As agitprop, as other reviews have noted, this one perhaps isn't the kind of Howard Hawks rabble-rouser one would have expected to be produced in the throes of war. It's also notably low-budget, with all the scenes being produced in cramped indoor sets that accommodate very little motion, either among the actors or with the camera.
That said, there are some classic Hitch moments within. There's the theme of the double, the double-agent and the duel (and duality) between the two antagonists, one a veteran of Verdun and a prominent defense lawyer, and the other the chief of police and security for Vichy Madagascar. There's the moment when one of the resistance fighters, about to leave for England to join the French Army, is betrayed by his fiancée who either believes this will keep him with her or is getting revenge -- we never know -- slowly, slowly moves towards the phone to drop a dime on him (and our hero), and the phone slowly comes into focus in the foreground. And there's this odd narrative device of having the story told from backstage of a French theater troupe in London -- exactly why the lawyer ended up doing a theatrical performance, after having escaped the Vichy and been a producer of his own propaganda radio broadcasts, is completely unclear, but it may be Hitch's subtle way of using the artifice of the production values to his good advantage. Even if you don't speak French, it's fun picking out the classic rhythms of dialogue and editing pace common to Hitch. Compare, for instance, to the almost contemporaneous 'Lifeboat', which was another completely talky piece of wartime agitprop shot in incredibly close confines (literally so in the latter case). If you can't use the great horizons of the outdoors, use the claustrophobic to generate that sense of dread of being caught that must've been endemic to being part of a secret resistance.
I wouldn't seek this out unless you're interested in the social history of propaganda, the French resistance, or unless you're looking for a research paper for film school on Hitch, but given its short running time it is hardly a waste of time.
That said, there are some classic Hitch moments within. There's the theme of the double, the double-agent and the duel (and duality) between the two antagonists, one a veteran of Verdun and a prominent defense lawyer, and the other the chief of police and security for Vichy Madagascar. There's the moment when one of the resistance fighters, about to leave for England to join the French Army, is betrayed by his fiancée who either believes this will keep him with her or is getting revenge -- we never know -- slowly, slowly moves towards the phone to drop a dime on him (and our hero), and the phone slowly comes into focus in the foreground. And there's this odd narrative device of having the story told from backstage of a French theater troupe in London -- exactly why the lawyer ended up doing a theatrical performance, after having escaped the Vichy and been a producer of his own propaganda radio broadcasts, is completely unclear, but it may be Hitch's subtle way of using the artifice of the production values to his good advantage. Even if you don't speak French, it's fun picking out the classic rhythms of dialogue and editing pace common to Hitch. Compare, for instance, to the almost contemporaneous 'Lifeboat', which was another completely talky piece of wartime agitprop shot in incredibly close confines (literally so in the latter case). If you can't use the great horizons of the outdoors, use the claustrophobic to generate that sense of dread of being caught that must've been endemic to being part of a secret resistance.
I wouldn't seek this out unless you're interested in the social history of propaganda, the French resistance, or unless you're looking for a research paper for film school on Hitch, but given its short running time it is hardly a waste of time.