Odette (1950)
Directed by Herbert Wilcox

Film Review

One of the worthiest films to come out of the fruitful partnership of director Herbert Wilcox and his wife Anna Neagle is this gripping wartime melodrama which offers a fascinating insight into the activities of British agents working undercover for the war effort in Nazi occupied France.  The film owes its trenchant verisimilitude to the first-hand testimony provided by the remarkable woman whose experiences as an agent are so vividly portrayed, namely Odette Churchill, the first woman to be awarded the George Cross.  In order that her portrayal be as authentic as possible, Neagle worked closely with the real-life Odette, and even visited the locations where she had been tortured and held prisoner during the war.  Odette's employer, Maurice Buckmaster, introduces the film and Odette herself contributed the self-effacing postscript in which she pays tribute to the valour of her comrades in arms.

The performances are extraordinarily convincing, with both Neagle and her co-star Trevor Howard effectively playing down the heroism of their characters to reveal their nobler qualities - loyalty, tenacity and, of course, courage - whilst never letting us forget their ordinariness.  Marius Goring (best known for his Powell-Pressburger outings, A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and The Red Shoes (1948)) is superbly sinister as a shady German intelligence operative.  Goring delivers a wonderfully ambiguous characterisation - we cannot be sure whether his Colonel Henri is as ambivalent to the Nazi cause as he pretends or whether he is just a master of deceit.  Bernard Lee's character feels uncannily like his most famous role, that of M in the original James Bond films (Dr No (1962)), and Peter Ustinov provides some welcome comedic value to lighten what would otherwise be a relentlessly grim film.  Odette may not be a cinematic masterpiece (Wilcox's direction lacks the inspired touch and the pace drags a little in parts) but it is an important historical document, one that sheds considerable light not only on the activities of the British agents who served in France during the Second World War, but also on their character.  Watching this stirring account of one woman's heroism is a deeply humbling experience.

Film Synopsis

In the early years of WWII, Odette Sansom, an ordinary French woman living in England, is recruited by the Special Operations department of the War Office to work as an agent in Nazi-occupied France.  Peter Churchill, another British agent, gives Odette her first assignment, to help smuggle plans of Marseille back to England ahead of a landing by the Allies.  A German officer calling himself Colonel Henri contacts Odette and offers his help if she will put him in touch with her superior, Maurice Buckmaster.  Odette's mistrust of Henri is vindicated when he acts to arrest her and Peter.  Tortured by the Gestapo, Odette refuses to reveal the location of her fellow agents.  In the end, she is sent to a concentration camp where it is certain she will shot as a British spy...