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Odette

Film still

Odette - 1950 | 106 mins | War, Drama | B&W

The Production Team

Director: Herbert Wilcox.
Producer: Herbert Wilcox.
Script: Warren Chetham Strode. (from the book by Jerrard Tickell)
Cinematography: Mutz Greenbaum.
Art Direction: William C. Andrews.
Editing: Bill Lewthwaite.
Costume Design: Maude Churchill.
Makeup Department: Harold Fletcher.
Music: Anthony Collins.

The Cast

Anna Neagle - Odette/Marie/Lise
Trevor Howard - Captain Peter Churchill/Raoul
Marius Goring C- olonel Henri
Bernard Lee - Jack
Peter Ustinov - Lt. Alex Rabinovich/Arnauld
Maurice Buckmaster - Himself
Alfred Schieske - Commandant
Gilles Quéant - Jacques

Plot Synopsis

Odette, is the stirring true story of a courageous Frenchwoman who returned to her occupied homeland to spy for the Special Operations Executive during World War II.

Anna Neagle stars in the role of one of the Allies bravest spies during World War II, Odette Churchill, a French woman married to an Englishman. After her husband is killed in action she is recruited as an intelligence agent after mistakenly sending photographs to the wrong address in response to a War Office appeal. She is parachuted into German-occupied France to work alongside radio operator Alex Rabinovich (Peter Ustinov) and agent Captain Peter Churchill (Trevor Howard). Her work for the French resistance leads to her arrest, interrogation and torture by the Gestapo Colonel Henri (Marius Goring); Odette endures severe torture without disclosing any information about her colleagues and is sent to a concentration camp to be executed. Fortunately, American troops arrive to free the camp and the Nazi commandant (Alfred Schieske) decides that Odette should be saved, as she will be a valuable hostage when he surrenders. Odette returns to Britain and eventually marries Peter Churchill; she is later awarded the George Cross for her bravery.

Anna Neagle took her preparation for the film seriously, revisiting with the real Odette and her husband, British agent Peter Churchill, the area where she worked, was captured and tortured by the Gestapo. Trevor Howard plays Captain Churchill and there's sterling support from Peter Ustinov and Marius Goring.