Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Filmed with the co-operation of the U.S. Army Intelligence and initially with the co-operation of Major-General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, commander of the Office of Strategic Services. This latter co-operation was withdrawn when Donovan complained of inaccuracies in the finished film, particularly as regards O.S.S.'s relationship with other branches of Allied Intelligence.Copyright 15 January 1947 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 15 January 1947. U.S. release: January 1947. U.K. release: 20 January 1947. Australian release: 22 May 1947. 8,572 feet. 95 minutes.SYNOPSIS: This is a semi-documentary tale of the careers of four American espionage agents from induction to fulfilment of their mission overseas. The agents featured are: Bob Sharkey, a world-traveler and adventurer; Suzanne de Bouchard, a Frenchwoman; Jeff Lassiter, a high-school teacher; and Bill O'Connell, an American university graduate who has lived abroad.The major portion of the mission assigned to the quartet is to locate a German rocket-bomb launching site in France so that the Air Corps can bomb it before D-Day. To make things more intriguing, one of their own group is a German agent.COMMENT: "In order to gain the maximum of realism and authenticity, all exteriors and interiors in this motion picture were photographed in the field, wherever possible at the actual locations." So runs the Foreword to this superbly exciting semi-documentary in which a great cast (including Karl Malden as a pilot and Roland Winters as the chief of Dutch Intelligence) are allowed full rein by that master of action directors, Henry Hathaway.The creditable and credible script does deal with the moral aspects of secret service ("Put away all sense of decency and fair play. You must be completely ruthless, prepared and willing to use any means to obtain and transmit information"), though the immorality is chiefly practiced by the German agent and the censor has not allowed this aspect to be discussed as fully as it might.The screenwriters have selected a really gripping story from O.S.S. files. Excellent playing by actors who know their craft can be marked down as a consistent feature of Hathaway's direction. Another, but perhaps less welcome Hathaway characteristic, however, is the continuous violence which proves to be an integral element of the plot.

A truly remarkable film for its' time when WW2 was still yesterday's news and its' grim realities were still universally accepted. You wonder if today's audiences would be prepared to accept the extreme subterfuge, moral ambiguities and agonising judgement calls such a conflict would demand? Should they simply arrest the Nazi agent or use him to feed false information to the Germans about the liberation of Europe even if this means endangering the other agents working alongside him? Should the French resistance fighters trust Cagney's character in his claim to be an Allied agent or simply execute him as a quisling? How far should they go in collaborating with the Germans to maintain their cover against helping the Allies? To judge by some of the controversy surrounding the 'War on Terror' I would venture no?James Cagney is excellent here, probably happy to ditch his gangster persona and be able to demonstrate his martial arts prowess as a judo black belt during the training sequences. Of the supporting cast the Nazi agent is very good, really convincing you by his ingenuity in the theft exercise sequence, maybe they should have left his real identity a mystery until later in the film? The clean cut all American boy by contrast is unceremoniously killed off-screen, plummeting to his death due to a sabotaged parachute line, in a lesser film he would have been the hero but the cynical message here is that his sort of naivety is fatal as is the romantic attachment of the French agent to her missing husband (you really suspected her of being the Nazi spy, blackmailed by threats to him into working for them).The training sequences at the OSS are very realistic and whilst they may seem clichéd now you must remember they must have been a revelation to the audiences of 1947 (as the intro explains the OSS was a revolutionary departure for the US intelligence services, achingly liberal America hugely reluctant to create the same sort of spy agency as other countries, it taking Pearl Harbour to jar the wider population from their complacency and understand the necessity).Very ruthless for its' time, Cagney gives a big speech about how the Queensberry rules are out the window and that this is a fight to the finish. When he is later captured (his enemy prying the suicide pill from his hand) his erstwhile pupil reminds him of that speech as he is tortured. Cagney practices what he preaches, even killing men with his bare hands and later ends up being killed by his own side just to shut him up. EVERYONE dies, even the heroine which must have been very rare at the time.So all told a realistic and impressively accurate representation of what the OSS got up to during WW2.

I enjoyed this film from beginning to end. Terrific performances all around. Just a couple of things, though.Cagney is supposed to be, among other things, a former world-class athlete and World War 1 hero. World War 1? OK, he was the right age, but by the time this film was released (1947), Cagney was 47-48, which would have been all right if he hadn't been short and fat and looking about 10 years older. Although he was athletic and light on his feet. his portliness and apparent age were a distraction throughout this film. So was his early 20th century Irish Yorkville accent (NYC), which he never lost (You dirty rat!!!). And he was supposed to be from Minnesota!And although Richard Conte also turned in a superb performance (in my opinion, superior to Cagney's), he never lost his Jersey City way of speaking (which, believe me, is far more attractive than today's Jersey City accent).Other than that, no complaints. Excellent film.

James Cagney stars in "13 Rue Madeleine," a routine WW II spy drama also starring Richard Conte, Annabella, and a several familiar faces in smaller roles: Sam Jaffe, Karl Malden, and E.G. Marshall. Done in semidocumentary style, Cagney plays the head of a U.S. spy cell, but the cell is known to have a Nazi in its midst. He is not eliminated so that he can be fed the wrong date for D-Day. When he kills one of the other spies, Cagney has to go in as a replacement.Despite some nice performances, notably from Cagney and Conte, the film under Henry Hathaway's direction was quite slow; he was lumbered with a script where it was difficult to develop any feelings for most of the characters, as they were underdeveloped. There were some good scenes, particularly the ones with Jaffe's character and the French resistance. Darryl F. Zanuck brought the pretty, petite Annabella over from France to star her in films, unaware that she would fall in love with his top male star, Tyrone Power. When he tried to discourage the relationship by sending her back to France to do some films, she refused to leave her man, thus finishing her as far as Zanuck was concerned. It's a shame because although you can't tell in this movie, Annabella was an excellent actress, as she would prove on the stage. It's fun to see Karl Malden and E.G. Marshall in small parts.The end of the film is powerful, but I prefer "OSS," also a small, semidocumentary film - catch that one if you have a chance.