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Captain Carey, U.S.A.
''Captain Carey, U.S.A.'' is a 1950 American crime film, crime thriller film, thriller film noir directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Alan Ladd and Wanda Hendrix. An American returns to post–World War II Italy to bring a traitor to justice. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was based on the 1948 novel ''After Midnight (1948 novel), After Midnight'' by Martha Albrand. It was filmed under the title ''O.S.S.'' and then the title ''After Midnight''. The theme song, "Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole song), Mona Lisa", was first performed in the film by Sergio de Karlo and was a recurrent motif (music), motif throughout. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole song), a #1 hit for Nat King Cole in 1950. Plot A group of agents of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency) is sent to German-occupied Italy during World War II to knock out the German-he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitchell Leisen
James Mitchell Leisen (October 6, 1898 – October 28, 1972) was an American film director, director, art director, and costume designer. Film career He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments. He directed his first film in 1933 with ''Cradle Song (1933 film), Cradle Song'' and became known for his keen sense of aesthetics in the glossy Hollywood melodramas and screwball comedies he turned out. His best known films include Alberto Casella's adaptation of ''Death Takes a Holiday'' and ''Murder at the Vanities'', a musical mystery story (both 1934), as well as ''Midnight (1939 film), Midnight'' (1939) and ''Hold Back the Dawn'' (1941), both scripted by Billy Wilder. ''Easy Living (1937 film), Easy Living'' (1937), written by Preston Sturges and starring Jean Arthur, was another hit for the director, who also directed ''Remember the Night'' (1940), the last film written by Sturges before he started directing his scripts as well. ''Lad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole Song)
"Mona Lisa" is a popular song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the Paramount Pictures film ''Captain Carey, U.S.A.'' (1949), in which it was performed by Sergio de Karlo and a recurrent accordion motif. The title and lyrics refer to the renaissance portrait ''Mona Lisa'' painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1950. Nat King Cole version The song's first musical arrangement was in an orchestration by Nelson Riddle, and the orchestral backing was played by Les Baxter and his Orchestra. The recording was originally the B-side of "The Greatest Inventor Of Them All." In an ''American Songwriter'' magazine interview, Jay Livingston recalled that the original advertisements for the record did not even mention "Mona Lisa"; only upon returning home from a publicity junket of numerous radio programs did the song become a hit. The cover version by Nat King Cole spent five weeks at number one on the ''Billboard'' singles char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Celia Lovsky
Celia Lovsky (born Cäcilia Josefina Lvovsky, February 21, 1897 – October 12, 1979) was an Austrian-American actress. On the original ''Star Trek'' she played the Vulcan matriarch T'Pau, and on ''The Twilight Zone'' she played the aged daughter of an eternally youthful Hollywood actress. Early years Lovsky was born in Vienna, daughter of Břetislav Lvovsky, a minor Czech opera composer and his wife, Vallee, a cellist. She studied theater, dance, and languages at the Austrian Royal Academy of Arts and Music. Life and career Lovsky married journalist Heinrich Vinzenz Nowak in 1919. By 1925, they were apparently estranged and she was romantically involved with playwright Arthur Schnitzler. She later moved to Berlin, where she acted in the surrealist plays ''Dream Theater'' and ''Dream Play'' by Karl Kraus. There, in 1929, she met Peter Lorre, who had seen her in a production of Shakespeare's ''Othello'' near Vienna. The couple traveled to Paris, London, and the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Calleia
Joseph Calleia ( ; born Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja, August 4, 1897 – October 31, 1975) was a Maltese-born American actor and singer on the stage and in films, radio and television. After serving in the Merchant Navy (United Kingdom), British Transport Service during World War I, he travelled to the United States and began his career on the stage, initially in musical comedy, but later in original Broadway productions such as ''Broadway (play), Broadway'' (1926), ''The Front Page'' (1928), ''The Last Mile (play), The Last Mile'' (1930), and ''Grand Hotel'' (1930). Calleia became a star with the play ''Small Miracle'' (1934), his first real role as a villain, and he was put under contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Calleia excelled as the villain in Hollywood films, but he fought against typecasting and created a succession of darkly mysterious characters edged with humor in films such as ''Algiers (1938 film), Algiers'' (1938), ''Five Came Back'' (1939), ''G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nearly 1.4 million, while its Metropolitan City of Milan, metropolitan city has 3.2 million residents. Within Europe, Milan is the fourth-most-populous List of urban areas in the European Union, urban area of the EU with 6.17 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan) is estimated between 7.5 million and 8.2 million, making it by far the List of metropolitan areas of Italy, largest metropolitan area in Italy and List of metropolitan areas in Europe, one of the largest in the EU.* * * * Milan is the economic capital of Italy, one of the economic capitals of Europe and a global centre for business, fashion and finance. Milan is reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orta San Giulio
