Top Secret Affair

Top Secret Affair is a 1957 romantic comedy film made by Carrollton Inc. and distributed by Warner Bros. that starred Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas. It was directed by H.C. Potter and produced by Martin Rackin and Milton Sperling from a screenplay by Roland Kibbee and Allan Scott. The story is very loosely adapted from the 1951 novel Melville Goodwin, U.S.A. by John P. Marquand, which had previously been adapted in 1952 for television's "Pulitzer Prize Playhouse." Hollywood avoided filming the novel for years because of its touchy subject matter: a married general's affair with a wealthy journalist. The screenwriters finally wound up rewriting the plot. The names of the two characters—Melville Goodwin and Dottie Peale—were retained, but both were made single. The film's credits state that it is "based on characters" in Marquand's book, rather than on the book itself. The music score was by Roy Webb, the cinematography by Stanley Cortez and costume design by Charles LeMaire. The film co-stars Paul Stewart and Jim Backus. The original leads were to be Humphrey Bogart and wife Lauren Bacall, and they were filmed doing a wardrobe test in 1956. But Bogart's illness forced his withdrawal from the project, and Bacall opted to remain at home to care for him until his death in 1957.