The Scarlet Coat

The Scarlet Coat is an Eastmancolor CinemaScope 1955 American historical drama and swashbuckler directed by John Sturges, based upon the events in the American Revolution in which Benedict Arnold offered to surrender the fort at West Point to the British in exchange for money.

In 1780, General Benedict Arnold commands the Continental Army defences at West Point, New York. Major John Bolton Cornel Wilde, a dragoon officer assigned to counterintelligence, intercepts and kills a British spy leaving the Storm King Tavern, and captures a letter found on the spy. He reports to Gen. Robert Howe John McIntire, that the coded message was from the British spy calling himself Gustavus to James Osborn, in care of Dr. Jonathan Odell b of New York, stating that Arnold has taken command at West Point. The secret knowledge indicates that the spy is a highly placed person. Bolton returns to the tavern, where one of his contacts, stableboy Ben Potter Bobby Driscoll, tells him that the Tory wife of a redcoat, Mrs. Sally Cameron Anne Francis, is travelling under a flag of truce possibly carrying information to the enemy. She catches them searching her room, where Bolton takes her safe conduct pass after verbally sparring with her. Mrs. Cameron tries to seduce Bolton to obtain its return, but he rebuffs her. A messenger arrives with a package for Mr. Moody, but when no one by that name can be found, another traveler, Col. Winfield, c offers to deliver the package. Bolton recognizes that Winfield is an imposter, and in a struggle over the package, kills him. Other American officers arrest Bolton for murder and deliver him to Howe.A pass through the lines found hidden in Winfields boot reveals that the impostor was actually Moody, a spy, who had another coded letter from Gustavus to Osborn in his possession. The package, a ream of blank paper, concealed a message from Osborn written in invisible ink requesting an urgent meeting to finalize an unknown arrangement. Howe proposes that Bolton feign desertion to the British. Bolton agrees, aware that he could be hanged if the British discover his mission. With Moodys pass, Bolton passes through the British lines, but the British lieutenant on duty recognizes that he is not the same man who previously used the pas

Source: Wikipedia