Movie Cosmos - The Man Who Never Was

Description:

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.

Top Cast >

Clifton Webb

As Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu

Gloria Grahame

As Lucy Sherwood

Robert Flemyng

As Lt. George Acres

Josephine Griffin

As Pam

Stephen Boyd

As Patrick O'Reilly

Laurence Naismith

As Adm. Cross

Geoffrey Keen

As Gen. Nye

Moultrie Kelsall

As The Father

Cyril Cusack

As Taxi Driver

André Morell

As Sir Bernard Spilsbury

Michael Hordern

As Gen. Coburn

Allan Cuthbertson

As Vice-Admiral

Joan Hickson

As Landlady

Terence Longdon

As Larry

Gibb McLaughlin

As Porter

Miles Malleson

As Scientist

William Russell

As Joe

William Squire

As Lt. Jewell

Richard Wattis

As Shop Assistant

Ronald Adam

As Adams

Robert Brown

As French

Everley Gregg

As Club Matron (uncredited)

Lloyd Lamble

As Passport Officer (uncredited)

Brian Oulton

As Wills Officer (uncredited)

John Welsh

As Bank Manager

Peter Sellers

As Winston Churchill (voice)

Top Crew >

Ronald Neame

Director

Nigel Balchin

Screenplay

André Hakim

Producer

Bob McNaught

Associate Producer

Alan Rawsthorne

Original Music Composer

Oswald Morris

Director of Photography

Peter Taylor

Editor

John Hawkesworth

Art Direction

Gerry O'Hara

Assistant Director

Erica Masters

Assistant Director

Ewen Montagu

Book

Muir Mathieson

Conductor

Arthur Ibbetson

Camera Operator

Winston Ryder

Sound Editor

Basil Fenton-Smith

Sound Mixer

J.B. Smith

Sound Mixer

Harold Fletcher

Makeup Artist

Tom Howard

Visual Effects

Reviews:

CinemaSerf (7/10)

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.

2024-08-11