Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines
About Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines
Colonel Henson L. Robinson opens a lesson for agents who will go behind the lines. The film shows men caught by carelessness, then follows two recruits. Student Al studies and stays careful. Student Charlie is sure of himself. Their ground is called Enemytown and The Capital, not by a country name. John Ford, as an agent in a fake business office, gives Charlie his evaluation and his orders.
Cast & crew
More about Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines
John Ford directed it and plays in it. Robert Parrish edited it. The Office of Strategic Services made it in 1943 as a training film. It runs 61 minutes. Eddie Foster, Martín Garralaga, Cyril Ring, Pierre Watkin, and Max Wagner are billed. It was declassified after the war.
Themes
In film history
It was made for OSS classrooms, not for theaters, and it is often left out of Ford filmographies.
Preservation
It was declassified after the war and is in the public domain.
Notes
- It is Ford's only sound-film acting role. He is not a walk-on. He plays the agent who briefs Student Charlie.
- The picture is built as a film inside a film, with Robinson's introduction.
- It was the first training film made by an intelligence service for its own agents.
- Germany is the obvious target and is never named.
Scenes
- Robinson introduces the training film.
- Careless agents are shown being found out.
- Ford, in the fake office, hands Charlie his orders.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Undercover - How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines (1943).webm)
