I'll give this move one thing-- it's pungent enough to cease being background noise and have me watch it. Other reviewers have explained the not-at-all intricate plot so I won't rehash it here (I'm a spy for the union, but I've fallen in love with a rebel!) but suffice to say, it's 80 minutes of disposable dialog and wooden acting interspersed with songs about "jungle fever" and "darkies in de Congo." Oh, and Marion Davies' terrible blackface disguise and scenery-chewing acting.This is a fine example of the time when movies were churned out like stamped sheet metal. It has worth if one considers using it as a part of a larger effort to explore historical depictions of race in American cinema, but otherwise it's a waste of time-- and an offensive one at that.

Operator 13 (1934)** (out of 4) Extremely bizarre and rather choppy Civil War drama about actress Gail Loveless (Marion Davies) who goes to work as a spy for the Union. Once undercover, as a black maid, she begins to have feelings for a Confederate soldier (Gary Cooper). Once again Davies lover William Randolph Hearst put the money up for this production and half way through the making he had director Raoul Walsh fired even though he had made GOING Hollywood with Davies a year earlier. A new script was written and the rest is history but in the end this turned out to be one of the strangest dramas from this era. I might go even further and call the film a complete and utter embarrassment and a horrid excuse for entertainment but the thing is just so strange that you can't help but be entertained by it. The first thirty-minutes has Davies in some very bad blackface make up as she's undercover as a maid. Davies wasn't a newbie to blackface but the make up job here is so light skinned that you can't help but laugh at the thought that this make up job would be able to fool anyone in discussion with her and that includes Cooper's character. This is a drama yet Davies plays this maid role as some sort of comedy with the bad accent, which again doesn't sit well with what the film was going for. Not to mention that whoever was doing the make up forgot to paint her palms so they're constantly white. The second half of the film really doesn't get any better even though we do get a few battle scenes but none of them are all that interesting. Even worse are various musical sequences which come out of no where and will have you wondering if the Civil War was an actual war or just one big concert. Add in the bad direction and rather bland performances and you've got a movie that really needs to be rediscovered and held up as a cult classic. Even Cooper can't save this mess but he does add some charm to an otherwise crazy movie.

This is a very, very rare film. While my family is generally very patient, they began screaming at me to "turn off that garbage" as I was watching OPERATOR 13. Part of this was because they had just suffered through another Marion Davies film, GOING Hollywood--a truly dumb film from start to finish. The other reason was when Marion appeared in OPERATOR 13 in Black-face ( a "clever" disguise so blonde Marion could go behind enemy lines and spy during the Civil War), my wife and oldest daughter were so offended and irritated with the insensitivity and stupidity of the film that they demanded I turn it off! Well, I watched a bit more but found the film so utterly dumb as well that I eventually agreed. So, I must admit that I never finished this bad film.So why, then, would I bother to review this film even though I didn't complete it? Well there are two reasons. First, it being so offensive and dumb is something I think others should know so that they are forewarned. Second, because there is currently some sort of cult out there that worships Marion Davies.It's true...it's like a cult in many ways! In the last couple years, some group of people who worship at the alter of Miss Davies have gone onto IMDb to give every film she ever made ratings of 10. While I will agree that she made some lovely films (such as SHOW PEOPLE) she also made a lot of turkeys--particularly later in her career. Yet, inexplicably, all of her films are rated HIGHER than most of the films in the IMDb top 250. The only reason they don't dominate this list is because there aren't enough votes for her movies (yet) to make it to the list--you need a certain minimum number of votes. This is true even for her films that lost tons of money and critics hated (such as CAIN AND MABEL).As for this phenomenon and OPERATOR 13, almost 55% of the scores it has received are 10s--even with this disgusting and inexcusable Black-face segment. In contrast, GONE WITH THE WIND (39%) and BEN HUR (1959--29%) have a much lower percentage of 10s What is wrong with these people?! Do they LIKE seeing racist films with stupid plots?! Uggh. You have been forewarned! By the way, shortly after the film begins, there is a crowd scene as President Lincoln looks down on the crowd. Oddly, the men in the crowd are all wearing Fedora-style hats (circa 1930s) and one has a straw hat! A bit sloppy, huh? Sure sounds like it merits a 10!

Marion Davies is unbelievable as a spy behind Confederate lines who falls for Confederate spy Gary Cooper.The black stereotypes are normal for the time, but now hard to take. The main interest to me are the women's costumes by Andre, especially those in the ball scene.