Review of Undercover

Undercover (1944)
6/10
Don't Stick Out
27 June 2023
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.
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