Mike Burke eventually ran Ringling Brothers and then the New York Yankees. He eventually moved to his beloved Ireland where he died as I recall. Whether or not his character was in some way a model for Charlton Heston in "The Greatest Show on Earth" I know not, but he WAS the advisor for this film having been an OSS secret agent during World War Two, and this is supposedly based on his experiences. He is mentioned in the credits. Gary Cooper is his usual fine self as a professor recruited to infiltrate Europe and convince a nuclear physicist friend to defect. His adventures are a little hard to take for a mere professor but with Cooper it always works. NOTE: Marc Lawrence is fabulous as the Ovra (Italian Gestapo) agent Luigi. The hand to hand fight he has with Cooper is one of the best, most vicious, and most realistic ever filmed. It's too bad Lawrence got blacklisted during the Fifties. But catch this movie when you can.
Review of Cloak and Dagger
