Cloak and Dagger (1946 film)

Not to be confused with the 1984 film Cloak & Dagger.

Cloak and Dagger
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Fritz Lang
Produced by	Milton Sperling
Written by	Corey Ford, Alastair MacBain (book) Boris Ingster, John Larkin (story) Ring Lardner Jr. Albert Maltz
Starring	Gary Cooper Lilli Palmer
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	Sol Polito
Editing by	Christian Nyby
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures United States Pictures
Release date(s)	28 September 1946
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Cloak and Dagger is a 1946 film directed by Fritz Lang, starring Gary Cooper. Like 13 Rue Madeleine, it is a tribute to Office of Strategic Services (OSS) operations in occupied Europe during World War II. The title is based on the 1946 non fiction book Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of O.S.S. by Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain. Former OSS agent E. Michael Burke acted as technical advisor.

Missing final reel

As planned by Lang, the film had a different ending. Cooper led a group of American paratroopers into Southern Germany to discover the remains of an underground factory, the bodies of dead concentration camp workers and evidence the factory was working on nuclear weapons. Cooper remarks that the factory may have been relocated to Spain or Argentina and launched a diatribe saying "This is the Year One of the Atomic Age and God help us if we think we can keep this secret from the World!"^[1] Producer Milton Sperling who had frequently quarreled with Lang on the set thought the final scene ridiculous as the audience knew the Germans had no nuclear capacity.^[2]

Radio show

A 1950 NBC radio show of the same title based on Ford and MacBain's book lasted 26 episodes. Cloak and Dagger began with actor Raymond Edward Johnson asking "Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission for the United States knowing in advance you may never return alive?"^[3]

Notes

1. ^ p. 197 Frayling, Christopher Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema 2005 Reaktion Books
2. ^ p.101 Kalat, David the Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse 2005 McFarland
3. ^ pp66-67 Britton, Wesley Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film Greenwood Publishing

External links

• Cloak and Dagger at the Internet Movie Database
• DVD Savant remarks on missing scenes http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s850cloak.html