Overview: 'American Experience: The Codebreaker' tells the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose painstaking work decoding thousands of messages for the U.S. government would send infamous gangsters to prison and bring down a massive, near-invisible Nazi spy ring in WWII.

DVD Verdict: A suburban wife and mother who led a secret double life, her remarkable contributions to the science of cryptology would only come to light decades after her death, when classified government files were unsealed.

But together with her husband, the legendary cryptologist William Friedman, Elizebeth helped develop the codebreaking methods that led to the creation of the powerful new science of cryptology and laid the foundation for modern codebreaking today.

In this utterly enthralling new PBS documentary, Elizebeth Smith Friedman - wife, mother, writer, Shakespeare enthusiast, cryptanalyst, and pioneer in U.S. cryptology - died on 31st October 1980 in Plainfield, New Jersey, at the age of 88.

Although she is often referred to as the wife of William Friedman, she enjoyed many successes in cryptology in her own right and has been dubbed "America's first female cryptanalyst."

In fact, although her husband is credited with numerous contributions to cryptology, it was Mrs. Friedman who introduced him to the field.

Mrs. Friedman's employment as a cryptanalyst for the U.S. Navy followed in 1923, which led to her subsequent positions with the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Prohibition and Bureau of Customs.

The net result of her career is quite significant and embraces cryptology against international smuggling and drug running in various parts of the world.

The smugglers and runners resorted to radio and encoded messages to conduct their operations, presumably with a great sense of security. This, however, became a mistaken notion after Mrs. Friedman came to Washington. A more detailed account of her cryptologic contributions has been presented in a previous Almanac article.

During the post-World War Two period, Mrs. Friedman became a consultant to and created communications security systems for the International Monetary Fund.

All this and oh-so much more is brought forth about this incredible woman here in 'American Experience: The Codebreaker' and although Mrs. Friedman worked closely with her husband William as part of a team, many of her contributions to cryptology were unique.

She deciphered many encoded messages throughout the Prohibition years and solved many notable cases single-handedly, including some codes which were written in Mandarin Chinese.

As has been determined, the complexity or difficulty mattered not. After fifty years at her business, Elizebeth Smith Friedman had indeed proved to be a pioneer in code breaking. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.