s O.S.S. (1946) – one of 3 movies simultaneously planned about the newly instituted Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence agency, coordinating espionage activities behind enemy lines during WWII and a predecessor to the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In assigning the screenwriting/producing duties to future James Bond alumni, Richard Maibaum, Paramount Pictures had an ace up its sleeve. Not only had Maibaum served in the army, he had intimate connections in Washington to the real OSS, lending his harrowing plot for this jaunty and perilous story genuine ballast. Paramount had sincerely hoped to cast Sterling Hayden, as the actor served in the OSS. Alas, Hayden was still very much in uniform in 1946, so the studio pitched it to their #1 box office star, Alan Ladd. As the race was on to beat out 2oth Century-Fox and Warner Bros. for grazing rights, the shooting of O.S.S. was done virtually in secret, and, at a breakneck pace. Maibaum, who had been forewarned by the studio’s front offices about Ladd and his wife, Sue, who kept tight reigns on his career, encountered no such opposition while making this picture. Indeed, Ladd was completely invested, putting his nose to the grindstone and working well with co-star, Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Interesting, however, to see the extent to which Ladd’s own ‘home office’ – Paramount – went to preserve the integrity of their he-man’s hunk status. Even the OSS file on Ladd's fictional counterpoint, Philip Masson (a.k.a. Paul Martin) lists him at a height of 5'10". Ladd was actually only 5'6".  Since Ladd’s passing, stories have circulated, not only about the actor’s insecurity regarding his relatively diminutive physical stature, but also the necessity to dig ‘trenches’ to foreshorten the height of his female costars in scenes where they appeared together. Geraldine Fitzgerald was only 5’2”. So, no threat there, although, arguably, the accomplished Irish-born lass gave Ladd a real run for his money in the acting department. Moving to London in her teens, Fitzgerald garnered almost instant fame in several high-profile British films. This led to her getting noticed by Orson Welles, who assigned her to his Mercury Players. Fitzgerald first came to prominence in pictures on this side of the pond in Warner Bros. Dark Victory, before co-starring in Wuthering Heights (both movies made in 1939), the latter, for which, she was Oscar-nominated. Perceived as a bright new star, and put into several mega projects, including Watch on the Rhine (1943) and Fox’s political blockbuster, Wilson (1944), Fitzgerald’s caustic nature and frequent clashes with studio management over the roles she was being offered did much to tarnish her appeal with moguls, and, as a result, she was overlooked for The Maltese Falcon (1941), the real beginning of the end to her popularity in Hollywood. O.S.S. comes at the tail end of Fitzgerald’s glory days in Tinsel Town, and, indeed, she offers a more reserved, perhaps even slightly bitter performance as Ellen Rogers (nee Elaine Duprez), who sacrifices herself to Nazi Col. Paul Meister (John Hoyt) for the cause of freedom.

As for Alan Ladd – his career could not have been on more solid ground in 1946. Ladd, who had first caught the eye of a Universal talent scout after appearing in a stage version of The Mikado soon discovered the studio had little actual interest in him. Although initially signed to a 7-year contract, it took less than 6 months for Uni to drop his option. Seemingly already a has-been at age 20, Ladd left the biz, failed at advertising as well as the opening his own hamburger/malt shop, before being hired by Warner Bros. as a grip – a job he held down for the next 2-years before a near-fatal tumble off some scaffolding convinced him to quit. Attending Ben Bard’s acting school came with the perk of a new Universal contract, Bard teaching his 23-yr.-old protégé to lower his voice and shed his shyness, also, to procure Ladd a good set of dentures. Again, fame eluded him and after stints at MGM, Fox and RKO, his career seemed to be at a standstill. Venturing into radio, Ladd caught the attention of his future wife, Sue Carol who was highly impressed by his voice, and later, upon meeting him in person, his looks. Ladd’s real foray into pictures was Joan of Paris (1942), in which he was afforded a poignant death scene to garner him attention within the industry. Universal offered to up his weekly pay, but Paramount made Ladd an even more lucrative offer. And thus, the dye in Ladd’s meteoric rise to super-stardom was cast. After eight years, struggling to make a name for himself, Ladd exploded onto the screen in This Gun for Hire (1942), exuding an unruffled mercilessness of a strangely superior, avenging angel – a queerly heroic, anti-hero.

