13 Rue Madeleine

In the last years of the Second World War, the American secret service is training the agents it will send into Europe. Bob Sharkey, one of the instructors, notices that a man in the latest intake is too good. His superiors confirm the suspicion but tell him to pass the candidate rather than wash him out: the plan is to feed him false information about the coming landings. From then on Sharkey has to keep the deception running and finish the real job in France. Henry Hathaway had been trying out a documentary manner for postwar spy pictures, and here the narration, the map shots and the training sequences give the film the air of an instructional reel. James Cagney's tough-guy energy works oddly well inside that cold structure. The last stretch changes tone completely and arrives at an unexpected harshness. Richard Conte is the second name that stays with you.