Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds isn't a film well known for its historical accuracy - after all, it SPOILERS ends with a couple of Jewish Nazi hunters gunning down Adolf Hitler in a French movie theatre - but one part of the film that particularly stretches credibility is Diane Kruger's character. Surely the glamorous German film star, Bridget von Hammersmark, who operates as a Nazi propaganda actor but is actually a double agent feeding information back to the British, is simply a creation of QT's dangerous obsession with movies? And feet? Well, we can't speak to the latter, but the former isn't nearly as ridiculous as you'd think. Step forward Marlene Dietrich, jewel of the silent cinema era and secret agent. Whilst she's better known for her early film appearances, post-war move to Hollywood and decades spent as a stage performer around the world, Dietrich did have a period where she helped bring down Hitler. In fact she was involved in a plot not unlike that of the Inglourious Basterds, at one point planning to seduce and then murder the fuhrer with the help of her lover, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. That's more rumour, but what's fact is her time spent as a volunteer for the OSS, in between entertaining troops on the front lines and broadcasting nostalgic songs as propaganda to battle-weary German troops.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