There is some of this lingering in O.S.S. which opens with Paul’s arrival at a U.S. munitions factory. Using an alias, Paul tries to see the factory’s CEO, but then cleverly steals the blueprints to a ‘top secret’ electric circuit meant for the war effort, slipping the paper into the ‘suggestions’ box just outside, before being discovered in his theft and held at gunpoint by one of the security guards. A short while later, Paul is sprung from police interrogations and taken to a safehouse in the country, the headquarters of the O.S.S.  We discover Paul is not a double agent, but in fact, working for the Americans along with fellow operatives, Parker (Richard Webb), Bernay (Richard Benedict), and, Gates (Don Beddoe). The group’s commander, Brady (Patric Knowles) cautions, their ineptitude abroad will not lead to mere incarceration, but execution at the hands of the enemy. A brief montage follows, illustrating the rigorous training Paul receives to improve their skills at espionage and physical agility to make them excellent covert agents.

Meanwhile, Brady recruits sculptor, Ellen Rogers – rechristened Elaine Duprez - to partake of the planned infiltration of the German high command. Rendezvousing at Room 306 at a local hotel, both Ellen and Paul believe they are being tailed by the other. After some brief introductions by Brady, Paul launches into his objections regarding Ellen’s involvement. She takes umbrage to his insinuation she is nothing more or better than a mild distraction, surely to unravel the entire mission. A short while later, the team parachutes into France, with Paul and Bernay holding back while Elaine and Gates sojourn to a nearby inn to establish their alibis. Acting separately, at first, each seems to have skirted detection. Alas, Gates makes the fatal error of using his right hand to pick up his fork during dinner, a dead giveaway he is American. Unable to save Gates from his fate, Elaine hurries back to the forest just beyond town in the middle of a torrential downpour, informing Paul and Bernay of Gates’ capture. Moments later, the Nazis dispose of Gates’ tortured body in a nearby field. Toting a portable wireless, Bernay reports back to Brady the loss of one of their own.

In the meantime, Elaine makes contact with local shopkeeper and freedom fighter, Marcel Aubert (Egon Brecher) who, at first mistakes her as a spy. The rest of the OSS operatives rendezvous at the shop, pretending to be engrossing in a lecture on ‘art’. Regrettably, German Col. Paul Meister arrives with his sketch book. Almost immediately, he is captivated by Elaine. Told by Aubert, she is a gifted sculptor, the suspicious Meister gets Elaine to accompany him back to her studio, and then all but demands she prove she can sculpt his bust. Elaine willing complies, and in no time, has fashioned a reasonable likeness of Meister’s head and shoulders to impress upon his vanity. After his departure, Paul suggests Elaine get rid of her involvement with Meister at all costs. It’s dangerous. He also tells Elaine to quickly sculpt a facsimile of Meister’s bust from the malleable and clay-like plastic explosives. This will accompany their journey by train to a tunnel key to the transport of German tanks and equipment. The plan is to detonate the bomb inside the tunnel, thereby sealing off the route.  While Meister and Elaine share a private car on the train, Paul boards the locomotive, ordering its chief engineer and conductor to jump off before stalling the train inside the tunnel. Elaine manages to lock Meister out of their compartment and together, she and Paul detonate the bomb as planned. Despite wrecking the tunnel, Meister survives the ordeal and now embarks upon an aggressive search for Elaine and Paul.  

