The Man Who Never Was
by Ronald Neame
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Josephine Griffin, Robert Flemyng, Stephen BoydDirector: Ronald Neame
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Oswald Morris
Editor: Peter Taylor
Producer: André Hakim
Producer: Bob McNaught
Writer: Ewen Montagu
Writer: Nigel Balchin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
Published: 2005-06-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-07
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The Man Who Never Was
Movie Review: British intelligence at its finest hour. An amazing film in any way.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most meticulously well told espionage stories ever!
Clifton Webb gives a stunning performance as the cold Lt. Commander Mantagu, whose mission is to create a diversion tactic to lure the Germans away from the real Italian location the British plan to invade. So he thinks of the most daring, sophisticated and simple plan of them all: to have a dead British officer carrying top secret information falling on the hands of the Germans. But the plan is not easy and every detail must be calculated with care as the Germans will know the information is too good, therefore, they will investigate the dead man's life in order to spot any fabrication.
Most of the film revolves around the making of the "the man" - getting the right body, producing the documents, finding him a personal life, preserving him from decomposing... and launching him from a submarine into a beach in Spain where the sharpest German operator is certain to find him.
Then it all becomes a psychological game as the British try to understand what response will come from the Germans. Did they buy it? Did they disregard him as an obvious lie? So the Germans send a top spy into Britain to investigate the life of such a valuable man - too valuable to be true.
So this is NOT a spy film like most. It has no fight or combat scenes and most of the action is pretty much like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - both films even share the same cinematographer. Put on top of it all the fact that this is a British film and you'll get all the elegance, pace and charm of the best WWII films.
Also impressive is that this is a CinemaScope film made in 1955 with a gorgeous cinematography by Oswald Morris (Lolita, The Guns of Navarone, The Odessa File and The Man Who Would Be King).
The DVD comes with two versions of the film (one on each side of the disc): the CinemaScope version and the unacceptable Pan&Scan version that completely destroys the CinemaScope's beautiful frame composition.
I admit that after having seen Clifton Webb on other films like Laura and Cheaper By the Dozen, I was afraid he would not look convincing as an Intelligence officer... but Clifton Webb was really an amazing actor and his portrayal of Lt. Montagu is stunningly precise.
Recommended.
Summary of The Man Who Never Was
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