Man in the Middle

A first-rate cast, a fine script, a decent plot and a so-so director, (Guy Hamilton), so why wasn't "Man in the Middle" a better movie. It's certainly not a bad film but Hamilton was a dull director, ("Goldfinger" being the notable exception), who lacked imagination and the most he does here is help the movie plod along in an entertaining, if unimaginative fashion. It's set in India in the closing days of the Second World War and begins when an American soldier, (Keenan Wynn, very good), shoots dead a British soldier in full view of witnesses.

Robert Mitchum is the poor sap of an American officer drafted in to defend him and what looks like a cut-and-dried scenario is soon revealed to be anything but. Given the material, (it's based on a good Howard Fast novel), it ought to have been much more complex and exciting than it is but it's certainly a very handsome looking picture, nicely shot in black-and-white Cinemascope by Wilkie Cooper. Never destined to become a classic, it's still fine Saturday Afternoon Matinee fare.

Originally titled MAN IN THE MIDDLE, but bearing a different name in the US film circuit - THE WINSTON AFFAIR, if memory serves me right - this is a middling script off a middling novel by Howard Fast.

Director Guy Hamilton, famous for such James Bond vehicles as GOLDFINGER, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, LIVE AND LET DIE, MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, among others, never rose above middling status himself. In MAN IN THE MIDDLE, his mediocrity stamps just about every well shot, effective frame credibly bringing out a most unusual Indian background (I have to admit that I never knew of a British-US Command HQ in India during WWII) where US Army sergeant Keenan Wynn just shoots dead a British soldier for apparently making a noise at night, promptly retiring to his quarters and enjoying a good night's sleep.

Eleven witnesses and a courtroom case later, the middling solution could only be for a competent lawyer like Mitchum - albeit a bit rusty after not practicing law for 15 years - to plead insanity on Wynn's behalf... and even the British expertt psychiatrist portrayed by Trevor Howard pretty much endorses that finding.

Whether the finale that every senior US officer apparently sought - death by hanging for Wynn - actually happened, goes open ended. Instead, we see a smarmy Mitchum bidding farewell to pretty nurse France Nuyen... and, as much as I admire Mitchum, the best bit happens when another US officer taps his belly and suggests that he is putting on weight. For the remainder, Mitchum looks more or less bored. I was reminded of his famous self-appraisal: "I have two acting styles: with and without a horse."

No wonder his performance should be middling, then: no horse and a mediocre script about a courtroom drama in which poor Wynn finally steps forward and acts the madman.

The point of this film? I couldn't see one. 6/10 stars for reasonable standards of acting from Sullivan, Howard, Wynn, and fair cinematography from Wilkie Cooper.

"Col. Adams" (Robert Mitchum) is drafted in to conduct the defence, at court martial, of an American officer accused of murdering a British NCO in India. There's no doubt about the crime, nor that it was committed as charged so it all looks like fait accompli. "Adams" finds his grey cells starting to twitch when seemingly pointless obstacles are strewn in front of him. One witness is transferred suddenly and those supposed to be facilitating his work start to impede it. One conversation starts to ring alarm bells - perhaps his client isn't competent? Might he have a defence of insanity? That causes great consternation amongst the higher-ups who seem content to sacrifice their man for the sake of Anglo-American relationships. Ironically enough, it is the British doctor "Maj. Kensington" (Trevor Howard) who seems to want the truth told at the trial - but can they make their presence felt against some pretty formidable odds? This film benefits from quite an interesting storyline and a lead actor who is on decent form delivering a solid script. There are plenty of familiar faces amongst the supporting cast and there is just enough jeopardy to keep it interesting for ninety minutes before a fairly lively denouement.

I saw Man in the Middle with my dad at the old Rio Theater in Downtown Miami City in 1964. I was just a child, but I still remember the shocking scene in the beginning of the film where Keenan Wynn's character walks into a packed army tent and shoots a young soldier to death.

Filmed in black and white, the film was extremely well-acted and filmed. Robert Mitchem was outstanding as the officer in charge of defending Wynne and trying to determine just why he murdered this young soldier. However, the show is stolen by Keenan Wynn and he gives his greatest screen performance.

Man in the Middle rates a 10 out of 10.

... and that surprised me as the movies made by Fox in the ten years after mogul Darryl F. Zanuck abandoned the company to bean counters in 1956 were some of the worst films that the company ever made, and this film was made in that ten year period. Now Zanuck did return in the early 60's but Rome and 20th Century Fox were not built/rebuilt in a day.

Lt. Charles Winston (Keenan Wynn) is an American officer during WWII in India, sharing a camp with British soldiers during the time before they are to move out and start a campaign against the Japanese in southeast Asia. At the beginning of the film Winston takes his revolver, walks over to where the British officers are bunking and shoots dead unarmed British staff sergeant Quinn in the full view of witnesses, and then just turns around and goes back to his own quarters and turns out the lights. He probably went to sleep.

Enter stage left Robert Mitchum as Lt. Colonel Barney Adams, who has been appointed defense counsel for Winston. There are two competing pressures here. Apparently Winston's brother-in-law is a congressman and has been applying pressure - thus the high ranking defense counsel versus some random JAG representative, and the apparent motiveless killing of a British soldier by an American soldier is causing friction between the troops when the focus should be on preparing to fight the real enemy.

So Adams - quick on the uptake - learns very fast that he is there to make a show of a defense in a trial in which the only acceptable outcome can be the hanging of Winston. But there are problems. Apparently the army psychiatrist who examined Winston first considered him insane, but was overruled by his commanding officer for no apparent reason. When Adams finds this out the psychiatrist is abruptly transferred to a remote army hospital. A nurse slips Adams a paper showing him the first psychiatrist's diagnosis, although it is an unsigned carbon copy of the original and destroyed report. And when Adams tries repeatedly to interview Winston he gets either stone silence, irrelevant ramblings, AND the motive - that Winston was a racist and did not like the fact that the British soldier he killed was "defiling the white race" by consorting with women of another race when on leave and bragging about it.

So the great irony here is that the armies involved in a world wide conflict to defeat powers that will ignore the facts to get the outcome they desire want their military justice system in this one case to ignore the facts to get the outcome they desire - that they are willing to hang a possibly insane man for the sake of allied cohesion.

Of course Mitchum is great in this role of the lifer army man who is faced with doing things that might damage his career for the sake of justice. Of course he has a love interest - the nurse who handed him the report. Because she looks Asian and this IS 1964, she makes a point of mentioning that she is half French and half Chinese. Wynn is doled out in small doses. Some people find fault with him being the killer and having such a small role, but I think it is to keep doubt in the viewers' minds - is he crazy, or was there some other motive and is he just faking it? Wynn has some important lines though such as "the real war is after the war - east versus west, black versus white". Brave words for a film released in a country at the beginning of an unpopular war and in the midst of the civil rights movement. Finally, Wynn as Winston refuses to take the stand - "Do you think I'm nuts?" he says.

So how will this all work out? Justly or not, and what is that justice? What exactly is going on with Winston in the first place? Watch and find out in this film set in WWII with undercurrents of what was going on in the United States - and worldwide - at the time.