13 Rue Madeleine (1947)

Still a good movie

Mr. Cagney is still as good today as he was 60 years ago. I saw this movie back in the 50/s and it is still worth the time and money. August 28, 2008

"Thrilling BS From the OSS"

I first saw this movie at The Colonial Theatre in Port Arthur Canada when I was about 9 years old - and being a young and impressionable James Cagney fan, I was enthralled and excited!
Upon reading the recent history of the CIA by James Weiner - "The Legacy of Ashes" - I was fascinated by the revelations of the early blunders of the OSS and its leader "Wild Bill" Donovan! Apparently, he was aptly named. One of his favorite "spy-tricks" was to parachute allied agents behind Nazi lines - usually ill-prepared and untrained and , to a person, never to be heard from again!

The OSS was the WW2 predecessor of the CIA and this very same tactic was continued with the same dismal results!

However, "13 Rue Madelaine" is an excellent and exciting movie with a thrilling if not costly ending. As a young boy on through manhood I never forgot Cagney's manaical and triumphant laughter as the allied bombers demolished the Gestapo Headquarters at 13 Rue Madeleine before the Nazi brutes could torture the secrets from our heroic James Cagney!

An excellent older movie; well-directed: for more comments, please see my blog devoted to movies www.Report From Cannes,com April 5, 2008

Disappointing

Love Jimmy Cagney and B/W movies, but this one felt a little flat.

I won't divulge any spoilers, but the title is misleading... it only makes sense in the final few moments of the movie. This isn't about an address in wartime Paris, it's about an organization created to respond to a threat and an just such a threat coming to fruition and the alied response. September 3, 2007

O.S.S.------ Early American Intelligence.......

Cagney brings to the screen early American Intelligence sorely needed by 1944....the British Secret Service and German Gestapo were masters of this undercover intel long before WW2 even started...I was impressed with Jimmy Cagney and Walter Abel in their roles; plus, the contributions of Frank Latimore; and of course, the beautiful French actress, Anabella...all in all a movie that keeps your attention throughout...Richard Conte was convincing in the role of a Nazi counter-spy...theater/goers of the time got their monies worth as well as you DVD buffs...the OSS was the brainchild of Col.[Wild Bill] Donovan of WW1 fame with the Fighting 69th NYC Regiment, realizing in the post/war years fast approaching the United States need for a world-wide surveillance and undercover network...13 Rue Madeleine was the harbinger for what you see now as the CIA and this Cagney flick puts it before the masses of the United States populace in 1947...it ranks up there as a darn good WW2 thriller....Semper Fi, SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF April 7, 2007

13 Rue Madeleine

This is a great James Cagney film. Many people should review this film and study its content. Mr. Cagney was a great actor, I would say a Reagon Conservative. The film typifies what this country of the U.S. should do in keeping certain intelligence programs secret instead of low ranking Government people working for these intelligence agencies blabing to the New York Times and other Left-Wing newspapers what this country is up to. This would not not have happened during World War 2.I remember when I was a Security Consultant at the Marine Maritime Institute in Baltimore, Md. there wasone slogan that indicated our need for the U.S. government employees to keep their mouths shut and that slogan is "Loose Lips Sink Ships". That is what this film is about and what the O.S.S. was all about. The U.S. is at war with Terrorism . We can win only if we keep our mouths shut. July 17, 2006

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