The Man Who Never Was

During the Second World War, British intelligence wants the Germans convinced that the landings will come in Greece rather than Sicily. The plan: release a corpse carrying false documents into the sea, to be found off the coast of Spain. But the body has to be convincing; the man needs a name, a family, a fiancée and a theatre ticket in his pocket. The subject is not espionage but the construction of a fake life. The best passages are not the operation but the scenes in which the team invents an identity for this man; they write letters, prepare receipts, and bring a person into existence out of nothing. The form is calm and procedural: offices, a mortuary, a submarine. The tension is built in the last section around whether the Germans will examine the documents. The source is the book by Ewen Montagu, one of the officers who ran the operation; he also appears in a small role. The body used was that of Glyndwr Michael, a man with nobody, who was given the identity of Major William Martin. The deception worked and the Germans weakened their defences in Sicily. Ronald Neame directs. Clifton Webb plays Montagu and Gloria Grahame the woman who writes the fake fiancée's letter. Who it is for: viewers interested in wartime deception operations. Who it is not for: anyone wanting action; the film is almost entirely preparation and paperwork.