La spia del lago

Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950)

A vastly underrated movie. Not that this is "Casablanca" although there are traces of the same idea, if deliberately backward. A romance is derailed by war, a solitary American exudes indifference, foreign intrigues brew, and the Nazis roam at night causing trouble.

The setting is Italy, at first during the war, and then three years later. The man, Alan Ladd (at his best, I think), is an OSS officer and when he returns, as a civilian, you know he has an agenda and a dangerous background. And a girl he once loved who is dead.

Or so it goes. The plot is reasonable and actually fascinating. It doesn't unfold with elegance, exactly (you can see a lot of the gist coming), but it is all told beautifully and quickly. The photography is really first rate, notable on its own terms once you look, all by John F. Seitz, one of the era's greats. Between him and Ladd, and some really wonderful sets and convincing back projections, the whole experience is a thrill to inhabit, to feel. And things do happen, with caricatures that make enough sense to work--the blind musician, the rich and mysterious husband, the doctor with suspicious knowledge of everything (he calls Ladd "baby" in a nice American colloquialism).

What the movie lacks most of all is a title. I can't believe it hasn't at least been released again with something better, something that hints at the Italian post-war angst that is the meat of the movie. Because this is what makes the murderous intrigues more than just cinematic fillips. In fact, this is another parallel to "Casablanca" (that was no joke above): the movie has a hidden purpose, to help the American public reconcile with the most conspicuous of German Allies, the Italians. It is layered, interesting, and dramatic. It lurches every now and then, and I suppose Ladd, as good as he is, is no Bogart, and certainly his love interest, played by Wanda Hendrix, is no Ingrid Bergman (Hendrix is a weak link all through, actually, more girl next door than the movie needs).

Give this a whirl, and expect something quite a bit more than others, and the title, have suggested.

Captain Carey,US Army (check the title) comes back to Italy to unmask an informer who gave his group away to the Germans .He thought that the Italian girl who helped him then was dead but she reappears ,à la "Laura" and she might be the one who....unless it's his husband (which is really too bad for he was in love with her of course)or some vile wop.

Ther's a good depiction of the Italian village and their hostility to the Yankee whose activities were cause for reprisals among the population.A woman is waiting for her husband 's name to be cleared ,for his young son (played by Rusty (Russ) Tamblyn oddly cast as an Italian kid) can't accept the fact that his dad was a traitor anymore.

Mitchell Leisen was in healthier shape in the precedent decade ,and "Captain Carey,US " does not compare favorably with earlier works such as "Hold back the dawn" or "to each his own" .However ,it is not as bad as the precedent user wrote .Average.

Mitchell Leisen made a volte face after this ho hum effort and gave a very good thriller "No man of her own" the best version of the William Irish novel.

Mona Lisa deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Song. And Celia Lovesky makes a marvelous Contessa in the center of the intrigue being investigated by Ladd. But, the film moves unbearably slowly in its middle, and the chemistry between Ladd and Hendrix is zilch. Overall, it's just another postwar intrigue film.