13 Rue Madeleine
13 Rue Madeleine | |
---|---|
Twentieth Century Fox | |
Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2,750,000 (US rentals)[1] |
13 Rue Madeleine is a 1947 American World War II spy film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring James Cagney, Annabella, Richard Conte and Frank Latimore. Allied volunteers are trained as spies in the leadup to the invasion of Europe, but one of them is a German double agent.
Plot
Bob Sharkey is put in charge of the 77th group of American espionage candidates. However, he is informed by his boss Charles Gibson that one of his students is a German Abwehr agent. He accepts the challenge of identifying him. He correctly chooses "Bill O'Connell". Gibson reveals that O'Connell is actually Wilhelm Kuncel, one of Germany's top spies. He tells Sharkey to pass him through the course, as they know his mission is to determine the date and location of Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of Europe). They assign him a job in London that gives him full access to false information about "Plan B", the invasion of Germany through the Lowlands, hoping he will pass it along to his superiors.
At the end of their training, three of the new agents—Frenchwoman Suzanne de Beaumont, American Jeff Lassiter, and Kuncel—are sent to Britain. There, they prepare to fly into German-occupied territory. Kuncel is given a mission in Holland, supposedly because of his familiarity with the region. Lassiter is assigned to kidnap and bring back to England the French
With no time to brief another agent, Sharkey volunteers to take Lassiter's place. Gibson is reluctant to do so, as Sharkey knows the date and location of the invasion, but finally agrees. With the help of the local
Cast
- James Cagney as Robert Emmett 'Bob' Sharkey
- Annabella as Suzanne de Beaumont
- Richard Conte as Wilhelm Kuncel / William H. 'Bill' O'Connell
- Frank Latimore as Jeff Lassiter
- Walter Abel as Charles Gibson
- Melville Cooper as Pappy Simpson
- Sam Jaffe as Mayor Galimard
- Trevor Bardette as Resistance fighter (uncredited)
- Red Buttons as Second Jump Master (uncredited)
- Arno Frey as German Officer (uncredited)
- Karl Malden as B-24 Jumpmaster (uncredited)
- E. G. Marshall as Emile (uncredited)
- Donald Randolph as La Roche (uncredited)
- Roland Winters as Van Duyval (uncredited)
- Blanche Yurka as Madame Thillot (uncredited)
Production
Prohibited from mentioning the OSS during the war due to secrecy, several Hollywood studios made their own films about the agency after the war, such as Paramount's
The film followed Fox's
Much of the filming was done in
The
References
- ^ "Top Grossers of 1947", Variety, 7 January 1948 p 63
- ^ a b p.120 Dick, Bernard F. The Star Spangled Screen University of Kentucky Press
- ^ Eyman, Scott (September–October 1974). "'I made movies' an interview with Henry Hathaway". Take One. pp. 9–10.