Verdict
Summary
A solid suspense film that has a bit of 007 intrigue laced within its marrow thanks to a script written by future 007 scribe Richard Maibum, who wrote 13 Bond films in his career (14 if you count Never Say Never Again, which was based on his screenplay for Thunderball).
Plot:
The early days of the CIA come in focus when a group of handpicked agents are dropped into Nazi occupied France on a very dangerous mission.
Review:
A school for secret agents yields an elite group who’ve never been field-tested properly, but a newly formed CIA handpicks some agents for an extremely important behind-enemy lines mission in Nazi occupied France. An agent named Mason (Alan Ladd) is paired with a female agent named Rogers (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and their mission is to gather information on the railways for the allies to bomb to stop supplies from coming in or going out. Next, they have to get close to a Nazi commander who has a penchant for beautiful art … and beautiful women, which is where Rogers comes in. Rogers is, in fact, a talented sculptor, and when she cozies up to the commander, she has a sculpture layered with plastique explosives, which she detonates on a train where the commander is at. The explosion doesn’t kill the guy, but the train is destroyed. With the embittered commander hunting for her across France, Rogers and Mason must survive on their own in the countryside until they become allies with a snitch working with the Nazis. Every second of every day is precarious and fraught with imminent danger, and other agents they meet up with all get killed in the line of service to their country, while Mason and Rogers snick by … until the Nazi commander finds them and forces Mason to make a choice: To save his partner … or complete his mission.
A solid suspense film that has a bit of 007 intrigue laced within its marrow thanks to a script written by future 007 scribe Richard Maibum, who wrote 13 Bond films in his career (14 if you count Never Say Never Again, which was based on his screenplay for Thunderball). Well directed by Irving Pichel and convincingly acted by the entire cast, O.S.S. is an uncompromising war film and packs a punch. Fans of spy films in general will find it quite satisfying on every level.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition for O.S.S. comes with an audio commentary by a film historian and a trailer.
