"Operator 13" might have the fixings of a cult classic if it was a better movie -- even cult classics have to meet a certain standard.
This film finds Marion Davies playing a female Union spy during the American Civil War, who disguises herself as a black maid in order to infiltrate Confederate camps. She spends much of her time donning black face and a grotesque, exaggerated accent that I guess was Davies' own best guess at what a black slave during the Civil War would sound like. It's all utterly cringey and uncomfortable, and at times damn near unwatchable.
Gary Cooper is a Confederate soldier who meets Davies when she's in disguise, then falls for her when she's not in disguise, and has that feeling that he's met her somewhere before. Even granting the film some leeway given its time period and the fact that white actors were frequently cast as people of color, Davies is so implausible as a black woman that the idiocy of anyone believing her ruse mostly ruins the film.
Aside from that, the whole film is weirdly disjointed, full of abrupt and disorienting scene transitions and ragged editing. It's like the film was edited by multiple people who each took a section of the movie and didn't communicate with one another. Hell, maybe that is what happened.
"Operator 13" has some entertainment value as one of those "you have to see it to believe it" curios, but it's not good enough to enjoy as a legitimate film nor quite outrageous enough to maintain your interest for other reasons.
The supremely unlucky George Folsey received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography for this film. It was his second of fourteen unsuccessful attempts to win an Academy Award.
Grade: C.
