HOW TO OPERATE BEHIND ENEMY LINES (1943) - September 15

You'll never see another movie quite like How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines because Hollywood has never made another movie like it--and never will. Furthermore, it stars John Ford--yes, that John Ford--as an OSS officer (The Office of Strategic Services was the primary U.S. intelligence service during World War II, the precursor to the CIA). Ford had a brief career as an actor in silent films--billed as Jack Ford--including an unfortunate part as a robed Klansman in The Birth of a Nation.

But here is Ford--not merely in front of the camera--but talking, playing a role. He's an OSS instructor, trying to teach a young spy the ropes, but the recruit is cocky, wildly over-confident, even dismissive of Ford. Given what we know of Ford the director, we can be certain if an actor behaved in such a manner on a Ford set, the old man would've publicly humiliated him, likely reducing the poor fellow to tears. In this case, Ford merely sends him on his way and we're left to juxtapose Ford's recruit with another man, a conscientious and diligent spy, as we follow both men into different and dangerous theaters of operation during the war.

We're screening the film as part of our September Spotlight series. Inspired by Mark Harris' book, Five Came Back, Mark and I are presenting films from the five directors featured in the book: Frank Capra, John Huston, Ford, William Wyler and George Stevens. Harris' book, a gripping read for both classic movie fans and World War II buffs, details the war's impact on the directors, each of whom signed up to serve and make movies for the military. Though there's no doubt these movies would be rated P--for propaganda. The directors signed up for service because sitting out the action in Hollywood, "in mockie-land while the good people are fighting," as Ford put it, wasn't a choice they could live with.

Though Ford's How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines, shot by the Field Photographic Branch for the OSS and not intended to be seen by the public, isn't a typical TCM offering, we have a mix of war documentaries, shorts and classics, each directed by one of the five. Whether it's a feature like Mrs. Miniver, shot by Wyler just before Pearl Harbor, or Huston's The Battle of San Pietro, an uncompromising documentary that showed American G.I.'s killed in battle, you'll be seeing these movies in a fresh context, as films made by men profoundly and permanently affected by what they saw--and shot--during the war.

by Ben Mankiewicz