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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.