Bob Sharkey is one of the top guys in 077, America's cloak and dagger division during the war. While training a new batch of recruits he learns that one of them is a Nazi spy but rather than arresting him he tries to send him over with some false information. Things don't go according to plan and after killing one of his team mates the spy escapes, putting the whole operation in jeopardy. Sharkey only has one option, to go in himself and finish the job.
This is a good and stirring story to lift the post-war mood. Hathaway was a great story teller though some of his films, True Grit for instance, can feel a little long but not this one. James Cagney is always good though I find it a little hard to believe he could convince anyone he was French with his accent. At one point he was one of the highest ranked Judo masters in the US and in both the training scene and the fight scenes you get to see him do his stuff.
Originally Cagney's character was called Donovan and 077 was O.S.S but it was only a year and a half after the war ended and the head of the real O.S.S, one Major General William Joseph Donovan, didn't like the idea that Americas secret service would be shown as being infiltrated by a Nazi spy and so the names were changed. The films title is the address of the Gestapo headquarters in Le Havre, the reason for the reference being made clear at the end of the film. Despite the suggestion in the opening titles this is not a true story though some aspects are true and the final scene with the bombers did happen, all be it in different circumstances.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038279/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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