20 Things You Didn't Know About Inglourious Basterds
9. The Dietrich Connection
The character of Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) is that of a classic spy - someone hiding in plain sight and they don't come plainer than this: she's a German movie star.
Von Hammersmark is the Basterds contact and their way into the film premiere where the Nazi high command are about to go out in a blaze of glory, just not the way they think.
She is loosely based on the real life exploits of German actress Marlene Dietrich, someone of great interest to both the Nazi and Allied governments alike.
In 2002, The Guardian ran a story about newly released FBI files that show Dietrich was indeed helping the US government.
Her role asspecial service contact involved "collecting observations about subversive activities in Europe" while on trips to the front to entertain the troops. It is not entirely clear what this involved or what information, if any, Dietrich gave to the FBI: part of her file was destroyed in 1980, 12 years before she died.