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poster of The Man Who Never Was
Rating: 7/10 by 84 users

The Man Who Never Was (1956)

The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence.

Directing:
  • Ronald Neame
  • Gerry O'Hara
  • Erica Masters
Writing:
  • Nigel Balchin
  • Ewen Montagu
Stars:
Release Date: Tue, Apr 03, 1956

Rating: 7/10 by 84 users

Alternative Title:
El hombre que nunca existió - ES
El espía que nunca existió - MX
The Man Who Never Was - GB
맨 후 네버 워즈 - KR
존재하지 않은 사나이 - KR

Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Latin
Español
Deutsch
Runtime: 01 hour 43 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0

Plot Keyword: bank, world war ii, dead body

Clifton Webb
Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu
Gloria Grahame
Lucy Sherwood
Robert Flemyng
Lt. George Acres
Stephen Boyd
Patrick O'Reilly
Cyril Cusack
Taxi Driver
André Morell
Sir Bernard Spilsbury
Richard Wattis
Shop Assistant
Everley Gregg
Club Matron (uncredited)
Lloyd Lamble
Passport Officer (uncredited)
Brian Oulton
Wills Officer (uncredited)
John Welsh
Bank Manager
Peter Sellers
Winston Churchill (voice)

CinemaSerf

A bit like "I Was Monty's Double" (1958), this is a clever tale of British counter-espionage based on a true story. An RNVR officer Ewan Montagu (Clifton Webb) hits on the idea of arranging for the body of a senior British officer to be washed up on the shores of Spain complete with a whole set of falsified documents designed to mislead the Nazis into thinking that Greece was a target for invasion from N. Africa and so as to encourage them to divide their forces. A solid British cast of Robert Flemyng, Geoffrey Keen and Laurence Naismith provide the military backbone to the story and Gloria Grahame plays along well when the Nazi's send a slightly oddly cast Stephen Boyd along as an Irishman charged with investigating whether or not the officer and his documents are real. Ronald Neame presents us with a well directed, scripted and scored depiction of a remarkable tale of human ingenuity and the cast deliver a solid and, at times, quite suspenseful wartime drama.


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