Les héros dans l'ombre

Liked this film. Its practically a film about what would becomes as the CIA. Four new agents try to get secrets across france but are slowly gets caught, one by one. As each try to survive, each mission seems to gets murkier by the minute.

I would say it was a nice surprise to see a film that talks openly about espionage AND how it is deployed. I just wished the lady character could have been played better AND is played less frustrated. She gives too tense vibes for an espionage film. Alan Ladd is not really that much of an actor either but works well as a straight man but is much believable as a man trying to keep his head afloat. The tension too is not as build up as I would have liked .

Otherwise, other than that seemingly from war attacking sequence, which was wonderful. There is nothing really to write about it. Just random fun facts like the writer for this film would serve as a writer for some of the Bond films.

Fine film.

Direction and screenplay are below average in this movie. The script is clunky, the music distracting, and the acting so-so. While the subject is interesting and the plot is superb it falls short. Alan Ladd is great even when he doesn't try to act well and the other actors do their best, but I think they were held hostage by bad direction. Maybe Irving Pichel was just having a bad day when he made this movie. Worth watching if you appreciate the courage and sacrifices of a past generation that allow us to live free.

Fifteen years before he entered the world of 007 screenwriter Richard Maibaum was detailing the exploits of the wartime O. S. S. (Office of Strategic Services).

A much more conventional film than 'House on 92nd Street' or 'Call Northside 777' (Nazi Jack Lambert actually says "Your papers please"), and it does go on a bit; but better than the name on it as director Irving Pichel might make you fear. And Geraldine Fitzgerald makes an interesting heroine.

Done in semi documentary style I enjoyed this film and it was not done too sentimentally which it would have been easy to slip in to. The Nazi were not portrayed as being particularly nasty, not nice of course but not very nasty as is common in a lot of WWII films. In the trivia section it's mention that Alan Ladd's character's height is give on his OSS record card as 5' 10" but it's actually given as being 5' 10 1/2", Mr Ladd being only 5' 6". Mr Ladd's films have an extra dimension in spotting the efforts made to avoid his lack of height being obvious. A lot of sitting and kneeling down goes on in his films to avoid him being on the same level as others on screen with him.

This film, shot soon after WWII's conclusion, starts out in a semi-documentary fashion, with that time period's usual background commentary, this time applied to the nascent stages of the O.S.S. and how its development would enhance the war effort. However, as the core unit gets trained, it shifts to a pretty decent spy drama, with Alan Ladd and Ms. Fitzgerald taking the leads in their unit's task, which inherently was to supply the Allies with German armored division positions and to facilitate the explosion of a railroad tunnel which had been providing the Germans with their main conduit for battle preparations.

Ladd's gender-biased character doesn't like the fact that he has to work with a woman on such a trying mission, but Ms. Fitz's character isn't falling for his hype, and she soon shows her mettle by performing her assigned tasks more than adequately. It is in this dialog between our two major protagonists that we see just how well our stars (and writers/director) handled their roles. Crisp, articulate dialog sets the pace for their encounters, which was coupled with an intelligent story line, whose development was duly enhanced by the supporting actors as well.

But as my summary title indicates, our "hero" isn't really the prototypical war hero you were used to seeing in movies of that era. Our man Ladd is asked to perform one more task by his CO and he "bites the guy's head off" with a "why me?" diatribe reminiscent of a film more ensconced in the anti-war movies of the 60's-70's. It is Ladd at his vitriolic best, barking at the CO to get somebody else, but the CO has to finally give him an official order, to which Ladd reluctantly assents. This scene ever so realistically shows the reactions of a real human soldier as opposed to some sort of Hollywood hero fabrication.

Other moments of pathos and reality occur, especially between "Sparky" and the unit's radio operator. John Hoyt's fine contribution as the German colonel also merits mentioning.

Although it may not rank amongst your all time favorites list, watch it anyway and if you don't have at least a small well of tears at the film's conclusion... Just maybe "she could have been a girl from around the corner!"