The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2014 39 the motion picture, its casting and what makes it such an enduring portrait of the United States Foreign Service. Dramatis Personae Playing our Foreign Service hero, Ken Seeley, was the handsome WilliamLundigan (1914- 1975). While studying at Syracuse University Law School, he worked part-time as a radio announcer. A Universal Studios executive heard his voice, and signed him in 1937. His many pre- war screen credits included “Dodge City” (1939), “The Fighting 69th” (1940) and “The Sea Hawk” (1940). In “Santa Fe Trail,” also released in 1940, he joined Ronald Reagan in the cast. During the war, Lundigan enlisted and took his place behind, rather than in front of, the cam- era. He was a Marine Corps combat cameraman in the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa. Return- ing to Hollywood, he starred in “Pinky” (1949), “Love Nest” (1951), “The House on Telegraph Hill” (1951), “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain” (1951), “Inferno” (1953) andmany other movies. Like his friend Ronald Reagan, Lundigan leaned conservative in his politics. In the 1964 presidential campaign, he, Walter Brennan, Chill Wills and EfremZimbalist Jr. were a celebrity Hollywood foursome supporting the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, in his run against President Lyndon Johnson. Playing opposite Lundigan in our Foreign Service blockbuster was Virginia Bruce (1910-1982). As the more famous star, she received top billing. She had already played the title role in the 1934 version of “Jane Eyre,” and in 1936 she intro- duced the Cole Porter song, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” in “Born to Dance,” melting Jimmy Stewart’s heart. Her long list of other film masterpieces includes “The Mighty Barnum” (1934), “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) and “PardonMy Sarong” (1942), in which she starred with screen greats Abbott and Costello. Her performances in “Adventure inWashington” (1941), “Action in Arabia” (1944) and “Brazil” (1944) no doubt informed and shaped her work in “State Department File 649.” Other Hollywood deities appeared in the cast, as well. Jona- than Hale surely deserved a statuette for his best-ever portrayal of “the Director General.” Philip Ahn and Richard Loo were unjustly neglected at the Oscars as Best Oriental Heavies. And it’s inexpli- cable that the 1949 award for Actor with the Best Makeup did not go to the professional wrestler Henry “Bomber” Kulky, appearing as one of the Mongolian “bandits.” Story Line The filmopens with a stirring narrative introduction, referring to the Foreign Service as “unsung and unhonored heroes;” “the Silent Service that works under the most difficult and danger- ous conditions, which require tact, diplomacy and courage;” and “men and women who have given their health and their lives in obscurity,” often “tortured, maimed, stricken by disease, disaster and death.” I thought that Navy submariners were “The Silent Service,” but who am I to dispute such plain words of truth, so well deserved? From the platen of a scriptwriter, pure inspiration! The film’s nonpareil plot then follows Seeley (Lundigan) as he