Tonight I actually watched a movie on dvd, procured from the Libe via their walkup service. Entitled "13 Rue Madeleine"(1946), it tells the story of an OSS mission into Occupied France, where intelligence agents will try to locate a German V-2 launching site and kidnap it's French designer. In the prologue narration, presented as docudrama, it is explained that the Germans are staking their final hopes on a concentrated V-2 attack against the English port of Southampton, from where they have surmised the Allied invasion will embark. For the record, the OSS was the precursor to the CIA, though I'm sure you knew that already.
James Cagney stars as "Bob Sharkey", a WW1 vet brought in as the OSS spy chief because of his experience in covert ops during that war. In keeping with the movie's quasi-historical tone, "Sharkey" is presented as a real person. It wasn't until I looked him up afterward that I saw he was fictional, but no matter; the character was doubtless based on an actual spymaster, and before delving into the plot, the narrator gives us some background on the formation of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and how their leaders were chosen. As the head of the French mission, Sharkey has to select just the right agents for the job, but like him, they're all newbies - there's never been such an agency before. And unlike Sharkey, the candidates are all much younger, soldiers with little to no wartime experience or even civilians; bright college students and even a female member of the French Resistance. After a series of rigorous exams and physical training, a final team is settled on. I should cut in here to mention that the training segment of the movie is fascinating, involving high-level memory and observational exercises. It looks like what they used to call a "study film" in school, because of the testing itself and the locations used, which the filmmakers say were the same as the real OSS sites.
In the story, the French infiltration is complicated by the discovery that one of the involved agents is a Nazi spy. I won't tell you who it is, but when this person is identified it will cause James Cagney to have to trash the entire mission and resort to a Plan B. Instead of simply arresting the German interloper right there on the spot, while he's still training with the group in England, Cagney instead opts to give him some "leash", with which he hopes the spy will lead the OSS to the Gestapo headquarters in Le Havre.
It's a very complicated plot, but helped by expository dialogue delivered in Cagney's clipped, precise diction. This is no Britspeak, with it's garbled syllables and liberal use of slang (though we love Britspeak too), but highly articulated American English, where each glottal stop is separated from the next. Without it, we'd have difficulty following the intrigue. And man, does this movie have some twists! We're talking double and triple-crosses, and many a situation where you can't trust anyone (except James Cagney of course). The great Sam Jaffe (aka "Dr. Zorba" from "Ben Casey") makes an appearance in the final 30 minutes as the Mayor of Le Havre. Unlike some of the other actors portraying Frenchmen, Jaffe sounds like one. His accent and manner are perfect, and though he's a member of the so-called Vichy Government, which kowtowed to the Nazis, he knows how to play the spy game just as well, if not better, than the Americans.
"13 Rue Madeleine" is fast-paced and full of action. It also looks great in Gothic Black and White. Everything hinges on the freedom given the German double agent. Will Cagney regret not arresting him when he had the chance? This is one flick you won't wanna miss, up there with the best spy movies we've seen, and apparently based on an actual, similar mission. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up from yours truly. ////
The night before, we took a brief diversion from our military diet of late, to watch a quick, sharp mystery thriller called "Operation Diplomat"(1953). Guy Rolfe (an actor who rivals John Carradine in gauntness), stars as a surgeon who is summoned out of the blue to operate on an unidentified man at an undisclosed location. Now wait.......did I say he was summoned? Kidnapped is more like it. Rolfe has just left his hospital on a break, when an ambulance pulls over and a nurse jumps out. She requests his help with a medical emergency, but when he agrees and gets in, he sees he's been tricked. Besides the nurse, there's also a man with a gun riding in the back. They take Rolfe on a three hour journey to a house in the English countryside, where there is indeed a patient waiting - an unconscious man - but neither one of Rolfe's kidnappers will identify him. The gunman does offer Rolfe a substantial fee if he will perform the necessary (but unspecified) operation, and he does so not for the money but because the alternative is getting shot.
When he is finished, he's given a glass of whiskey to calm his nerves, but it's been drugged and he passes out. The next thing he knows, he's back home, waking up with a headache and late for work. He has only a fuzzy memory of the night before, but when he gets to the hospital, he visits a patient whose son and the son's girlfriend are in the room with her. That's when Rolfe has an OMG moment, because he recognises the girlfriend as having been present at the the secret operation. Rolfe confronts her in the hospital hallway, but she tells him he's crazy : "I've never seen you before"!
Of course it's not true. She was there at the house and she knows the identity of the unnamed man, but she's not gonna admit it. Not while her boyfriend is within earshot at any rate. Rolfe then goes to the police, who don't believe him, especially since he can't provide any details of the night in question. He doesn't know where the house was, nor the patient's name, not the identity of his kidnappers. There's nothing to go on, and the coppers chalk it up to either "too much to drink" or "working too hard"........the usual excuses.
Does it sound confusing? It is! And we don't have James Cagney on hand to explain it for us, either. According to IMDB, this film is a remake of a popular British mini-series of the same name, so the screenwriters had to boil down three hours of original material into a 70 minute movie. No wonder confusion abounds! But you won't mind, because Guy Rolfe is such a magnetic (if droll) action hero, assisted by his loyal nurse (Lisa Daniely) in the Girl Friday role. Everything moves at 100 miles per hour, and there are so many police inspectors, real and impersonated, that you'll have trouble keeping track. But it's a blast, like a Mystery Movie Thrill Ride, and what's more, the picture has been restored to perfection by some film institute or another (I forgot the name). But it looks perfect, and you should watch it despite the bewildering storyline. "Operation Diplomat" gets Two Solid Thumbs, and a side benefit was that I found it on a Youtube page called Paul's Classic British Films. I only made a quick browse of his list, but it looks like a gold mine. I have a feeling we'll be frequenting Paul's for many a movie to come. /////
That's all for now. Happy First Day of Spring! I'm gonna head up to......hmmm, where to? Maybe O'Melveny, I'm not sure yet. I wanna get some pictures as I haven't taken any for a while. So O'Melveny might be a good bet. I'll just start driving and see where I wind up.
I've been listening to Rick Wakeman's "The Red Planet" and Eric Johnson's "EJ2", both goosebump inducing records. I've also started a second book (while still working on the McCartney), called "The Skorzeny Papers". It's about an ex-Nazi intelligence officer named Otto Skorzeny who may have had a connection to the JFK assassination. I was skeptical until I read some of the reviews. Now I'm 25 pages in, and it's "veddy in-teresting" stuff indeed (cue Arte Johnson). Google the book's title for details.
And have a great day! Tons and tons of love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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