RUE MADELEINE (13 ) Movie Review

1946 Henry Hathaway

Like O.S.S., this early wartime thriller contains the seeds of the spy films, both serious and frivolous, that would become so hugely popular in the 1960s. To viewers who are familiar with those movies, it is an exercise in unexpected nostalgia that carefully explains the plot devices which have become accepted conventions of the genre. A ponderous introduction even goes so far as to state that Americans are decent, fair-minded people who must learn to become much more ruthless if they are to beat the Germans, who have been conniving liars for generations. The film seldom varies from that naive tone.

The subject is the establishment of an Army Intelligence operation to place several agents in Europe immediately before D-Day. Bob Sharkey (James Cagney) is the boss of the operation. He's well into the outfit's training when he learns that one of his recruits is actually a double agent for the Nazis. He suspects that it's Bill O'Connell (Richard Conte). Rather than unmask the traitor, his superiors want him to plant false information about an Allied invasion of the Low Countries and send O'Connell into the field. Their plan goes awry and Sharkey winds up parachuting behind enemy lines to repair the damage.

A year before in 1945, director Henry Hathaway had made the pseudo-documentary House on 92nd St. and so he's familiar with the landscape of espionage. But that film was set in America. The important part of this one takes place in occupied France and is more concerned with daily life under Nazi rule. The various scenes of individual heroics are kept to a fairly realistic level, and Cagney has a terrific fight scene. The performances are fine throughout, with many familiar faces—E.G. Marshall, Red Buttons, Karl Malden—(all then impossibly young) appearing in the supporting cast.

For all the film's seriousness, though, time has rendered some scenes unintentionally comedic. The most striking of those occurs when the Chief of British Intelligence deliberately sets the chain lock on the door of his office before he brings out the maps labeled “Top Secret Plans” in bold letters. It's a moment worthy of TV's Get Smart, but to judge the film by that scene is unfair, particularly in light of the strong, unexpected conclusion. Hathaway took considerable care in his choice of locations—Boston for London, Montreal for Paris, Washington, D.C. for itself—to create an atmosphere of authenticity that's often lacking in films of the mid-'40s.

13 Rue Madeleine is worth watching for Cagney if for nothing else. Fans of the genre will notice how neatly it fits in between the adventurous 39 Steps and the disillusioned Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Cast: James Cagney (Bob Sharkey), Annabella (Suzanne de Bouchard), Richard Conte (Bill O'Connell), Frank Latimore (Jeff Lassiter), Walter Abel (Charles Gibson), Sam Jaffe (Mayor Galimard), Melville Cooper (Pappy Simpson), E.G. Marshall (Emile), Karl Malden (Flight Sergeant), Red Buttons (Dispatcher), Blanche Yurka (Mme. Thillot), Peter Von Zerneck (Karl), Marcel Rousseau (Duclois), Dick Gordon (Psychiatrist), Alfred Linder (Hans Feinkl); Written by: Sy Bartlett, John Monks Jr.; Cinematography by: Norbert Brodine; Music by: David Buttolph. Producer: Warner Brothers, Louis de Rochement. Running Time: 95 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta.