noelani54
This film would not have been made, until decades later, had someone not blown the whistle, while it was still meant to be classified. It had worked so well, that they wanted to reserve the right to use it again, if there was a similar war any time in the near future. Since it was made, though, I think they did an excellent job on the film, starting with casting Clifton Webb as the mastermind of the operation. Gloria Graham added a great deal, too, although her character was mostly fictitious. Stephen Boyd as the German spy also added strength to it. I loved the way they demonstrated respect to the corpse, and the extreme care they took to cover every base. How many Allied troops were saved, just that one landing, is unknown, but would certainly have been in the thousands. To sum it up, I feel this was an excellent telling of a brilliant and dramatic event in history!
Dalbert Pringle
Right off the bat, this marginally entertaining (but decidedly morbid) WW2 drama lost itself 4 stars for featuring in its cast that total cow, American actress, Gloria Grahame, as one of the story's principal players.It then lost itself yet another 2 stars for claiming that its story was, indeed, true, when, in reality, only the first half of this tale could make that claim, while the last half was nothing but a complete fabrication.On top of all of that - I also found that there was, yet again, another actor who had a major part in the story whose unconvincing performance as Commander Montagu quickly began to grate on my nerves, big-time - And that was the priggishly effeminate, Clifton Webb (a real-life "Momma's Boy").With so much already going against this picture, I'm really surprised that I actually had the patience to sit through its 103-minute running time.But, as it turned out - Actor Stephen Boyd (whom I do like) appeared in a pivotal role (as an Axis agent) in this picture's latter half (its untrue part) and so I tolerated the rest of the show just to see what sort of shenanigans his character would get up to.For anyone who's interested - The Man Who Never Was is one of those truly rare war pictures that completely avoided battle scenes and big bomb explosions.*Special Note re. Gloria Grahame* - In real-life Grahame was something of a sexual predator and paedophile. It's true.As the story goes - In 1948 Gloria married director Nicholas Ray. (She was 25. He was 37) 2 years into this marriage Ray caught Grahame in bed with his 13 year-old son, Tony, from a previous marriage.Sure enough, Ray did divorce Grahame. But, (get this!) 8 years later Grahame actually married Tony, who was now 21.It sure looks to me like Grahame was something of a "Mommie Dearest" type, even more dangerous than the likes of Joan Crawford.
ginobean
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.
Paul Mc Donald
I just watched the movie after reading Ben Macintyre's Operation Mincemeat, Harmon, 2010. Assuming his account is accurate, it took much longer to do the planning and find and prepare a body than the movie indicates. Much of the movie is about the efforts of the Germans to check the veracity of Major William Martin in England. None of that is in the book nor is there anyone like Lucy. Instead, Jean Leslie wrote the letter to Major Martin, signing it "Pam" not "Lucy." The book spends many pages on what happened to the briefcase in Spain and how its contents were treated in Germany. According to the book, Lt. Col. John Bevan was ushered into Churchhill's bedroom where Churchill was in bed, as was his custom late in the morning, to ask for Churchhill's approval. p. 127. Peter Sellers did Churchhill's voice for the movie, though this is not acknowledged in the film.
AD
