thefinalcredits
'Fair play? That's out. Years of decency and honest living? Forget all about them...Because the enemy can forget, and has.'One of a small number of movies appearing in the immediate post-war years, made in tribute to the wartime activities of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). However, in this instance, when its former head, William Donovan, learned that Cagney was to play a character largely based on him, and that the proposed story-line had the unit infiltrated by an enemy agent, the producers were forced to rename the group 'O77' and ensure the main protagonist bore no similarity to him. Instead, Cagney's character of Bob Sharkey was loosely modeled on the exploits of the film's technical adviser, Peter Ortiz, a former OSS operative, who himself had parachuted into France in August 1944 and been captured by the Nazis. It is hard to imagine Rex Harrison, who thankfully turned down the role, portraying this athletic and dynamic former agent tasked with training agents to be sent into occupied territories and in wrong- footing the mole in their ranks. Whereas Cagney, who at one time was the top Caucasian Judo black belt in the country, brought a touch of realism to the physical training and one-on-one combat. In this he is aided by the stalwart directorial presence of ever-reliable Henry Hathaway. Yet, it is Richard Conte, as the Nazi mole to whom Sharkey has to feed misinformation about Allied invasion plans, who upstages all others. With regards to the rest of the principal members of the cast, Frank Latimore, a second-tier leading man of 20th Century Fox in the forties, offers one of his more creditable performances as the wide-eyed and ill-fated recruit who unwittingly befriends, and falls victim to the Nazi infiltrator. Despite a couple of such able appearances, he struggled to gain recognition in Hollywood, confining the majority of his career to Spanish and Italian swashbucklers. Equally noteworthy is the presence of French actress, and wife of Tyrone Power, Annabella, in what would be her final Hollywood venture. No mere defenceless female stereotype of the movies of the time, her French wife, seeking answers to her missing husband's fate, endures the rigorous training regime, and parachutes into enemy territory alongside her male companions. Indeed, her character's end, courageously operating her radio-set to safeguard the mission whilst under heavy fire, is an early indication that this bleak story-line would break with conventional expectations in not supplying a happy ending. Finally, in one of his less celebrated roles, Sam Jaffe adroitly portrays the Normandy mayor desperately warning his citizens of Nazi reprisals while secretly acting as head of the local Resistance fighters. As for Cagney himself he provides his charismatic presence, and despite his incongruous appearance in trying to pass himself off as a Vichy civil servant, largely convinces. It is his entry into the action, parachuting into occupied France to prevent the unveiling of his team's true mission which marks the film's turning point. The major flaw of the production is its mock documentary style which makes the first third of the movie sluggish. The same team of writer, producer, and director had enjoyed great commercial success with the same format for the previous year's 'The House on 92nd Street'. Indeed, producer, Louis de Rochemont, had made his reputation and been garlanded by the Academy for his work in documentaries, especially those unveiling the evils of the Nazi regime in the mid- 30s. Though not Cagney's typical vehicle, there is still room for his trademark sneer as he and his interrogators realise that Sharkey's superiors are prepared to sacrifice their man with an aerial bombardment of the local SS headquarters - the address of the title.
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.
jpdoherty
20 Century Fox's 13 RUE MADELEINE (1947) is not only a well liked Hollywood Noir but is an excellent espionage thriller too. Produced by newsreel expert Louis de Rochemont for the studio it was flawlessly directed by the always reliable Henry Hathaway who had that same year just completed his brilliant "Kiss Of Death" - the picture that introduced Richard Widmark to audiences. 13 RUE MADELEINE had that distinctive documentary/newsreel style to it that de Rochemont had started to bring to films in 1945 with "The House On 92nd Street" and the splendid "Boomerang" which he produced just before MADELEINE. And to crisply shoot the picture, in brilliantly lit Monochrome, he retained his great Cinematographer Norbert Brodine as well as utilizing the same impressive voice of Reed Hadley (uncredited) to narrate the opening of the movie("What is past is prologue").James Cagney (on loan from Warners) is Bob Sharkey a director of training operations for 077 (pseudonym for O.S.S. - Office of Stratigic Services) agents of Secret Intelligence during WW2. Three of the trainees are chosen for a mission in occupied France. They must locate a German rocket launching site so it can be destroyed in a bombing raid by the Air Corps before D-Day. Things are going well until it is discovered that one of the three is a German agent who all along was a plant in the training school. Then - while on route to France -one of the group is murdered by the Nazi agent and with no time to train another it falls to Sharkey himself to fill the void and carry on with the mission.Cagney is terrific in it! He gives his usual finger-snapping performance with that cocky sure-footed persona that is ever appealing. Excellent too is the marvellous Sam Jaffe as a resistance leader and Richard Conte is very effective as the double agent. Unconvincing though is Frank Latimore as the ill-fated agent and Annabella's role is written out of the movie just that bit too early. Also watch out for E.G.Marshall (uncredited) as a Resistance fighter in what is only his second film appearance and Karl Malden (uncredited) as the plane's jump master in his third film part.A nice little war time thriller from a good screenplay by John Monks Jr. and Sy Bartlett that is well complimented with a score by David Buttolph which features a spirited patriotic march. The picture is also notable for being one of the first films to show an actor performing some Judo movements or Karate as we would refer to it today. 13 RUE MADELEINE has hardly dated at all and is worthy of a place in any collection.
JoeB131
This movie starts kind of slow, more of a documentary about the intelligence services than a drama.The plot is that Cagney is training a group of spies to help prepare for the landing in Europe. He discovers that one of his team is in fact a German spy, and they make the decision to use him in a disinformation campaign.Unfortunately, the spy catches on to the plan and kills the agent meant to keep an eye on him. This is where the plot actually starts to move, and Cagney parachutes into France to complete the mission.An interesting part in the beginning of the movie shows stock footage of Federal Agents rounding up German and Japanese citizens suspected of being spies. Today, we know that most of those people were innocent, but in 1947, this was still considered a good thing.
