The Man Who Never Was Backdrop Blur
The Man Who Never Was Poster

The Man Who Never Was

"The most fiendish plot ever conceived! The most amazing "human being" ever created! The most diabolical phantom--"

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

    Clifton Webb

    Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu

  • Gloria Grahame

    Gloria Grahame

    Lucy Sherwood

  • Robert Flemyng

    Robert Flemyng

    Lt. George Acres

  • Josephine Griffin

    Josephine Griffin

    Pam

  • Stephen Boyd

    Stephen Boyd

    Patrick O'Reilly

  • Laurence Naismith

    Laurence Naismith

    Adm. Cross

  • Geoffrey Keen

    Geoffrey Keen

    Gen. Nye

  • Moultrie Kelsall

    Moultrie Kelsall

    The Father

  • Cyril Cusack

    Cyril Cusack

    Taxi Driver

Overview

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.

Rating

7.0 / 10
94 Reviews
1 Popular

1 Reviews

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    7 Aug 11, 2024

    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.

Trailers & Clips

Recommendations