L'homme qui n'a jamais existé

This is a great movie about WWII. I know we don't have scenes of battles and violence, but maybe this is one of this movie's advantages. I don't think blood and shots are really necessary to make a film about a war. Wars are not only made of guns and soldiers, but also of officers who make plans and articulate attacks while they're in secret rooms using every kind of ways to confuse the enemy. In this movie it is decided that British forces would use a corpse with false documents attracting Nazis attention to Greece while the Allied Forces would land in Italy. Easy, but fascinating plot! Watch it!

My rate 8/10

It's around Labor Day of 1943, the Afrika Korps has been kicked out of North Africa, what to do next for the Allies. In point of fact the next logical thing to do was what was done, invade Sicily and clear the route to the Suez Canal and take the pressure of the embattled British forces in Malta.

But there were policy differences because Americans wanted a cross channel invasion back then as the quickest way to defeat Hitler. So the Germans did in fact have to be vigilant on all fronts.

The Man Who Never Was is a true story on a particular intelligence gambit that was tried. A dead body was washed up in neutral, but Axis led Spain. A body selected for the occasion and dropped deliberately by the British showing alternate plans to the Axis.

Not being complete dummies the Germans naturally think to check it out and they send an agent in, a Nazi sympathizer from Ireland played by Stephen Boyd.

The whole idea was cooked up by Admiral Ewen Montagu played here by Clifton Webb who drops his usual acerbic manner and delivers a very good performance against type. Boyd's no fool and it becomes a battle of wits when the Allies learn of his presence in London.

In fact a certain sad, but serendipitous event in the life of Gloria Grahame who is Webb's secretary's roommate plays a key role in the proceedings.

The Man Who Never Was is a very good wartime espionage drama that still holds up very well for today's audience.

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.

"The Man Who Never Was" is a wonderfully suspenseful, well-done World War II drama starring Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, and Stephen Boyd. Superbly directed by Ronald Neame, the film is based on a true story - the planting of a dead body washed onto the Greek shore, which carries papers which will redirect the Axis away from an invasion of Italy planned by the Allies. In order to carry out this hoax, the Allies need the body of a man who died of pneumonia, which will mimic a drowning and fool the Nazis. The scene where such a man is located and Clifton Webb talks to the father is one of the most touching of the film, as is the poignant ending.

For all the accolades about his acting, it still seems that Clifton Webb is under-appreciated today - he goes from a vicious, fey gossip in "The Razor's Edge" to a difficult husband in "Titanic" to a strong, decisive, distinguished member of British Intelligence in this movie flawlessly. He is perfect as Montague. Stephen Boyd is excellent as an Irishman working undercover for the Nazis who appears in London to verify the existence of the dead soldier, who is given a fake identity. Gloria Grahame plays a woman who unexpectedly falls in love and winds up as part of the plot. She turns in a heartbreaking performance. The rest of the cast is uniformly good.

The movie's excitement comes not from action but from the tension of the situation. It's filmed in beautiful color. An excellent movie.

This is a well-crafted movie adaptation of a very interesting story of intrigue from World War II, adapting the historical events enough so as to make them work cinematically without changing the most important aspects of what actually happened. The wealth of detail is interesting in itself, and it is also used well in enhancing the realism of the story.

Clifton Webb stars as the British officer who comes up with the scheme of using "The Man Who Never Was" to trick the Germans into weakening their defenses in Sicily before the planned Allied invasion there. Webb gets to show flashes of his well-known screen sarcasm, but in general he gives a good low-key, all-business performance.

The story divides fairly equally into two parts, first showing the careful development and implementation of the plan, and then following a Nazi investigator (played with believable coldness by Stephen Boyd) as he tries to determine the truth about 'Major Martin'.

The first part is particularly filled with interesting details, and the script very nicely fits them all in without seeming slow or boring. The second part gradually builds up tension, and combines it with the seemingly unrelated tensions in the life of Gloria Grahame's character, bringing things together in a good sequence that sets up the finale while also bringing out some worthwhile thoughts that go beyond the story itself. It all works quite well, both as a historical dramatization and as a story of deception and intrigue.