Fleeing on foot, Paul and Elaine are reunited with Bernay. As the Allies advance through Normandy, Elaine and Martin are found out by enterprising Gestapo, Amadeus Brink (Harold Vermilyea), who bribes them to maintain his silence. Brink removes Martin and Elaine's ‘wanted’ file and arranges for his cousin, a courier, to divulge the contents of a diplomatic pouch to Bernay for photocopying. Bernay places the negative in the lining of Martin’s hat. Brink cautions Bernay, his wireless transmissions affect power usage in the apartment building, thereby drawing attention to his activities. Against this advice, Bernay transmits what turns out to be his final message, revealing to the OSS in London the Germans have broken their secret codes. Tragically, Bernay is gunned down in the middle of his transmission, causing great distress to his sweetheart, WAC Operator Sparky (Gloria Saunders) back home. Martin and Elaine are detained by the Gestapo, but released before Meister deduces Brink is the mole within their organization. A daring escape by automobile follows, Martin and Elaine making it to an Allied airfield, only to be informed by Brady they have one final mission to complete. They must contact, Parker, who has been on assignment near the Rhine. Taking refuge at a farmhouse run by an old peasant woman (Louise Colombet) and her grandson, Gerard (Bobby Driscoll), Elaine must play along after a troop of German revelers invade the cottage and attempt to take advantage of her. Paul steals a pistol from a sleeping Nazi officer in the car parked outside and attempts a daring rescue. He is subdued, then assaulted by Parker who, impersonating one of the Nazis, pretends not to know him. Parker then takes Elaine into a backroom where he reveals his true identity. Paul hurriedly leaves the farmhouse to transmit their position. Gerard arrives, frantic and imploring Paul to return to the farmhouse. It seems, Meister has found Elaine, and taken her and his grandmother to a firing squad. Divided in his loyalties, as Elaine once cautioned him ‘never’ to come back for her in the event of an emergency, Paul completes his transmission, then races back to the farmhouse only to discover it abandoned. By dawn’s early light, Brady arrives with Allied troops. A bitter Paul, realizing he sacrificed the woman he loved, now implores Brady to at least tell him her real name. Brady informs him it was Ellen Rogers; Paul, remarking, in better times, she might have been just the sort of ‘girl next door’ from his own hometown he could have settled down with to start a family.

Until this slightly maudlin finale, O.S.S. remained a dark, daring, and, epically mounted cloak and dagger thrill ride with plausible twists and turns, wed to some of the most deftly scripted bits of dialogue ever featured in a WWII adventure yarn. That this movie ought to have so completely fallen off the radar since its time (indeed, I had never heard of it before) and never to have garnered the renown of other timely movie classics like Mrs. Miniver, Casablanca (both in 1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is, frankly insulting. Alan Ladd easily gives one of the best performances of his entire career. There is a charmingly awkward love/hate chemistry between Ladd and Geraldine Fitzgerald. She is, perhaps, a little past her prime to be considered a viable ‘love interest’ here, but otherwise, each is more than competently suited for their parts. John Hoyt is an appropriately menacing baddie, while Harold Vermilyea offers a bizarrely insidious venom to make his enterprising Brink a thoroughly devious and ugly threat to Paul and Elaine’s survival. Unusual for its time, O.S.S. does not end with a reconciliation for these would-be lovers, but rather, with one having to live with the guilt of knowing he let the other be led to her slaughter by the enemy.  The picture just feels far less pretentious than most war-time weepies of its generation and continues to pack a genuine wallop today.

O.S.S. arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s alliance with Universal, the present-day custodians of the retired Paramount library. But someone somewhere ought to be genuinely ashamed of the quality – or lack thereof – in this 1080p offering. Uni has long made short shrift of its formidable assets, and others inherited from a thoroughly shortsighted acquisition of Paramount’s pre-war product from a highly lucrative outright purchase for television distribution back in 1958. Then, Paramount was dumb – perceiving no resale in their vintage product, and Universal was greedy, collecting up the cream, but doing precious little to preserve it in the intervening decades. I have no idea whether original elements exist on O.S.S. But the ones used for this Blu-ray – described as a ‘new 2K master’ are abysmally below par. The image is clumpy, with anemic blacks, boosted contrast, and homogenized grain, suggesting some untoward digital tinkering, decidedly NOT benefiting the movie. The first two reels are the weakest, looking fatally soft and slightly out of focus. Things improve marginally after that. But fine detail is practically non-existent throughout, except occasionally in close-ups where it suddenly favors a sampling of the one-time integrity invested in Lionel Lindon’s B&W cinematography. The 1.0 DTS audio is strident and intermittently inaudible. Truly, this is one pathetic effort. Uni ought to be ashamed of it. Kino shouldn’t exactly be thrilled it agreed to distribute it either. Extras include an informative audio commentary by Samm Deighan and a theatrical trailer. Bottom line: O.S.S. is an exemplary movie from Alan Ladd’s Paramount tenure given incredibly short shrift on Blu-ray. It’s disappointing to see such a great film go to utter waste in hi-def. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

1.5

EXTRAS

1