SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Painstaking reconstruction of lost heroes of the war in an almost documentary character, in this case the French resistance organized from England with a quite ordinary woman as the main link and foundation of the operations, as she as an ordinary woman is best fit not to attract attention. When she is asked to volunteer she has no experience whatsoever, an ordinary woman with three children separated from her husband, whom we never hear a word of throughout the film. Instead there is Trevor Howard as a certain Peter Churchill as the other main link in the operations together with Peter Ustinov as the indispensable radio operator. He is caught and killed by the Gestapo, which you learn already in the beginning of the film, but you never see it happen. Instead you see the full torture sessions and ordeals of Trevor Howard and Anna Neagle.It certainly is one of her best performances, the direction by Herbert Wilcox is completely natural all the way, and Anthony Collins has provided the film with discreet but eloquent music perfectly suited to the action; but the perhaps most interesting performance is that of the dubious Marius Goring as the Abwehr man, who like Canaris is well aware of the fallacy of Hitler's regime and continuosly seeks a way out of the war dilemma but falls in with the tragedy and must take the consquences of being part of it. It's a gripping film of the unknown heroes of the war that never reached any public acknowledgement, while they were the ones who risked their lives more than most and often lost it. Still, this is also a film of survival against all odds by sheer obstinacy and refusal to cooperate with a dictatorship.

Being a connoisseur of 1940/early 50s films with an extensive collection, I was surprised that I had never seen "Odette" before but have now done so courtesy of Youtube.The plot is similar to "Carve her name with pride"(1956) starring Virginia McKenna), that is a French woman living in the UK who volunteers to help the allies and Resistance in France during WW11.Anna Neagle showed her lack of linguistic ability speaking French & lapsing into English several times even when speaking to French Resistance workers.On the other hand the German speaking actors were quite authentic in their roles with the producers NOT providing English sub-titles in certain German only sequences where the action was clear.Still it did give Dame Anna a chance to do a spot of real acting and "suffer" for us on screen with Trevor Howard's nicely understated performance playing her husband, Peter Churchill.I do understand that film censorship in 1950 could not allow any special effects showing Anna Neagle's character having her toenails being pulled out by the Gestapo, even suggesting it was slightly shocking then.Marius Goring was often well cast in sinister yet intelligent roles as he plays here as an officer in the Deutsche Abwehr.Another role he played in the same year of 1950 was as a Balkan/Serbian police inspector with Margaret Lockwood in "Highly Dangerous".Good to see "M"(a youngish Bernard Lee) initially from "Dr.No (1962) learning his trade in military intelligence.I awarded this film 6/10.

Anna Neagle was better known for this film than any of the others she has made. A story of a French mother with three young children living in Britain, who is recruited by the spy service to return to Nazi occupied France as an undercover spy. Neagle plays Odette. Her handler (Peter Churchill) in France is played by Trevor Howard and there is also a young Peter Ustinov as a message transmitter.The initial part of the film is bland with Odette delivering and retrieving messages which has little or no tension. However once Marius Goring enters as a German officer who seems to despise the Nazis, things take an interesting turn. Odette and Churchill are captured and Odette is tortured by the Nazis which is the harrowing part of the film.Neagle, Goring, Ustinov and Howard are all excellent but the film is let down with the less than rip roaring spy adventures at the beginning and the latter part would now deemed to be too tame, even though good use of make up is made for the months of abuse at the prison camp.Even though Odette is starved of food you cannot help noticing that actress still looks slightly plump. Its details like this that lets the film down.

A truly inspirational real-life war hero(ine), Odette Sanson's story is so dramatic and fascinating that it's eventual translation to the cinema screen is as inevitable as night following day. Tastefully done yet still powerful – with strong performances from Anna Neagle, Trevor Howard, Marcus Goring and Peter Ustinov – the film is a good, solid bio-pic all-round.During WWII, mother of three Odette Sanson (Anna Neagle) offers to work for British Intelligence. She is given a new identity and back-story, and dispatched to France where she comes under the command of top Allied spy Peter Churchill (Trevor Howard). Churchill has within his jurisdiction a small spy network working furtively and endlessly against the German war machine, among them the impetuous and courageous Alex Rabinovich (Peter Ustinov). Odette proves her own worth smuggling some vital documents out of Marseille, and is soon hailed as one of the most invaluable members of the team. Later she is captured and tortured by the Gestapo, but stubbornly refuses to yield any information, simultaneously surprising and infuriating her Nazi captors. After various trials and tribulations, she returns to England a bona fide war hero(ine) when the fighting ends in 1945.After a stodgy and rather clumsily handled opening, Odette picks up pace, interest and drama as it gets going. Neagle handles the title role pretty well, conveying the stubborn pride and inner courage of the character most effectively; Howard too is solid (if a little underused) as her superior and eventual lover. The film is crisply shot, sometimes on the studio backlot but quite often on authentic continental locations, and generates an evocative sense of atmosphere in its dangerous world of wartime skulduggery and military intrigue. The torture sequences manage to be extremely distressing without showing everything in nauseating detail (a trick modern film-makers would do well to learn from), and a good level of tension is sustained pretty much throughout as Odette carries out her clandestine deceptions in this riskiest of times and places. All-in-all, Odette is a good film in the old-fashioned mould.