Captain Carey U.S.A. (1950)

February 21, 1950, release date

Directed by Mitchell Leisen

Screenplay by Robert Thoeren

Based on the novel No Surrender by Martha Albrand

Music by Hugo Friedhofer

Edited by Alma Macrorie

Cinematography by John F. Seitz

Alan Ladd as Captain Webster (“Web”) Carey

Wanda Hendrix as Baronessa Giulia (“Julie”) de Greffi

Francis Lederer as Barone Rocco de Greffi

Paul Lees as Frank, Carey’s fellow OSS agent

Joseph Calleia as Dr. Lunati

Celia Lovsky as Countess Francesca de Cresci

Richard Avonde as Count Carlo de Cresci

Frank Puglia as Luigi

Luis Alberni as Sandro, the innkeeper

Maria Tavares as Lucia, inn employee

George J. Leweis as Giovanni, inn employee

Angela Clarke as Serafina

Roland Winters as Manfredo Acuto

Ray Walker as Mr. Simmons

Jane Nigh as Nancy

Russ (aka Rusty) Tamblyn as Pietro

Virginia Farmer as Angelina

David Leonard as the blind musician

Distributed by Paramount Pictures

Produced by Paramount Pictures

Captain Carey U.S.A. is all about grand themes of betrayal during wartime, in this case, during World War II, and settling old scores postwar. It is the story about an Office of Strategic Services (OSS) agent, Captain Web Carey, who is looking to avenge the betrayal and murder of his OSS partner, Frank, and his civilian collaborator (and girlfriend), Giulia de Cresci.

After the opening credits, the film starts with a map and voice-over narration, creating a semidocumentary feel. The voice-over narrator explains how Nazis entered northern Italy in 1944 looking for American OSS agents who had parachuted into the country to spy and sabotage. After the brief voice-over introduction, the film turns to its fiction story, which begins with Carey’s war work in 1944. He and Frank, a fellow OSS agent, steal a German courier’s pouch containing troop dispositions and train schedules. Such information would be vital to the Allies because they could anticipate Nazi troop movements and prevent attacks. Frank begins coding the stolen information for radio transmission.

Web and Frank operate out of the basement of the de Cresci family palazzo. They have the help of Giulia de Cresci, who is the granddaughter of the owner of the palazzo and Web’s girlfriend. She tells Carey that her brother Carlo disappeared in Rome under mysterious circumstances, and they have little hope of discovering his whereabouts or what happened to him as long as the war continues and maybe even after its end. Their grandmother is heartbroken about it because Carlo is the last male de Cresci heir.

In a secret room in the basement of the de Cresci palazzo are several valuable paintings and all the supplies that the OSS agents brought with them. Giulia and Carey talk about one of the paintings and imagine hanging it in their living room one day. They want to marry after the war, but their plans are thwarted because Carey and Frank have been betrayed. German soldiers arrive at the de Cresci family estate to find them. Frank is killed. Carey is shot. Giulia is carried off by Nazi soldiers. The camera closes in on Carey’s bleeding face and off-camera, Carey and viewers hear a scream and a gunshot. Carey and viewers assume that Giulia has been shot dead.

(This blog post about Captain Carey U.S.A. contains spoilers.)

After the end of the war (four years later), Carey sees the painting that he and Giulia talked about in an art gallery in New York. The owner of the gallery tells Carey that the painting was obtained through the gallery’s agents in Switzerland, but he refuses to say any more than that. Carey tells the woman with him, his girlfriend, that he wants to hunt down the person who sold that painting because it was the person who betrayed him, Frank, and Giulia. The fact that the gallery owner refuses to reveal anything more about how he acquired the painting is a clue that the wartime black market is still in operation during peacetime and that the painting was likely obtained fraudulently.

Captain Carey U.S.A. is something of a history lesson for modern viewers. Recovering art stolen from Jews and others before and during World War II is an ongoing issue, even today. Click on each item list below for more information:

◊ The National Archives

◊ The History Channel

Carey makes good on his declaration about finding the person who sold the de Cresci painting and returns to Novara, the town where he was captured during the war. When he gets off the bus in the town square, an accordion player starts playing “Mona Lisa,” the film’s theme song. It is more than a theme song, however; it also served as a warning signal for the Italian Resistance during the war. With Carey’s return to Navarro, it seems the song “Mona Lisa” is now used to warn the townspeople of Carey’s arrival. All the townspeople take note and do their best to avoid Carey: They believe he is the harbinger of bad luck.

During World War II, the song was a way to communicate the approach of danger (usually approaching Nazi soldiers) for the Americans and for the Italians fighting in the resistance. The song is used throughout the film in different ways in different contexts. It always warns of danger, but the form of that danger changes as the film progresses. When Carey returns to Italy, the local accordion player uses the song to announce his arrival. That same accordion player uses it to warn Carey about the approach of police officers or of people who wish him harm as Carey’s investigation into Frank’s and Giulia’s deaths progresses.

Web Carey discovers that Giulia’s brother, Count Carlo de Cresci, is alive and back home after being reported missing during the war. Giulia is still alive too, and she is now married to Barone Rocco de Greffi, much to Carey’s (and Giulia’s) dismay. Carey asks about the painting that he saw in the New York City art gallery. But no one seems to know anything about it anymore.

• Countess Francesca de Cresci: “About the painting, Mr. Carey. You say it is valuable. What are we to do?”

• Carey: “When you lose something you thought was valuable? I don’t know, Contessa. Bleed a little. Forget it, I guess.”

Carey’s words refer to Giulia, someone he feels that he has now lost twice. He believed for years that she had died in the wartime Nazi raid, and now he finds that she is lost to him again because she is alive but she has married someone else. The painting was just a valuable clue to help him find what was really most valuable to him. But Carey and Giulia cannot forget, and it’s a good thing, too, or the film would have no more plot! The two of them decide to find out together what happened all those years ago during the war.

Captain Carey U.S.A. is a perfect example of a film noir in which the details matter. I have seen the film more than once, and it was only on second viewing that I had a much better grasp of the plot. Everything matters in this film. The theme song “Mona Lisa” is intricately woven into the plot. It serves as a warning song for different people and for different reasons throughout. From the first sequence in the film, viewers need to keep track of the characters and their activities because every detail comes up again later in the film. There are even shots in which the background is the most important focus for the action. It’s easy, I think, for modern viewers to focus on the foreground of a shot or a scene, but for Captain Carey U.S.A., it pays to examine both the background and the foreground in several shots, especially in the second half of the film.

Alan Ladd is the star and the narrative revolves around his character. Ladd gives a wonderful performance as the loyal and persistent Web Carey. But I don’t think you have to be an Alan Ladd fan to enjoy Captain Carey U.S.A. The story is well worth a look even if you are not a big fan of Ladd or of film noir because it is also a film about loyalty and true love. I suspect that when I see the film again, I’ll notice even more details.