Betrayed (1954)

Director:

Gottfried Reinhardt

Writers:

Ronald Millar (writer) and
George Froeschel (writer)

Release Date:

7 September 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

Tagline:

Great story of love and war!

Plot:

Carla Van Oven becomes an allied spy in Holland during WW2, although she is suspected of having cooperated with and taken help from the Nazis...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | WWII | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Col. Pieter Deventer
Lana Turner	...	Carla Van Oven
Victor Mature	...	'The Scarf'
Louis Calhern	...	Gen. Ten Eyck
O.E. Hasse	...	Col. Helmuth Dietrich
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Gen. Charles Larraby (as Wilfrid Hyde White)
Ian Carmichael	...	Capt. Jackie Lawson
Niall MacGinnis	...	Blackie
Nora Swinburne	...	The Scarf's Mother
Roland Culver	...	Gen. Warsleigh
Leslie Weston	...	Pop
Christopher Rhodes	...	Chris
Lily Kann	...	Jan's Grandmother (as Lilly Kann)
Brian Smith	...	Jan
Anton Diffring	...	Capt. Von Stanger

Also Known As:

The True and the Brave (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (certificate #16946) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Delft, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Clark Gable's last picture under his MGM contract. He first signed with the studio in 1930 (he'd first appeared at the studio as an extra in The Merry Widow (1925)). By the 1950's his box office was spotty and MGM found it difficult to justify his $500,000 per year salary. Gable too was anxious to enter into far more lucrative percentage deals and would do so exclusively for the remaining 6 years of his life.

Goofs:

Continuity: In his opening narration, Gen. Ted Eyck (Louis Calhern) states that "This is spring, nineteen hundred and forty-three." A few moments later, however, Gen. Larraby rides up to his office and when a soldier says to him, "Lovely day, isn't it?" he replies, "Yes it is, and October too." (And a day or so later, the German radio announces it will execute Dutch hostages the next day, October 21.)

Soundtrack:

Johnny Come Home

For World War II Espionage Films Fans Only

"Betrayed!" is just a bit above average World War II film in the espionage genre. Even though I can't help watching it every once in a while I'm not really sure where its attraction is for me. Perhaps it is that I like World War II espionage films and so I don't get too demanding with movies that deal with such matters.

Considering that in my opinion this product has an interesting story about courage, love and mainly treason, lots of action sequences, beautiful outdoor locations in Holland and two important stars in the male and female leading roles (Clark Gable and Lana Turner) I must agree with one reviewer here that thinks the flaw is in the direction work. Gottfied Reinhardt was a not very prolific and average director whose best work was probably the interesting "Town Without Pity" (1961). In "Betrayed!" he doesn't succeed with a movie that had chances of delivering more impact and strength; none of the main actors look too enthusiastic about their characters and it shows.

Gable doesn't add much to his brilliant career in his role as a Dutch intelligence officer though his impressive screen presence always helps him. Lana Turner looks beautiful as a brunette in spite of the just standard performance she delivers as an infiltrated spy for the allies. Victor Mature as a partisan chief ("Scarf") is the only one that shoes interest in what he is doing as usual, but he also overacts terribly as usual. Anton Diffring is also there in one of his nasty Nazi officer roles he played so well.

My feeling about "Betrayed!" is that a better film could have been made with a more strong and imaginative directors, but as it came out this picture is just for fans of the genre.