Operation Secret (1952) User Reviews (10)

Facing French Justice

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 23 February 2013]

Cornel Wilde stars in this World War II drama Operation Secret in which most of the film is done in flashback by witnesses at a post war French tribunal. The object of the inquiry is to determine who killed Maquis resistance leader Paul Picerni.

This film was about the only Marine who may have served in the European Theater of World War II. Wilde is quite the colorful character and what a background he has. He does a hitch in the Marine Corps during peacetime and then enlists in the French Foreign Legion where he and fellow Legionaire Karl Malden just simply refuse to surrender until wounded and ordered to by Captain Steve Cochran. After a stint in a Prison Camp he's repatriated back to France whereupon he flees to Great Britain and tries to enlist in the Marines again. The Marines take him, but rather than send him to the Pacific, Wilde is given spy training and sent back to France where he eventually hooks up with the Maquis.

That the Maquis had a lot of Communists in it is a given fact. But remember this was the beginning of the Cold War so some anti-Communism gets worked into the plot. Many members of the Resistance do not want to give plans for the new Nazi jet airplanes to the Americans and British. That sets up the conflict as Wilde has to deal with both Germans and people in the Maquis who want to do him in.

To say the least I found the whole premise quite bizarre. But I've always liked Cornel Wilde on the screen and this is far from the worst film he ever did. In fact his portrayal of a spy who has to think fast on his feet is quite good.

Tstifying at the tribunal are Malden, Cochran, Jay Novello playing a former Gestapo man, and an ersatz nun played by Phyllis Thaxter. Eventually the murder of Picerni is solved and the perpetrator faces French justice.

Why they had to invent such a wild (no pun intended)background for Wilde is beyond me. If they had just made him a Frenchman in the first place it would have made more sense. Not like Wilde never did a French accent effectively on the screen.

Obscure but better than average wartime movie about espionage with thrills, emotion and plot twists

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 16 January 2022]

Decent and thrilling WWII espionage film with the great Cornel Wilde excellently accompanied by a known support cast . This is an espionage flic dealing with O. S. S. Operatives working behind enemy lines and based on fact , it concerns secret agents and a double-agent who encounter themselves working for both contenders in the 40s , as the Russian secret service and Allied Secret service , while being mercilessly pursued by Nazis . A few years after the end of WW2 a special French military commission is put to judge a past happening , that's why they summon witnesses who could shed light on an incident that took place during the war . It is followed by a long flashback in which one group of mostly French Foreign Legion soldiers , they are all French except one who is American (Cornel Wilde) , refused to surrender to the Germans and being holed-up in a farm house continued to offer hard resistance and defence to the Germans . Their officer, Capt. Armand Dupree (Paul Picerni) asks for the surrendering . While under attack by German forces, the French army unit discovers there is a traitor in their midst , feeding the Germans information. After the Armistice some of them, prisoners of war in German POW camps, go away and joined various resistance groups . The American , Peter Forrester , joins the US Army and is recruited by US Intelligence. O. S. S for his language skills and for the fact he had lived in Germany and France before the war . Then he accepts a dangerous mission behind enemy lines , in occupied France , Operation Secret starts and along the way Forrester meets a mysterious nun , Maria Corbet (Phyllis Thaxter) who helps him . Later on , things go wrong .

This agreeable film packs intrigue , noisy action , suspense , warlike feats, twists, turns and being quite entertaining, adding a first-rate main and support cast . However , there's a lot of WWII stock footage , including bombing , allied attacks and planes . The story was based on Peter Ortiz who was an OSS agent in World War II in France and was also originally based on the World War II director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In fact , this role was also essential on the film 13 Rue Madeleine (1946) by Henry Hathaway with James Cagney , Richard Conte , but due to military intelligence and secrecy reasons, Hollywood studios were prevented by the U. S. government from mentioning the OSS in movies during World War II, which is the case here . Cornel Wilde gives a good acting as a spy who finds out one of the agents-in-training is actually a double agent and takes the risk of going in after him. Ample and stunning supporting cast providing magnificent acting , such as : Steve Cochran , Karl Malden , Paul Picerni , Lester Matthews , Dan O'Herlihy , Harlan Warde , Jay Novello, among others.

This well-paced in cracking style flick was competently directed by Lewis Seiler, as he usually works very well , being capable handled in spectacular photography -though is really necessary a perfect remastering- , and adding enjoyable scenarios . Seiler was assistant director before directing a number of two-reel comedies . He was closely associated with Tom Mix Westerns during the 1920s. He spent much of the 1930s at Warner Brothers, resulting in some of that studio's "grittier gangster pictures" and "social drama" films as Crime School (1938), King of Underground (1939), Hell's Kitchen (1939), to name a few and making movies in all kind of genres , such as : Over-Exposed , Battle Stations , Women's Prison, The Bamboo Prison, The System , The Winning Team , The Tanks Are Coming, Day D, hora H , Whiplash , If I'm Lucky , Molly and Me , standing out in wartime genre, as he was responsible for what is generally deemed to be one of the finest war pictures to come out of Hollywood : Guadalcanal (1943). Retiring from motion pictures in 1958, he turned to television where he kept busy up to the time of his death. Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth watching . Essential and indispensable watching for WWII buffs.

Bring on your tired horses and your experienced old men!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 3 November 2015]

Want to know how a Big Hollywood Studio could make a Good Movie on a Minimal Budget in 1952? The answer, of course, was to commission a screenplay from contract writers like Harold "King of the Turf" Medford and James R. "Jesse James at Bay" Webb. Specify that their script must utilize as much of the studio's own enormous library of stock footage as possible, as well as material that could be provided from Hollywood's many professional stock libraries at minimal cost. And that is what good old Warner Brothers have done here, but they have gone a step further by enlisting the services of charismatic players like Karl Malden, Dan O'Herlihy, Jay Novello, Paul Picerni, Phyllis Thaxter, Steve Cochran and Cornel Wilde. As producer, Warner assigned ever-reliable Henry Blanke who had been with the studio since 1924. And to direct, why not super-experienced Lewis Seiler who had been directing away in Hollywood since 1923? True, "Girls Gone Wild", "The Ghost Talks" Seiler was not exactly what you would call a critic's favorite director, but he knew how and when to say, "Cut the lights!" to save electricity and he was a whiz at brushing off and eventually ignoring the demands of egotistic actors, fusspot cameramen and time-wasting set-dressers. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

Entertaining But Outdated Anti-Communist Propaganda.

[meddlecore · 6/10 · 31 August 2020]

Operation Secret is a tale of military murder mystery, with a little twist.

Cornel Wilde plays the protagonist, who has been charged with the murder of a French underground marquee fighter during world war II.

It begins with a number of witnesses being questioned before a military tribunal, as they seek to discover the current whereabouts of this missing soldier, who fought for the French foreign legion, before being recruited as a spy for the British marines.

Being fluent in both French and German (alongside English), he's a perfect candidate to be sent behind enemy lines as a paratrooper with an espionage mission.

However, based on some of his earlier experiences in the war, he comes into conflict with one of the man he is tasked with working with.

This man is the commander of the French Underground, who goes by the codename Torch, and has communist sympathies.

After escaping from Germany with a woman undercover as a nun, whom also turns out to be the lover of this man...their egosbegin to butt heads.

So when they disagree about what to do with a valuable roll of film, that exposes the design of the Nazi jet plane program, which they had worked together to get their hands on...things start to get heated.

And it ends up with one of their own men being murdered.

Wilde's character wants to forward the information to the Brits, so they can design their own jet planes; while torch wants to get it to the Russians, fearing that the Brits will only use the information to perpetuate their own capitalist wars.

However, when the court case brings in a surprise witness...things take a turn that noone expected.

This is a nicely constructed, and entertaining little film...but it is also very clearly anti-communist propaganda in it's most explicit form.

And that- alongside the fact that everyone speaks english even when they are supposed to be talking to one another in foreign languages- takes a way from it's over all historical value.

Making it entertaining but outdated.

6 out of 10.

Based very loosely on a real French-American patriot.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 August 2022]

I hate when I read about a film and learn that it was based LOOSELY on a real life person. This means you have no idea what's fact and what's fiction...and if the person's life is exciting enough to merit a film, why fictionalize it?! Apparently, this is what they did in "Operation Secret" as it's based loosely on the WWII exploits of Colonel Peter Julien Ortiz.

The story is told through a series of flashbacks at a hearing. Apparently, Peter Forrester (Cornel Wilde) is accused of murdering someone in the French underground during the war...and now that it's over, his loyalty is in some doubt. The story you see is about the French underground and Forrester's exploits....all of which are very exciting.

The movie is quite enjoyable and shows it's Cold War roots, as the film is not only anti-Fascist but anti-Communist as well. My only complaints are very minor...such as the overused of some archive footage. In one case, it also was used poorly, as you see an early model Me-163 rocket plane turn into a later model mid-flight....and the two planes are extremely dissimilar...so much so that non-airplane nuts would see the difference as well. But this is minor...and the film quite enjoyable and worth seeing.

Best spy-underground mystery movie about WWII

[SimonJack · 10/10 · 30 September 2012]

There have been some outstanding movies about underground forces in Europe during WWII. There have been some excellent movies about espionage during WWII. And, there have been a number of very good movies that combine espionage and underground efforts. "Operation Secret" is far and away the very best of the latter, with a lot of intrigue and mystery tossed in. The film combines spy efforts with underground operations, and then adds some combat scenes and aerial bombing footage along with the mystery and intrigue. It involves a court inquiry after the war, and a story told in flashbacks from various characters.

Just as with "Where Eagles Dare," this film story is fictitious, but is about real subjects of the war. In the former, it was the efforts to knock out Norwegian plants before the Nazis could use them to produce heavy water for use in German nuclear arms plans. In "Operation Secret," the real subjects were Germany's V-2 rockets and jet aircraft.

