Captain Carey, U.S.A. | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mitchell Leisen |
Produced by | Richard Maibaum |
Written by | Robert Thoeren |
Based on | novel by Martha Albrand |
Starring |
Alan Ladd Wanda Hendrix Francis Lederer |
Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
Cinematography | John F. Seitz |
Edited by | Alma Macrorie |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date
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February 21, 1950 |
Running time
|
82 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Captain Carey, U.S.A. is a 1950 drama film starring Alan Ladd, Wanda Hendrix, and Francis Lederer. An American returns to post-World War II Italy to bring a traitor to justice.
The film was based on the novel No Surrender by Martha Albrand. It was filmed under the title O.S.S. and then the title After Midnight.
The theme song, "Mona Lisa" performed in the film by Charlie Spivak with Tommy Lynn, won the Academy Award for Best Song. It was a #1 hit for Nat King Cole in 1950.
A group of agents of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency) is sent to German-occupied Italy during World War II to knock out the German-held Italian railroad system. In accomplishing this mission, most of them are killed because of an inside betrayal.
After the war, one of the survivors, Captain Webster Carey (Alan Ladd), resolves to find the traitor. Captain Carey returns to Orta, near Milan, to find out who betrayed his World War II O.S.S. team and caused the deaths of several villagers. Much to his surprise, his old love Giulia (Wanda Hendrix), whom he thought dead at the hands of the Nazis, is alive and married to a powerful Italian nobleman, Barone Rocco de Greffi (Francis Lederer). The villagers are unfriendly, but Carey persists in his clandestine efforts to flush out the traitor.
The film was based on the serial Dishonored. Jonathan Latimer was originally announced as screenwriter and the stars were to be Ray Milland and Alida Valli,with the title to be After Midnight.