The Man Who Never Was (1956)

 

              “The Man Who Never Was” is a British war movie that tells the story of Operation Mincemeat in WWII.  This was a disinformation operation to fool the Germans into thinking that Greece and Sardinia instead of Sicily (Operation Husky).  The movie is based on the book by Lt. Commander Ewan Montagu which was published in 1953.  He participated in the operation and has a cameo in the movie as an RAF officer who evinces skepticism to the character playing him.  The movie was directed by Richard Neame (“Tunes of Glory”).  The movie was well-received and premiered at Cannes.  Screenwriter Nigil Balchins won a BAFTA.

                                The movie claims some names have been changed, but otherwise it is a true story.  In London, 1943, Churchill (voiced by Peter Sellers) announces the liberation of North Africa.  Montagu (Clifton Webb) is in charge of coming up with a plan to distract the Germans from the upcoming Sicily invasion.  He comes up with Operation Mince Meat which will involve dumping a dead body off the coast of Spain.  The body will be disguised as a British officer and have papers on him concerning the invasion of Greece.  The theory is that the pro-Nazi Franco government will turn over the intel to the Abwehr (the German intelligence service).   Montagu convinces the father of a pneumonia victim to donate the body. The father has a stiff upper lip, of course.  The corpse is christened Maj. William Martin.  The body is then prepared, delivered to the sub, and dropped off.  At this point the film introduces a Nazi spy named O’Reilly (Stephen Boyd) to snoop around.  He focuses in on Lucy (Gloria Grahame), the supposed girlfriend of Martin.  Will he ferret out the scheme?  Will the Spanish pass the intel on?  Will the Germans react to it?  Stay tuned.

                                If you want to learn about one of the most famous disinformation operations of WWII, watch this movie.  If you want to be entertained,  watch a History Channel documentary on Operation Mincemeat.  You’ll get the same amount of facts and with panache.  In fact, “The Man Who Never Was” has the feel of a documentary.  I give it full credit as a tutorial.  But it could have been a bit less boring.   You know how I refer to British actors (of whom Webb is the poster boy) as having a stiff upper lip – this entire movie has a stiff upper lip.  Not only is the movie boring, but it has some moments that make you want to gag.  The extended scene of preparing the body is followed by a similarly yawn-producing delivery scene.  The dumping scene goes off without a hitch.  So far, no suspense.  Unless you are on the edge of your seat waiting for Clifton Webb to change his facial expression.  We have to wait for the historical enhancements until the arrival of ace spy O’Reilly midway through.  If you are expecting some suspenseful espionage stuff, go back to sleep.  You don’t need to wake up to know that the movie has a happy ending with Montagu placing a medal on the pneumonia victim’s tombstone - because he died of pneumonia for his country.  One of the gag moments comes when Montagu’s assistant Pam writes a maudlin letter to be found on the corpse, with sentimental music swelling.  It is that kind of Old School British war movie.  Starring the actor who put stiff into stiff upper lip.  If you want the exact opposite of James Bond, choose Montagu, Ewen Montagu.  If you want the opposite of Auric (yes, that’s his first name) Goldfinger, choose Patrick O’Reilly (a lot of thought went into that name).  It is incredible that Nigil Belchins’ screenplay won the BAFTA.  I suppose he put the award at the gravesite of Edward de Vere.  (Comment below if you got that one.)

                GRADE  =  C-

                HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  Operation Mincemeat came into being as a diversion from Operation Husky.  The Anglo-Americans wanted to distract Hitler from the invasion of Sicily.  It was part of a larger operation called Barclay which was designed to divert German attention to the Balkans.  The original idea of using a corpse with false information was credited to an intelligence officer named Charles Cholmondeley (MI5).  Ewen Montagu was assigned by Naval Intelligence to work with him.  Montagu was the one who found the perfect body.  It was not a pneumonia victim.  Glyndwr Michael was a homeless man whose parents were dead.  He committed suicide by rat poison.  He was renamed Maj. William Martin.  The body was to be found with “pocket litter” (things like ticket stubs, girlfriend picture, love letters, etc.) and letters from military authorities referring to an invasion of Greece.  They chose the coast off Huela, Spain for the dump.  Final approval came from both Churchill and Eisenhower.  On April 30, 1943, the submarine HMS Seraph completed the mission.  The body was found by fishermen and soon was in the hands of the Spanish government.  Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, made a personal request for access to the documents that the Franco government acceded to.  Fortunately for Montagu and crew, the opening of the letters caused a planted eye lash to fall out, thus proving that the letters had been read.  The bait had been swallowed.  But did it have the hoped for result?  Hitler did shift forces to Greece and Sardinia, but he was already leaning toward those places being next up for invasion.  No doubt Operation Mincemeat worked as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The conquest of Sicily was relatively easy and this may have been partly due to the disinformation, but was mainly due to the stupidity of a leader who refused to believe an invasion would occur at the most obvious place in the history of amphibious invasions.  As far as the O’Reilly character, perhaps his efforts were so secretively done that we never learned of them.  More likely, he was a figment of the screenwriter’s imagination.