In the period between 1918 - 1939 most of the countries in Eastern Europe were notable for the strongman dictatorships that had arisen out of the ashes of the First World War. Except for Czechoslovakia and the doomed Baltic trio of states and Finland and Austria (for awhile), Poland, Hungary, Italy, and the Balkan states all became dictatorships. One might, on the surface, have added the former Ottoman Empire now Turkey. Certainly Turkey had some black marks against it: the Armenian massacres in the World War, and the brutal massacre of Greeks at Smyrna in 1922. But aside from those, Turkey surprised everyone. It's strongman leader, Mustapha Kemal (a.k.a. Kemal Attaturk) was determined to make Turkey a strong western country. To this day the military (from which Kemal came out of) has remained pro-Western, and been pushing (despite difficulties with Armenia, Greece, the Kurds, and Muslim fundamentalists) to keep modernizing Turkey. His (Kemal's) was the only positive spin on a dictatorship from Eastern Europe in that period.
Kemal was lucky that he had a keen lieutenant and successor named Ismet Inonu. Ismet was as determined to continue Kemal's goals after his friend's death in 1938. One goal that both of them had discussed and agreed upon was that Turkey was not going to be pulled into any further nonsense that it could not afford to get involved in. This meant that if there was any major war hitting Europe again (and both Kemal and Ismet fully knew one was on the way after 1933) Turkey was going to be neutral. This was, on the surface, surprising and disappointing to the Axis when war came in 1939 - 1940. Hitler figured that, as Turkey had been allied to Germany in World War I it would be allied again in World War II. Actually Kemal (and Ismet) were less than enchanted by such an idea. Kemal made his reputation as a great military hero by his leadership against the British at Gallipoli. While the German commander Liman Von Sanders, took kudos for much of the triumph there, Kemal fumed at this - he knew that Von Sanders made several severe blunders that cost Turkish lives, and that he looked at the Turks as cannon fodder. Kemal was determined that no Turk would die for Germany again. Ismet swore the same thing.
It is for this reason that Turkey is neutral from 1939 to 1945 (as De Velera's Eire was also neutral). This meant that the embassies of all the major powers were active in Ankara during the war, and that much spy activity was going on there as a result. Hollywood did take notice of it twice (as far as I can recall) - in 1943 when Warner Brothers made a film of Eric Ambler's 1940 novel BACKGROUND TO DANGER about a German plot to force Turkey into the war as an Axis ally (Sidney Greenstreet as the Nazi agent against George Raft as the American one), and the 1942 film JOURNEY INTO FEAR, where German agents are after an American engineer (Joseph Cotton) who has been arming Turkish ships. That too was from an Eric Ambler novel.
With this as the background, you can suddenly understand the story of "Operation Cicero". Ulysses Diello (James Mason) in the film (his real name was Bazna) is personal valet to the British Ambassador to Turkey (Walter Hampden). But he is gifted spy, and has proof of it which he takes to the German embassy's espionage chief Moyzisch (Oskar Karlweis). Actually the information by itself would not unduly impress Moyzisch (it could be a plant for all that), but Diello opens the embassy safe while Moyzisch is out of the room. He knows that in Germany, since 1933, Hitler's birthday or his date of coming to power are the universal combinations favored in government organizations for their safes.
The pieces of information that Cicero (the code name for Mason) checks out - although there is always a lingering sense of doubt by Moyzisch's higher ups in German intelligence. They continue paying Mason in British pounds (he may give them the information, but Mason has little faith the Germans are going to win the war). In the meantime the leak has been noticed by British intelligence, which sends Michael Rennie to investigate. Soon he begins to concentrate on Mason. Mason feels he still can carry on his espionage business. However Mason has started romancing a Countess (Danielle Darrieux) whom he once knew as a servant. She may be playing him for a sucker - but even if she is, he is determined to carry off the greatest espionage coup of all time. He is aware of some large scale Allied invasion being planned - and a copy of the plans is at the British embassy.
