Review of Operator 13

My review title sums up the unlikely plot in a nutshell. It gets worse! Blond, blue -grey eyed Marion Davis becomes Operator(spy) 13, dons a brunet wig, and supposedly masquerades as a very light-skinned octoroon southern negress maid for another female Union spy! (A octoroon has 1/8 African American inheritance)! Her 'disguise' includes her amusing impression of how such should talk. Clearly, she was enjoying this charade! Of course, Marian's face otherwise looked nothing like a typical negress's face, and it's a good thing the film was shot in B&W, as she couldn't easily disguise her eye color!. Usually with a flower in her hair, in truth, she looked more like a Nordic's attempt to pass as a brown- skinned South Seas maiden! .........OK, I've just described the worst implausibilities of the film. Yet, I gave the film a fairly good overall rating. Why? As I see it, the film should be thought of as part musical comedy(mainly the first half), and part a serious Civil War drama and romance(mainly the second half). Then, it doesn't come off as half so bad...........There's certainly enough music, both traditional Civil War fare, and newly minted songs by the team of Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn, to qualify it as a musical, even if that wasn't the intent. Marion sings 2 songs: the novelty "The, Colonel, Major, and the Captain, in which she keeps changing hats of the various officers, piling them all on her head, along with her hat, at the end! Later, she serenades Gary Cooper: her new-found Rebel spy boyfriend, with the romantic "Once in a Lifetime, Love Comes Your Way", as he gently pushes her in a swing. I also enjoyed 3 numbers sung by the famous Mills Brothers: "Roll, Jordan Roll", "Sleepy Head" and "Jungle Fever". Various ad hoc groups sang other songs...........As I previously described, Marion supplies most of the presumably unintentional humor, with her spy disguise.......... The rather wooden Rebel Major, played by Gary Cooper, somehow meets the disguised Marion at a party, and finds her attractive. Later, he meets her again, without her disguise, dressed like a southern belle, although admittedly fresh from Yankeeland, visiting relative, and he is even more attracted to her(What man wouldn't be!), and she to him. Thus, they begin a romantic relationship...........Near the end, they meet again, but this time Cooper is nasty to her, scolding her for being a female spy(which he apparently considers unfairly sneaky), and claiming that she just pretends to love him. She counters that she truly loves him, which he is willing to consider. Just then, Union and Rebel patrols approach, and begin fighting. For some reason, they decide to split up and reunite at the finish of the war, which, unbeknownsed to them, is yet several years hence. Finally, we encounter Grant and Lee at Appomattox, shaking hands, to essentially end the war. Then, there is a cameo of Marion and Cooper embracing, symbolically acknowledging the end of the war at their personal level...........Thus, ended Marion's career at MGM, although she would be in a number of films for Warner, before retiring, to spend more time with her possessive sugar daddy: William Randolph Hearst.......... You can see this for free at You Tube, or you can also purchase the film fairly cheaply.