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13 Rue Madeleine
1947 Action / Drama / Thriller / War
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Credits
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Director: Henry Hathaway
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Script: John Monks Jr., Sy Bartlett
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Photo: Norbert Brodine
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Music: David Buttolph
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Cast: James Cagney (Bob Sharkey),
Annabella (Suzanne de Beaumont),
Richard Conte (Bill O'Connell),
Frank Latimore (Jeff Lassiter),
Walter Abel (Charles Gibson),
Melville Cooper (Pappy Simpson),
Sam Jaffe (Mayor Galimard),
Leslie Barrie (Instructor),
Roland Belanger (Joseph),
Martin Brandt (German Officer),
Frederic Brunn (German Officer),
Red Buttons (Second Jump Master),
Charles D. Campbell (Instructor),
Edward Cooper (RAF Officer),
Frank Ferreira (Capt. Ferrar),
Blanche Yurka (Mme Thillot)
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Country: USA
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Language: French / English
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Runtime: 95 min; B&W
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Summary
During the later years of WWII, Bob Sharkey has the job of training
spies in the American Strategic Services. His boss informs him
that one of his latest recruits, Bill O'Connell, is a Nazi agent.
The plan is to allow O'Connell to take part in a bogus mission, so that
he will feed false information to the Germans ahead of an allied
invasion. When one of his agents is killed by O'Connell,
Sharkey decides to take his place, accompanied by another of his
students, Suzanne de Beaumont. Their mission: to capture Duclois,
the French scientist who is assisting the Germans in building V2 launch
bases along the Normandy coastline. They succeed, but
Sharkey is captured and faces interrogation at the feared Gestapo
headquarters, 13 rue Madeleine, Le Havre...
Review
13 Rue Madeleine is an
informative documentary-style drama that was intended to promote the
wartime exploits of the Office of Strategic Services (which became the
CIA in 1947). It followed a similar style of film made by
the same production team on a similar subject, The House on 92nd Street
(1945). Despite its propaganda angle, which is apparent in its
laboured voice-over introduction, it is a surprisingly bleak film and
gives a chillingly realistic portrayal of what many service personnel
experienced during the war.
It is to be regretted that the characterisation and dialogue are
generally pretty weak, but the performances just about make up for
that. James Cagney ought to be implausible in his part of a spy
instructor, but he somehow manages to pull it off - it’s not his best
performance, but he strikes the right balance between charm, tough guy bravado
and compassion. 13 Rue
Madeleine has something of the character of Henry Hathaway’s
better film noir dramas - a sense of brooding menace and highly tense
situations, punctuated by some moments of abject darkness.
© James Travers 2008
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