The film shows what actually happened. He did get the information regarding "Operation Overlord" and sold it to the Germans. And their subsequent use of this masterstroke demonstrated again how smart Cicero was in judging German "intelligence". It is an exciting spy thriller, and (on the whole) factual. Mason, Rennie, Darrieux, Hampden give pretty good accounts for themselves in this film, and Joseph Mankiewicz' script and direction are excellent. A highly worthy film to be seen.
Kemal was lucky that he had a keen lieutenant and successor named Ismet Inonu. Ismet was as determined to continue Kemal's goals after his friend's death in 1938. One goal that both of them had discussed and agreed upon was that Turkey was not going to be pulled into any further nonsense that it could not afford to get involved in. This meant that if there was any major war hitting Europe again (and both Kemal and Ismet fully knew one was on the way after 1933) Turkey was going to be neutral. This was, on the surface, surprising and disappointing to the Axis when war came in 1939 - 1940. Hitler figured that, as Turkey had been allied to Germany in World War I it would be allied again in World War II. Actually Kemal (and Ismet) were less than enchanted by such an idea. Kemal made his reputation as a great military hero by his leadership against the British at Gallipoli. While the German commander Liman Von Sanders, took kudos for much of the triumph there, Kemal fumed at this - he knew that Von Sanders made several severe blunders that cost Turkish lives, and that he looked at the Turks as cannon fodder. Kemal was determined that no Turk would die for Germany again. Ismet swore the same thing.
It is for this reason that Turkey is neutral from 1939 to 1945 (as De Velera's Eire was also neutral). This meant that the embassies of all the major powers were active in Ankara during the war, and that much spy activity was going on there as a result. Hollywood did take notice of it twice (as far as I can recall) - in 1943 when Warner Brothers made a film of Eric Ambler's 1940 novel BACKGROUND TO DANGER about a German plot to force Turkey into the war as an Axis ally (Sidney Greenstreet as the Nazi agent against George Raft as the American one), and the 1942 film JOURNEY INTO FEAR, where German agents are after an American engineer (Joseph Cotton) who has been arming Turkish ships. That too was from an Eric Ambler novel.
With this as the background, you can suddenly understand the story of "Operation Cicero". Ulysses Diello (James Mason) in the film (his real name was Bazna) is personal valet to the British Ambassador to Turkey (Walter Hampden). But he is gifted spy, and has proof of it which he takes to the German embassy's espionage chief Moyzisch (Oskar Karlweis). Actually the information by itself would not unduly impress Moyzisch (it could be a plant for all that), but Diello opens the embassy safe while Moyzisch is out of the room. He knows that in Germany, since 1933, Hitler's birthday or his date of coming to power are the universal combinations favored in government organizations for their safes.
The pieces of information that Cicero (the code name for Mason) checks out - although there is always a lingering sense of doubt by Moyzisch's higher ups in German intelligence. They continue paying Mason in British pounds (he may give them the information, but Mason has little faith the Germans are going to win the war). In the meantime the leak has been noticed by British intelligence, which sends Michael Rennie to investigate. Soon he begins to concentrate on Mason. Mason feels he still can carry on his espionage business. However Mason has started romancing a Countess (Danielle Darrieux) whom he once knew as a servant. She may be playing him for a sucker - but even if she is, he is determined to carry off the greatest espionage coup of all time. He is aware of some large scale Allied invasion being planned - and a copy of the plans is at the British embassy.
The film shows what actually happened. He did get the information regarding "Operation Overlord" and sold it to the Germans. And their subsequent use of this masterstroke demonstrated again how smart Cicero was in judging German "intelligence". It is an exciting spy thriller, and (on the whole) factual. Mason, Rennie, Darrieux, Hampden give pretty good accounts for themselves in this film, and Joseph Mankiewicz' script and direction are excellent. A highly worthy film to be seen.