The Man Who Never Was (1956)

Fresh and Exciting

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

British Intelligence crafts a plan to use a dead body to mislead German Intelligence on plans to invade southern Europe.The movie amounts to a meticulous account of a British ruse to fool the Germans during WWII. Ordinarily, such a detailed narrative would be taxing, but not so here. Deceiving the Nazis requires maximum planning, no loose threads allowed. Thus we're drawn into the process of making sure no risk of exposure is left uncovered. After all, the lives of thousands of Allied troops are at stake. At first I thought the Gloria Grahame role (Lucy) was just an add-on for marquee purposes, but her thread is cleverly woven into the success of the overall plan. In fact, she has the only really dramatic role in the film. On the other hand, Clifton Webb gives a carefully controlled, quite persuasive performance as the plan's no-nonsense mastermind. Except for Grahame's two key emotional scenes, however, acting is secondary to the unfolding narrative. Story here is paramount, thanks to Ronald Neame's smooth direction. Has British Naval Intelligence in fact covered all possible slip-ups, or will Nazi agent (Boyd) manage to find a hole in the plan. All in all, it's an intriguing storyline based on a true WWII episode.

I just listened to the book OPERATION MINCEMEAT which updates much of the factual data of this mostly factual film. If you browse the web for photographs of the grave of Major Martin, you will also find that Clifton Webb did indeed visit the real location as shown at the end of this film, and that the identify of Martin was later verified and added to the grave by the British government. Glyndryr Michael, a homeless man who died in London of rat poison. I direct you to the book above which is one of the best reads I have enjoyed. The second agent, Charles Chumley, should have been in this film but chose not to participate. He WAS on the set, daily, just watching. No one knew who he was. For a quiet, slightly off-beat spy and war film, this one is very intelligent and smart. Aviation buffs will also enjoy seeing, briefly, DeHaviland Mosquitos in one scene. A very good film, straightly made and to the point.

Well worth watching -- all the more because it's based on what actually happened in real life during World War II.A couple issues bothered me, though. At one point, the Clifton Webb character goes, with his assistant, to wait for the spy at the bank. It wasn't clear to me what they would have done if the spy had actually shown up at the bank. This is never explained.Later, when the spy reveals his address to ascertain whether the identity of the dead man is true or not, the initial reaction of British intelligence is to try to pick up the spy.But the Clifton Webb character should have prepared for this in advance. Think of it this way -- a German spy comes to verify the authenticity of the dead man. If you try to engage with him in any way that might arouse suspicion, you've essentially blow the whole operation and given the game away. Best thing to do is to give him a wide berth until the Sicily invasion has commenced.Eventually, the Clifton Webb character realizes this, but only just in the nick of time.On reflection, my guess is that the real character, that Clifton Webb was portraying, probably did foresee the wisdom of not engaging with the spy and also kept British intelligence from interfering way in advance. In other words, the way it happens in the movie was done mostly for dramatic effect.For me these two points didn't ring true.Other than that, it was fun and exciting to watch.

There is a book out this year (2010) by Ben Macintyre that sheds new light on Operation Mincemeat, based on some declassified documents. The movie does a good job of portraying the story for the screen. Macintyre reveals that the "body" that was dumped in the sea was a young impoverished Welsh coal minor who, either as suicide or out of hunger, ate some rat poison spread on bread in a London tenement as a vermin trap. When the body was recovered by the Spanish fisherman, the "papers" were almost given back to the British. They had to fabricate radio traffic on "compromised" lines to draw the attention of the Germans to the documents. "Oh, yoo-hoo! Look over here!" Lastly, the "papers" had the good fortune to fall into the hands of a Colonel in German intelligence who was a member of the German Resistance. He doubted their authenticity, but sold the Nazi hierarchy on their genuineness. He was hung by the SS in July of 1944 after the failed plot against Hitler.Just some interesting historical amplification for a fine 50-year old movie.