Orta San Giulio (Piedmontese and ) is a town and (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about northwest of Novara. It is one of ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). The town itself is built on a promontory which juts out from the eastern bank of Lake Orta close to San Giulio Island, an island which also falls within the municipal boundaries. The of Legro stands on the hill which rises behind the promontory, Corconio is some further south, and again away from the lake, while Imola consists of a small number of dwellings between the two, but close to the lake on the road leading to Gozzano. The municipality borders on Pettenasco to the north, Miasino and Ameno to the east, Bolzano Novarese and Gozzano to the south, and San Maurizio d'Opaglio and Pella to the west across the lake. It is well known for the nearby Sacro Monte, which is a site of pilgrimage and worship and, like the town its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land border, as well as List of islands of Italy, nearly 800 islands, notably Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares land borders with France to the west; Switzerland and Austria to the north; Slovenia to the east; and the two enclaves of Vatican City and San Marino. It is the List of European countries by area, tenth-largest country in Europe by area, covering , and the third-most populous member state of the European Union, with nearly 59 million inhabitants. Italy's capital and List of cities in Italy, largest city is Rome; other major cities include Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, and Venice. The history of Italy goes back to numerous List of ancient peoples of Italy, Italic peoples—notably including the ancient Romans, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and conducting covert operations. The agency is headquartered in the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia, and is sometimes metonymously called "Langley". A major member of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA has reported to the director of national intelligence since 2004, and is focused on providing intelligence for the president and the Cabinet. The CIA is headed by a director and is divided into various directorates, including a Directorate of Analysis and Directorate of Operations. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the CIA has no law enforcement function and focuses on intelligence gathering overseas, with only limited domestic intelligence collection. The CIA is responsibl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning. The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were shortly later resumed and carried over by its successors, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), the United States Department of State, Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the intermediary precursor to the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). On December 14, 2016, the organization was collectively honored with a Congressional Gold Medal. Origin Before the OSS, the various departments of the executive branch, including the United States Departm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop vocalist started in the late 1930s and spanned almost three decades where he found success and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. Cole started his career as a jazz pianist in the late 1930s, when he formed the King Cole Trio, which became the top-selling group (and the only black act) on Capitol Records in the 1940s. Cole's trio was the model for small jazz band, jazz ensembles that followed. Starting in 1950, he transitioned to become a solo singer billed as Nat King Cole. Despite achieving mainstream success, Cole faced intense racial discrimination during his career. While not a major vocal public figure in the civil rights movement, Cole was a member of his local NAACP branch and participated in the 1963 March ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award For Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed the best ''original'' song written specifically for a film. The performers of a song are not credited with the Academy Award unless they contributed either to music, lyrics, or both in their own right. The songs that are nominated for this award are typically performed during the ceremony and before this award is presented. The award category was introduced at the 7th Academy Awards, the ceremony honoring the best in film for 1934. Nominations are made by Academy members who are songwriters and composers, and the winners are chosen by the Academy membership as a whole. Fifteen songs are shortlisted before nominations are announced. Eligibility , the Academy's rules stipulate that "an original song consists of words and music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter best known for being a half of a composing-songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, specializing himself in writing lyrics for film songs. On music Livingston composed, Evans wrote the lyrics.Ray Evans papers, 1921-2012 Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, university of Pennsylvania. Biography Early life and family Ray Evans was born on February 4, 1915 to a family in Salamanca ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