This film excels in a number of areas. The plot and script are first- rate, and the acting is first-rate by the whole cast. The direction is excellent, as are the cinematography and the scenes. This may be one of Cornel Wilde's best performances, and Karl Malden gives a first-rate performance. To top it all off, the movie has some actual German footage of the V-2 rocket firings, and the actual footage of the earliest German jet aircraft tests. I recall seeing such tests only once before; so this is very rare among WWII movies.

I'm surprised that so few have seen this movie by this late date. I don't recall ever having seen it before, but I've added it to my film library. Now that it's on DVD, more folks should want to buy it. I think it's a "must" for any serious war film library. If you're not a collector, watch for its showing on TV. I highly recommend this excellent, interesting, intriguing and entertaining film. For a bit of trivia, in an early scene of a flight from New York to Paris, presumably around the time the film was made, 1952, the pilot announces over the plane's PA system that the flight will take "about 13 hours." That was the speed of the four-engine prop planes before the advent of commercial jet service.

A very good B movie.

[essers · 9/10 · 5 June 2005]

This is a WWII swashbuckler!

I remember seeing it as the second half of the double bill at the Avalon in Brooklyn in 1952. The feature was something "serious" like Winchester '73. Anyway, as the film progressed, I said more than once: " This is really a good movie!" – I was 15.

Forrester (Cornel Wilde) is the man of mystery. He is a Marine who does a stint with the French Foreign Legion. This was all in the European Theater. He is recruited by, maybe, the OSS to parachute into Nazi territory and check on the devastation wrought by our B 17's.

With the help of a phony nun (Phyllis Thaxter) he is able to secure films of a German top secret weapon. These real weapon films are truly fascinating. Even the combat footage of the 17's is better than average. The whole thing ends with a shoot out on a beach where the main characters are to be picked up by a submarine. We then pan to an executive board type hearing to find out ---- Who is Forrester?

Phyllis Thaxter was beautiful. Cornel Wilde was adequate but quite dashing. Karl Malden, as the Legion's Maj. Latrec, shows some of the charisma that would blossom into his great talent.

Yes. It was a B black and white movie. It WAS a good one!

An absolute gem!

[aldiboronti · 8/10 · 16 February 2013]

What a wonderful movie and what a surprise! I didn't expect much from this and the unimaginative title didn't help. I decided to give it a try because a couple of my favourite actors were in it, Steve Cochran and Karl Malden.

First a rundown of the plot. In the opening we see a couple of passenger planes converging on Paris, one from New York and one from Germany. The date is a few years after WWII and a trial is being held in Paris for the murder of a Maquis member during the war. The accused person is absent, the character played by Cornel Wilde. The witnesses are being assembled from all points of the compass, including Cochran, Malden and others, all belonging to the same French Resistance group as Wilde. From here we get a series of flashbacks as each witness tells how he or she met Wilde and their experiences during the war years. Cochran tells first how he met Wilde when they were all cornered by the Germans in 1940 in a house outside Paris. Cochran is in the French army, Wilde (an American) and Malden are Foreign Legionaries. The order from the government for French soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender comes over the radio. From this pivotal point the plot proceeds through twists and turns, always gripping us and always surprising us.

As the final titles came up I realised I'd just viewed one of the best B movies I'd ever seen. I highly recommend it to all, a brilliant little film with the ensemble cast at the top of their form. A well-deserved 8/10.

Fractions within the French resistance brought to justice after the war

[clanciai · 10/10 · 5 February 2023]

Most of the film consists of flashbacks. It begins at a court in France investigating the death or murder of one Armand (Paul Picerni) of the resistance, supposedly committed by an American (Cornel Wilde) assisting the resistance by secret missions conducted from England. The stage here is very international, involving French, English, American and German actors, and all the proper languages are spoken authentically. The story is based on true adventures of a French-American working for the French resistance inside France, and the film exhibits the story clear enough with authentic documentary materials to underline the realism. All the actors are good if not excellent, you didn't see Phyllis Thaxter in many films, but she always made a sincerely honest and tender impression, here both as a nun and a resistance fighter with guts, but the character you will enjoy most and remember best from this film is Karl Malden as a 100% jovial Frenchman always enjoying his Cognac and never flinching from a battle or decision. He brings cheers into the film into every scene of his appearance. The division within the resistance does not enter the story until towards the end, but when it does that becomes the major interest of the film and the main thriller. What did really happen, who did what, what happened to whom, who survived and how and so forth - that's the extensive investigation here and all questions are answered - nothing is left unsolved. To bring clearance into this complicated confusion of destinies is actually the major feat of the film.

Surprisingly good

[Marlburian · 8/10 · 3 January 2022]

I watched "Operation Secret" on the Fast32 streaming service (which is an excellent source of Western and war films) and was very impressed. Cornel Wilde was good enough, but Karl Malden stole the acting honours, with Steve Cochran doing well as the French resistance leader.

A couple of minor gripes: there was no way that the Resistance fighters could have filmed such close-up footage of the V1 bomber and the tunnel into the cliffs was very brightly illuminated.

Being released in 1952 the makers couldn't resist the temptation to include some anti-Communist propaganda.

But overall one of the best Resistance "B" films I've ever seen.