Betrayed (1954 film)

Colonel Pieter Deventer is an intelligence agent of the exiled Dutch government, working to liberate his homeland from Nazi occupiers during World War II. He is discovered by a German signals operation targeting him and captured while making his final broadcast.

He is courted by the top German officer involved, also a colonel, who tries to entice him to become a double agent. As the two play cat and mouse over the prospect, a raid is mounted on the strongpoint by a Dutch resistance force, led by a flamboyant leader known as "The Scarf". Deventer is freed and kept in hiding by the Scarf.

The Nazis execute three prominent local Dutch figures in retaliation, and Deventer escapes successfully to England. He divides his time between secret missions in the Netherlands and trips back to England to consult his superiors and a British general. While in England he is ordered to keep an eye on Carla Van Oven, a beautiful socialite whose wealthy older husband was one of the three slain hostages. For some time she has been suspected of collaborating with the Germans.

Van Oven is recruited into the Dutch underground by Deventer on behalf of the British, and the pair fall in love. As agent "Fran Saylors", she is assigned to use her feminine charms to gain the confidence of Nazi officers and gather information. Soon a Nazi favorite, she is entertaining a gathering of officers at a lavish dinner party when the Scarf and his men stage a deadly raid.

The pair grow close, and the Scarf takes her to meet his beloved mother. He is shocked and appalled to find she has had her hair shaved off for collaborating with the Nazis.

Previously fiercely independent, he acquiesces to operating under British control, with Van Oven as liaison. Within the next few weeks, however, a considerable number of underground operatives are captured and killed when ambushed during sabotage missions.

Van Oven is identified as the prime suspect for being a traitor to the resistance cause. This weighs on Deventer's heart, who recognizes he must eliminate her.

Ultimately, Allied troops and the local resistance begin to turn the tide against the Nazis. Deventer arrives at the Scarf's secret hideaway and learns that he has been wounded in an exchange, captured, and taken to a German field hospital behind the lines. He places Van Oven under arrest, pending her execution for treason. Meanwhile, suspicious, Deventer lays a trap for the Scarf. He rescues him from the Germans, then tricks him into revealing his duplicity in a gambit proposed to rescue British soldier trapped at Arnheim. Outed, the Scarf is shot dead while trying to escape. Van Oven, who had been liberated through Deventer's ruse, turns up safe with the escaped British troops, and the two lovers are reunited.

The film was initially titled as The True and the Brave, with Kirk Douglas mentioned as a possible star.^[3] Richard Widmark was at one time considered for the part played by Victor Mature.^[4] Ava Gardner was to play the female lead, but was eventually replaced by Lana Turner.^[5]

Filming took place in late 1953 and early 1954, on location in Holland and England.^[6] Some shooting took place around Maastricht in Limburg. The interiors were shot at MGM's Elstree Studios near London.^[7] The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Junge.

It was the final film Gable made for MGM under his contract, which ended in March 1954.^[8] His next two films were released by 20th Century Fox.