howardmorley In the final scene I found myself saying out loud James Cagney's above quoted title phrase from "White Heat".Yet again the producers elected for the lowest common denominator of making the actors, whether playing German or French, only speak in English to each other so that largely American audiences could understand the action.Darryl F Zanuck showed the correct method of producing realistic WW11 films with his 1962 film "The Longest Day" when Germans only spoke in German, French only spoke in French to each other but with English sub-titles, thus providing a more realistic and intelligent dialogue.The beginning held my attention but when the action moved to France and even the Resistance and Gestapo spoke in English to each other the film rapidly reduced itself to farce.I can never understand why American film producers insist on an English only script.America with all its immigrants, must surely have had in 1946 representation of both German and French speaking actors in its ranks.Even Tyrone Power made an effort speaking French in "The Razors Edge" and his co star Gene Tierney made herself almost fluent in the language.Another factual error was that the location of the D-day landing on 6/6/44 was only known to a very few of the allied high command.For this reason I could only vote it average at 5/10.

morrison-dylan-fan With Christmas coming up,I started to search round on Amazon UK for a James Cagney DVD that I could give as a present.Being interested in going for a lesser-known film of Cagney's,I was pleased to stumble upon an espionage title starring Cagney,which led to getting ready to see Cagney spy at 13 Rue Madeleine.The plot:Desperate to infiltrate the Nazis activities,the US government sets up a new war-time spy agency,whose goal is to go behind enemy lines,and to spy on the Nazis.As he begins training his latest group of would-be spies,Bob Sharkey is told that one of his students is actually an undercover Nazi spy.Standing out from the pack, Sharkey's suspicions instantly turn to a student called Bill O'Connell,due to O'Connell showing a surprising level of espionage skills,despite having only had a weeks' worth of training.Asking his superior's about O'Connell being arrested,Sharkey is told that he must feed O'Connell false info,due to there being info about O'Connell being linked to the Nazi- occupation of France.Sniffing out the lies just before he and his fellow spies are dropped in France,O'Connell kills one of the agents via cutting his parachute,and then jumps safely to the ground himself.Horrified about what O'Connell has done to one of his students,Sharkey decides that he must go behind enemy lines,and get hold of O'Connell. View on the film:Getting quickly re-written thanks to the US government banning any movie from mentioning the pre-CIA OSS,and the real life Sharkey (William Donovan) not being too happy over the film showing a Nazi spy infiltrating the agency,the opening 30 minutes of John Monks Jr. and Sy Bartlett's screenplay builds up a real steam of tension,as Sharkey finds himself unable to stop O'Connell from delving deeper into the agency's roots.As O'Connell drops from the sky,the writer's sadly fail to keep the tense atmosphere building,due to O'Connell being left off-screen for the next 50 minutes,which leads to the dangerous mood between O'Connell and Sharkey only being revived for the films wonderful bleak ending.Despite not filming in the real locations which the opening credits state, (with Quebec locations being used for the films US/French settings)director Henry Hathaway shows a great skill at releasing a nervous energy,with Hathaway using tightly coiled shots to show the raging paranoia which has taken over the resistance fighters of France.Showing some of his excellent Judo skills in the opening scenes,James Cagney gives a very good performance as Sharkey,with Cagney slowly revealing Sharkey's revenge-fuelled sorrow.Taking on Cagney, Richard Conte gives a brilliant,ruthless performance as Bill O'Connell,with Conte showing a real ruthless bite,as O'Connell begins to reveal all the info that he's gotten from the US,in 13 Rue Madeleine.

LCShackley The weakness of this film is that it hesitates between being a gung-ho patriotic documentary about our wonderful secret service, and being an actual spy/adventure film. The first 25 minutes is pure exposition, in the most dreary and pedestrian fashion. (Who really wants to watch recruits fill out forms and do exercises?) A good, taut spy thriller would have condensed that into five minutes of set-up and then let the action begin.There are plenty of good moments once the characters arrive in Europe and the plot begins to roll, but it all happens too late. There are other weaknesses as well, like Sam Jaffe's lame French accent, or the all-too-abrupt ending.Besides Cagney's usual captivating performance, there are three near-debuts by men who were on the cusp of stardom: Red Buttons, Karl Malden, and E. G. Marshall, for whom this was their 2nd or 3rd film role. Don't blink or you'll miss them.I wonder how this film would play in today's anti-spy environment in the USA. The media and the left do all they can to make us despise and suspect our undercover operatives. Audiences in 1946 would have been expected to cheer these mavericks who, according to Cagney, were supposed to throw their morality out the window in order to accomplish their goals.

fbshello Two actors that were left off the cast list on the web page and who later on became famous actors in their own right is Karl Malden (Streetcar Named Desire), and E.G. Marshall who I don't think spoke a word during this movie. Malden, who was known for his role on TV's the "Streets of San Francisco played the crew chief on the aircraft used to parachute the OSS agents into France. I think he asked them if they'd like some hot coffee which they refused. E.G. Marshall played one of the French resistance men. Marshall played with hundreds of well known actors in his day and even had a well known TV program (The Defenders) in which he played a lawyer. I also remember him playing an old Senator opposite Clint Eastwood in "Absolute Power". They should be added to the cast and cross-referenced to their own web page.