L'affaire Winston

Military courtroom drama starring Robert Mitchum. Solid performance from Mitchum and the supporting cast. Set in India during the latter part of World War 2 Mitchum's character, Lieutenant Colonel Barney Adams (multi-decorated and injured during various campaigns of the war) is assigned the task of defending accused murderer, Lieutenant Winston. Lieutenant Winston's crime was the seemingly unprovoked murder of a British sergeant. Lieutenant Colonel Adams pursues his task of defending the accused with vigour, aggravating the judiciary, prosecution and potential witnesses to the murder. The movie is based on the book 'The Winston Affair' by Howard Fast.

... 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.

This is the film Guy Hamilton made just before the blockbuster of his career "Goldfinger" -which,although very different from "Man in the middle" ,remains one of the best (who says best?) Bond ever made-.

The problem with "man in the middle " is that there's not enough scenes with Keenan Wynn.We would like to know more about him,about his childhood,his relationship with his colleagues,women ,etc.Only Trevor Howard's final plea -which an ominous music makes disturbing- really tells us about his psyche.Also handicapped by a decorative female character who brings almost nothing to the plot whereas we 're waiting to know more about Winton's motives.Average.

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.

Well written and acted courtroom drama. Robert Mitchum is sequesterd to defend accused murderer Keenan Wynn in what amounts to a show trial to appease British and American relations in WW 2 India. Mitchum is solid as usual. (Was the limp and cane part of the character or did Mitchum injure himself skiing prior to production?) He shows genuine anguish as he struggles between what he knows is a valid insanity defense and what the military wants him to do. Trevor Howard is always great although his role is so minisule you almost forget he's in the film. Then there's Keenan Wynn perfectly cast as our murderer. Although he seems for the most part slightly restained . I could have used a little of his Colonel Bat Guano from Dr. Strangelove wierdness here. France Nuyen. Ah France Nuyen! If only she'd fall for me as quickly as she does Mitchum in this movie. Indian locations are used to good effect. Then of course it brings up the old validity of avoiding the death penalty by reason of insanity. Of course this is standard ruling in law, but one has to ask the question is it true justice? Check this one out if you get a chance. The Winston Affair or Man in the Middle . It's well worth it.