13 Rue Madeleine
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Movie Reviews of 13 Rue Madeleine
Movie Review: Cagney on the film site
Summary: 4 Stars
The hotel Louis XIV in Port Levecque where James Cagney checks in as a Vichy rep. is really in Quebec City. It is in the lower city at the foot of the stairway leading up to the Chateau Frontenac. I know because I was there in 1946, staying in that hotel in the very room the Cagney checked into. My parents and I had to vacate the room very quickly because Cagney was abruptly checking in. I always thought he was staying in the room at that time, but, having seen the film for the first time, I realized the room was filmed for that sequence. The outdoor cafe that was shown as Cagney was approaching the hotel was constructed on that little place outside the hotel. I was ten years old. Cagney was very curt with us.Movie Review: O.S.S at work
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't care if this review is helpful or not. This film was made to show people what the Office of Statigic Services Did and was made for entertainment it is not a docuementary. Most of us have had a good time watching films about spies and enjoyed a good spy story. in 1947 the war was over for two years and a lot of people
still didn't know what went on or how it was fought and films like this showed people what the costs where and that people died.
Movie Review: Cagney and WWII Heroics: A Great Combination
Summary: 3 Stars
It's 1944 and a team of OSS agents are being trained to parachute into France to locate a Nazi missile site. Washington learns that one of them is a spy. What will OSS do about it?
I enjoy these WWII espionage movies. Even when they're not too good, they're good. James Cagney is the trainer for the OSS team, and OSS discovers the identity of the spy. They hope to feed him false information before picking him up. But the team he's on is parachuted in, and only Cagney has the skills and knowledge to go in after the team, neutralize the enemy agent, keep the knowledge of other OSS agents from the Nazis, help get the missile information back to the allies and...well, you get the idea. But Cagney is captured, and if he talks the Nazis will know what has been discovered. The solution (Spoiler ahead for those who care about WWII movies): Bomb the prison where Cagney is being held before the Nazis can break him. Cagney knows this will be done and defies his Nazi torturers and the enemy agent while the bombs explode around him killing them all.
This movie has all the faults one would expect of its type and time. The heroics are sometimes overstated. The bad guys sneer. The good guys feel obliged to underline with moralistic statements the consequences of the tough decisions they must make.
This movie also has some first rate good points. Cagney gives a performance of such energy and directness that he sweeps much of the melodrama out of the way. The enemy agent, played by Richard Conte, turns out to be a very shrewd guy and even a little sympathetic. Sure, he allows Cagney to be beaten but at least he looks like he didn't want to. Conte is, in my view, a largely forgotten but excellent actor who spent a good deal of his career in the Forties and Fifties playing second leads or leads in second-rate movies. If you don't recognize his name, he was the scheming don in The Godfather who was behind the effort to take apart the Corleone family, and who was shot by the false cop while he tried to run away up the stairs. Henry Hathaway's direction keeps the film moving at a very brisk pace. There aren't any slow spots.
I suppose this isn't a movie most will feel a need to add to their collection. But, if you're like me, viewing this film is a little like meeting an old friend you'd forgotten about. I'm glad I have it.
Movie Review: It's all about Cagney
Summary: 3 Stars
13 Rue Madeleine gets off to a horrible start with a painfully dated newsreel-style introduction replete with corny voiceover. If you can bear with that for five or ten minutes, the movie mercifully starts to grow more interesting as you watch would-be spies go through a secret training program that tests them physically and--even more so--mentally. From there, it's off to France for some well-paced, yet underdeveloped, cloak-and-dagger action centering on a German double agent, the opening of the Allied second front in western Europe, and the V-2 rockets. Mercifully, the film mostly avoids cheap or unrealistic sentimentality (outside the opening narration), gratuitous love interests, and the like, and the Germans are shown to be quite competent at their jobs, instead of faceless buffoons. For a 40's war film, 13 Rue Madeleine is actually on the gritty and dark side, and the violence is a bit more fierce and graphic than you might expect. (The broken necks and knifings, not the implausibly bloodless shootings.) The actors generally acquit themselves decently, though they would have been far more engaging if more of them at least attempted the appropriate accents or--better still--spoke German or French where appropriate.
Ultimately, how much you enjoy this film will probably depend on how much you enjoy Cagney. He gives a fine performance here, not particularly nuanced, but full of vigor and seriousness. You can really feel the confidence and daring spirit of his character. Check out the scene where he signs into the hotel room to see how ably he conveys an air of authority. As enjoyable as Cagney can be here, he can't make 13 Rue Madeleine rise above being a merely decent, second-rank war film.
Movie Review: Pretty good Espionage film with typically fine Cagney performance.
Summary: 3 Stars
13 Rue Madeline(1947) is one of the many spy films produced after the war detailing the heroic efforts of the OSS and there ilk. This one is designed like a docu-Drama with one of the lamest of 40s and 50s devices: the overuse of a monotone narrator to explain the plot. It does not help to include such a meandering voice on an already leisurely paced film and it keeps this film strictly as a historical piece and little else.
The film could have certianly used a little more blood and thunder. If there's any consollation it's in the lead acting of James Cagney who delivers a full blooded performance. He's quite athletic in this and delivers the action nicely, what little there is of it. He also invokes that sense of hard boiled world weariness he brought his gangster characterizations especially in that conclusion as he laughs maniaclly at his and the enemy's imminent destruction.
Most of the cast can't begin to compare to this role, but there are a few standouts. Richard Conte has a diificult role as a German Double agent who despite being set up primarily as a villian still gains some sympathy. He was largely under utilized in most films but is a standout here. The same can be said for veteran actor Sam Jaffe as the leader of the Dutch resisitance who brings his usual amount of sincerity to a part that wasn't as well written as could be.
The film is certainly interesting and features a pretty exciting final thirty minutes, but there were(and would) be better genre pieces than this and this film is largely reccomended for Cagney fans who wish to savor another of the actor's charismatic performances.