In Secrecy's Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979

by Simon Willmetts

Overview

Drawing on extensive archival research, In Secrecy's Shadow explores the revolution in the relationship between Hollywood and the secret state, from unwavering trust and cooperation to extreme scepticism and paranoia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748692996
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	04/26/2016
Series:	Traditions in American Cinema
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Simon Willmetts is a lecturer in American Studies at the University of Hull. His research falls broadly within the fields of film history, cultural theory and US foreign policy.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Facts of War: Cinematic Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Services
John Ford's Navy
Weaponising Cinema
Hollywood's Intelligence Archive
Wild Bill Donovan and the Origins of the OSS Field Photographic Unit
December 7th: Scripting an Intelligence Failure
Zanuck, Ford and the Filming of the North African Invasion
The Authority of Cinema at the Nuremberg Trials

Chapter 2: 'What is Past is Prologue': Hollywood's History of the OSS and the Establishment of the CIA
Hollywood Enlists in General Donovan's Campaign for a Permanent Peacetime Intelligence Agency
O.S.S. (1946)
Cloak and Dagger (1946)
13 Rue Madeleine (1947)
Chapter 3: Quiet Americans: The CIA and Hollywood in the Early Cold War
Cherishing Anonymity: Hollywood and the CIA in the Early Cold War
Dangerous Liaisons: The CIA in Hollywood
Joseph Mankiewicz's The Quiet American (1958)
Figaro Entertainment's Unmade CIA Semi-Documentary TV Series

Chapter 4: The Death of the 'Big Lie' and the Emergance of Postmodern Incredulity in the Spy Cinema of the 1960s
Our Man in Havana and the Origins of Cold War Satire
North by Northwest (1959)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and TV Spy Satire in the 1960s
Parody Turns Political in The President's Analyst (1967)

Chapter 5: Secrecy, Conspiracy, Cinema and the CIA in the 1970s
Scorpio (1973) and CIA Public Relations
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)
Watergate, The Parallax View (1974) and the Emergence of the Conspiracy Thriller
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Emile de Antonio and Philip Agee: The Radical CIA Film that Never Was
Fighting Back: The Birth of CIA Public Relations

Editorial Reviews

"Willmetts is a fine writer who deftly blends archival work, textual analysis, and his larger arguments." — Kevin M. Flanagan, Journal of Film and Popular Television

From the Publisher

In Secrecy’s Shadow provides readers with a comprehensive, nuanced and insightful picture of the CIA both in and on film from the 1940s to the 1970s. Libraries should certainly acquire the text, as its prose is highly readable, its information rich and its subject matter important to understandings of intelligence, propaganda and cinematic history.'

Tricia Jenkins

Written in an incisive and accessible style, In Secrecy’s Shadow is a welcome addition to the growing literature on Cold War cinema. As Willmetts observes, while the CIA’s engagement in the cultural Cold War through music, literature, and the visual arts has been well documented, its relationship with Hollywood has received far less attention. In Secrecy’s Shadow is also notable for its adept synthesis of scholarship and archival research from academic fields that include intelligence and diplomacy as well as cultural and film studies. This broadly interdisciplinary approach results in a nuanced understanding of the "complex interrelationship between fact and fiction" (16) that has shaped the CIA’s place and meaning in American society.'

FILM QUARTERLY - REBECCA PRIME

Willmetts is a fine writer who deftly blends archival work, textual analysis, and his larger arguments.

Journal of Film and Popular Television - Kevin M. Flanagan

Willmetts advances an overarching interpretation of the interaction between intelligence, secrecy and culture, and in doing so challenges some senior figures in the historiography of his field. Well researched… rigorously organized… In Secrecy’s Shadow is a courageous and substantial contribution to intelligence studies.'

Intelligence and National Security - Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones