13 Rue Madeleine

Starring:James Cagney, Annabella, Richard Conte, Frank Latimore, Walter Abel, Melville Cooper, Sam Jaffe, Alfred Linder, Arno Frey, Donald Randolph, Albert D'Arno, Dick Gordon, Coby Neal, Marcel Rousseau, Jean Del Val, Reginald Mason, Roland Belanger, Martin Brandt, Leslie Barrie, Ben Low
Director: Henry Hathaway
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

A neat World War II thriller, 13 Rue Madeleine benefits from the postwar craze for shooting outside the studio. With Quebec doubling for occupied France, this is a spy movie with a sense of open air. James Cagney plays an OSS agent, training his recruits for an important pre-D-Day mission. When one of them turns out to be a Nazi spy, Cagney must parachute into France himself and straighten things out. Director Henry Hathaway and producer Louis de Rochemont pioneered the docu-drama approach with The House on 92nd Street, and they again use newsreel footage and stentorian narrator here, blended into the fictional story. The script is slightly muddled, but there are a fistful of suspenseful situations and a gangbusters ending--as well as the typically wired-up Cagney, who is exactly the guy you want on your side if D-Day is hanging in the balance. --Robert Horton

Description

A group of allied agents working undercover in occupied Paris struggle to infiltrate German files in order to discover the location of a rocket launching site before the D-Day invasion. However, in their midst a traitor lurks.

Customer Reviews:

O.S.S.------ Early American Intelligence..............2007-04-07

Cagney brings to the screen early American Intelligence sorely needed by 1944....the British Secret Service and German Gestapo were masters of this undercover intel long before WW2 even started...I was impressed with Jimmy Cagney and Walter Abel in their roles; plus, the contributions of Frank Latimore; and of course, the beautiful French actress, Anabella...all in all a movie that keeps your attention throughout...Richard Conte was convincing in the role of a Nazi counter-spy...theater/goers of the time got their monies worth as well as you DVD buffs...the OSS was the brainchild of Col.[Wild Bill] Donovan of WW1 fame with the Fighting 69th NYC Regiment, realizing in the post/war years fast approaching the United States need for a world-wide surveillance and undercover network...13 Rue Madeleine was the harbinger for what you see now as the CIA and this Cagney flick puts it before the masses of the United States populace in 1947...it ranks up there as a darn good WW2 thriller....Semper Fi, SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

13 Rue Madeleine.......2006-07-17

This is a great James Cagney film. Many people should review this film and study its content. Mr. Cagney was a great actor, I would say a Reagon Conservative. The film typifies what this country of the U.S. should do in keeping certain intelligence programs secret instead of low ranking Government people working for these intelligence agencies blabing to the New York Times and other Left-Wing newspapers what this country is up to. This would not not have happened during World War 2.I remember when I was a Security Consultant at the Marine Maritime Institute in Baltimore, Md. there wasone slogan that indicated our need for the U.S. government employees to keep their mouths shut and that slogan is "Loose Lips Sink Ships". That is what this film is about and what the O.S.S. was all about. The U.S. is at war with Terrorism . We can win only if we keep our mouths shut.

Cagney driven WWII espionage drama.......2006-06-13

"!3 Rue Madeleine" a post war produced and somewhat over dramatized documentary style film directed by Henry Hathaway stars the venerable James Cagney as OSS agent Bob Sharkey. Cagney's character is a high ranking official in U.S. military intelligence who recruits a group of agents known as 077. Their dangerous mission involves insertion into Nazi occupied Europe to confuse the Germans as to the details of the looming D-day invasion of Europe.

Cagney and his superior Charles Gibson played by Walter Abel, are alerted to the presence of a Nazi spy within their midst posing as one of the 077 recruits. It is determined that Richard Conte playing Bill O'Connell alias Kuncel is the cunning German spy. They purposely fail to expose him, hoping to have him spread misinformation they've been feeding him.

The shrewd Conte to be inserted with 2 other operative in Holland gets suspicious and kills one of the agents. This will ultimately require Cagney to take his place.

Cagney drops into Vichy controlled France near Le Havre and with help from clandestine French Resistance leader and local mayor Galimard played by Sam Jaffe gets his plan organized. He unfortunately gets captured and is held in Le Havre Gestapo headquarters at 13 Rue Madeleine. He must keep his secrets in the face of merciless torture to preserve the mission.

60-minunte documentary, 30 minutes suspense.......2006-04-26

This is more of a documentary at times than a movie, but it's decent. It's not the normal exciting gangster fare than Cagney excelled in, but it's okay.

The first hour is a bit slow with the documentary style and then the last 35 minutes picks up considerably as the spy story is played out in dramatic fashion. Cagney was starting to show his age a bit but he still was pretty spry.

Richard Conte does a nice job as the German disguising himself as an American and eventually has a showdown with Cagney. That's in the suspenseful last 30 minutes which saves the film.

The past is prologue.......2005-07-08

We're in the middle of the Second World War, the Allies have decided on the location where they'll launch their massive invasion of Europe, and spies are battling spies to hide and discover the facts. Thank goodness we have Jimmy Cagney on our side.
Cagney plays the rough-and-tumble spy Bob Sharkey in Henry Hathaway's 13 RUE MADELEINE (1947), one of a number of motion pictures released shortly after the war that celebrated the exploits of America's nascent espionage organization, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services.) Although the movie ends in an exciting, if somewhat abrupt, scene behind enemy lines, a great deal of this movie takes place in what can probably best be described as a spy school. The movie begins with a rather extended montage of stock documentary film of London during wartime before gradually, and neatly, folding it into the movie proper. The first half of the movie concerns itself with the acceptance of a number of highly qualified candidates (including Annabella, Richard Conte and Frank Latimore), the rigorous training they undergo (Is that the brake of a train or a steam kettle you hear on the phonograph record?) and the discovery of a mole. A mole whom, of course, they leave in place so that the enemy can be fed disinformation and, hopefully, lead the good guys to the bad guys and their cache of rocket bombs in the Low Countries. Ah, spy movies! Especially spy movies where our spies are better than their spies.
As usual Cagney is convincing as the spy trainer who eventually is forced to take the field, and 13 RUE MADELEINE'S semi-documentary treatment works well. Hathaway takes enough of a gritty realist approach to make this one believable, even if his presentation of the infallibility of Cagney the Spy stretches credibility. The film is in good condition, and old film fans should look quick for Karl Malden and E.G. Marshall in bit roles.

Average customer rating:

O.S.S.------ Early American Intelligence.......
13 Rue Madeleine
Cagney driven WWII espionage drama
60-minunte documentary, 30 minutes suspense
The past is prologue

13 Rue Madeleine [Region 2]
Starring: James Cagney , Annabella , Richard Conte , Frank Latimore , and Walter Abel
Director: Henry Hathaway
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0001XLXGQ

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

O.S.S.------ Early American Intelligence..............2007-04-07

13 Rue Madeleine.......2006-07-17

Cagney driven WWII espionage drama.......2006-06-13

60-minunte documentary, 30 minutes suspense.......2006-04-26

The past is prologue.......2005-07-08

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