Undercover

Aka How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines. The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) recruited John Ford to direct a training film for new agents. Most of this follows two new recruits, "Student Charlie" and "Student Al".

Director John Ford is using his filmmaking skills for the war effort. The material is mostly a government film and not an entertaining movie. It makes similar points over and over again. It's all in the details and agents have to be careful. This may not be popcorn fun but it is fascinating to imagine new recruits being shown this during their training.

Two OSS agents are recruited, prepared, assessed and sent to enemy territory to keep an eye on local conditions. One blends in successfully. The other not so much.

Command John Ford USN -- later Rear Admiral -- did some great work for Frank Capra's Why We Fight series of propaganda movies. He also directed the infamous SEX HYGIENE and this lesser known feature for the OSS. It's a mixed bag, but makes its points pretty well, thanks to a good mixture of editing, and inexpensive film making in fairly blank sets and in urban locations. There are a couple of oddities in it, like clips of Peter Lorre as an enemy agent (even as he featured in German posters as an object of anti-semitic scorn), and that's John Ford interviewing and assessing Crane Whitley for overseas duty.

Most of the instruction is done by voice over in this movie. It's not the most distinguished work that the four-time Oscar winner ever did, but it makes its points well.

During World War II, Germany (and other major combatants) sometimes struck at their enemies using tactics other than brute force. Sun Tzu once said all warfare is based on deception, and I think that sums up this film quite well. Otherwise known as How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines, Undercover is a film made for the Office of Strategic Services, which was an intelligence agency employed by the US during the war. Basically the forerunner to the CIA, the OSS used spies, trickery, and other underhanded strategies in order to sneak into Axis controlled territories so they can gather information on what their enemies are focusing on. During a conflict, info is power, and the more you have of it, the better. In the film, we see legendary director John Ford in his one and only speaking role. In real life, Ford was commissioned as a lieutenant commander (equivalent to a major in the Army and Marines) in the navy reserve and was also made head of the photographic unit attached to the OSS. Here, he plays an OSS officer who is tasked with making sure new spies are able to successfully infiltrate hostile territory without getting discovered. There really isn't a plot, but there are two spies involved working for the OSS (named Charlie and Al), and we see how important it is for them or any saboteur to adhere to a believeable story when it comes to being an agent. For instance, before Al is sent off, he has to tell his superior what his background is just in case a Gestapo officer in Nazi Germany stops him. He says how he used to work at GM in the 20s, then moved to germany and started working there. His entire story seems like it would fool a cop, except for one thing: he mentions at the end how he has something wrong with his back. Al's boss says you should never say anything you can't prove, as this can sometimes jeopardize your entire mission. Remember, cops, the government, bartenders, and even landlords being in league with counter-espionage agencies isn't unique to nazi germany, and if you act suspicious, you can get reported and your cover will be blown. In another example, a german spy lands in Canada, saying he's from the western province of British Columbia. His disguise and way of speaking fools pretty much everyone, and it looks like he's going to get away with spying until he pays for his drinks. Without thinking, he hands the bartender an out of date canadian dollar, which is a fraction of an inch longer than the more recent ones. He is arrested shortly after. Across the Atlantic, Hitler's ruthless bodyguard detail, the SS, are questioning a brit they suspect to be a spy. The latter has a convincing backstory as to what he does for a living, but he makes a fatal slip when his interrogators find hair grease on his head: a british product not seen in germany for years. After seeing how such slight details can fatally punish you, it's no secret why the OSS repeatedly tells its recruits that it's not enough to look like the person you're disguised as, you have to conform yourself to his identity. If you're sneaking into germany as a mechanic, you should never carry anything incriminating on you. You also shouldn't ask random vehicles on roads to pick you up, as there's a good chance a government official is driving. If you plan to stay at a hotel, it needs to be one well within the price range of what a mechanic can afford, and if you plan to enlist the help of someone to find your way around, you better be careful. People who are part of the anti-nazi French Resistance are a safe bet, but anyone asking for cash in exchange for showing you where you are is not to be trusted, since they're only loyal to money. While not mentioned in the film, it's worth noting the OSS ran a campaign of making fake articles for german audiences that claimed soldiers on leave could sleep with any woman in germany. The OSS infuriated nazi high command so much that Hitler ordered any agent taken alive to be executed. This was quite an interesting thing to sit down and watch. Being a spy during ww2 was no easy task, and is in my opinion the most difficult role on the battlefield to master. All the things and prying eyes you have to work around, the dangers you throw yourself in the center of, etc. It's not easy, but they played a crucial part since keeping their eyes on what the enemy was doing allowed america to change its tactics depending on the situation. No single strategy is the best one.

I wouldn't have believed it but John Ford plays an important role as an actor in this production. In the part of an interviewer dealing with an applicant for the OSS, Ford isn't bad actually. But he needed a director. Seated behind his desk, grilling the recruit, he keeps waving his hand, the one with the pipe in it, as if trying to hide his face -- the features not already hidden behind his dark glasses. Maybe it's meant as a joke because his judgment about the new recruit turns out to be mistaken.

Some of this will already be familiar to viewers, from watching James Bond movies or "The Odessa File" or "The Jackal." But some of it is rather new, and ALL of it was new in 1943, which is why I assume it was classified until the post-war years.

Basically the story of two new recruits, Al (the good one) and Charlie (the careless one). Charlie goes to "Enemyland" in La Porta, drinks, flirts with the waitresses, goofs off, and poses as a fisherman.

Al becomes a mechanic in a "Falcon" factory in Enemyland and he's cautious, leads an unassuming life -- "the kind of man who always kept to himself". It probably helps that Al has a face full of meaningless mansuetude with all the interest of a Nutrisystem Lunch.

Some of the details are interesting. A British agent reveals himself when he uses a British "hair grease". Even Al, the summum bonum of spydom, makes an error when he nervously stubs out a half-used cigarette in a country where cigarettes are a precious commodity.

It's still hard to believe we're watching Ford play such a role. The only performance he ever mentioned was that of a KKK rider in "Birth of a Nation" -- the one wearing glasses. A reporter once asked him if he'd ever considered playing the lead in one of his Westerns. "What? With MY face?"

But, really, I for one learned a great deal from this movie. I learned that after one day trying to pose as a native in Enemyland, I'd be a dead OSS agent. I hope they'd bury me in the Alter Friedhof Weimar, near Goethe.

That film is both pretty entertaining and instructive. Indeed acting, and production aren't incredible, but as I said it still remains more entertaining than most of what the USA army produced.