Great Film overall

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I came across this old movie on Netflix streaming movies. A very good WW2 caper, it helped the good guys win. Apparently based on real events.It is the springtime 1943 and Allied forces have freed several areas from Nazi occupation. The next logical region to attack is Italy, specifically Sicily. But they judge that to do so likely would result in 30% losses on the battlefield. They need to find a way to get the Nazis to movie some of their defenses away from Sicily.Clifton Webb is really good as Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu who hatches a plan. If they can make the Nazis believe their next target is Greece then invading Sicily will be much easier. But how to do it?Mulling over several ideas, they decide to find a corpse that a family either won't claim or will agree to donate for the mission. It has to be someone who died of pneumonia so the lungs will look consistent with drowning. Then supply the corpse with a uniform, fake identity, and fake letters being carried to African commands explaining the (fake) plan to invade Greece. Then have a submarine carry it to release to be washed up on the Spanish shores.Lots of things need to go right to make this work, so the movie, in a rather deliberate story telling style, takes us through it. Stephen Boyd, still in his early 20s, is the German spy sent to London to check out and see if the dead officer and his letters are real. He has to look up several connections, including the young lady who wrote the love letter found on him. He is given the identity Patrick O'Reilly and speaks with an Irish accent. A very good 1955 movie, good story telling.SPOILERS: As O'Reilly digs up people in London they all begin to suspect that he was there as a Nazi spy, and at the last minutes they figured out if they arrested him, lack of a confirming message to his headquarters would mean the man and message were fake. So they held off, pretended not to know why he was there, he sent the confirming message, the Nazi troops left Sicily which allowed Allied forces to successfully capture the territory.

Right off the bat, this marginally entertaining (but decidedly morbid) WW2 drama lost itself 4 stars for featuring in its cast that total cow, American actress, Gloria Grahame, as one of the story's principal players.It then lost itself yet another 2 stars for claiming that its story was, indeed, true, when, in reality, only the first half of this tale could make that claim, while the last half was nothing but a complete fabrication.On top of all of that - I also found that there was, yet again, another actor who had a major part in the story whose unconvincing performance as Commander Montagu quickly began to grate on my nerves, big-time - And that was the priggishly effeminate, Clifton Webb (a real-life "Momma's Boy").With so much already going against this picture, I'm really surprised that I actually had the patience to sit through its 103-minute running time.But, as it turned out - Actor Stephen Boyd (whom I do like) appeared in a pivotal role (as an Axis agent) in this picture's latter half (its untrue part) and so I tolerated the rest of the show just to see what sort of shenanigans his character would get up to.For anyone who's interested - The Man Who Never Was is one of those truly rare war pictures that completely avoided battle scenes and big bomb explosions.*Special Note re. Gloria Grahame* - In real-life Grahame was something of a sexual predator and paedophile. It's true.As the story goes - In 1948 Gloria married director Nicholas Ray. (She was 25. He was 37) 2 years into this marriage Ray caught Grahame in bed with his 13 year-old son, Tony, from a previous marriage.Sure enough, Ray did divorce Grahame. But, (get this!) 8 years later Grahame actually married Tony, who was now 21.It sure looks to me like Grahame was something of a "Mommie Dearest" type, even more dangerous than the likes of Joan Crawford.

Well worth watching -- all the more because it's based on what actually happened in real life during World War II.A couple issues bothered me, though. At one point, the Clifton Webb character goes, with his assistant, to wait for the spy at the bank. It wasn't clear to me what they would have done if the spy had actually shown up at the bank. This is never explained.Later, when the spy reveals his address to ascertain whether the identity of the dead man is true or not, the initial reaction of British intelligence is to try to pick up the spy.But the Clifton Webb character should have prepared for this in advance. Think of it this way -- a German spy comes to verify the authenticity of the dead man. If you try to engage with him in any way that might arouse suspicion, you've essentially blow the whole operation and given the game away. Best thing to do is to give him a wide berth until the Sicily invasion has commenced.Eventually, the Clifton Webb character realizes this, but only just in the nick of time.On reflection, my guess is that the real character, that Clifton Webb was portraying, probably did foresee the wisdom of not engaging with the spy and also kept British intelligence from interfering way in advance. In other words, the way it happens in the movie was done mostly for dramatic effect.For me these two points didn't ring true.Other than that, it was fun and exciting to watch.

The Man Who Never Was (1956)A straight up insider, realistic yet slick wide screen view of a particular British undercover mission in WWII. There, in one sentence, said it all. It's a very very good film, but depends on its ordinary flair to survive, which means its flair remains a bit ordinary. Some great acting, fast editing, and a final third with a surprise twist that keeps you really watching. And it's based on fact, which adds yet another tilt.I watched it at first because I wanted to see Gloria Grahame, who can be simply astonishing in her slightly off beat roles. And she comes through to a degree here--she doesn't have a lot of screen time, and her role is partly to be saucy (as usual) but partly to be upset and crying, which she does really well. I love the drama built into World War II, in any form, though combat films are less interesting than civilian ones to me, and this was mostly on the home front, London after the Blitz but while some overhead bombing was still apparently going on (it is heard in one scene).As a look at secret service work, or what might now be called a Special Ops mission, it's really quite believable. I suspect, being only a decade after the event happened, there was an attempt to make it honest, but beyond that, it feels honest. The people are determined and flawed and yet very smart and a little lucky. What seems like a turning point in the invasion of Europe by the Allies really seems to hinge on the intuition of one or two people, and the ad lib genius of one American girl on the spot (which I assume is fiction, but who knows?).If you want to relax but never be bored, this is a terrific movie. Though technically an American production, it's thoroughly British, from the source book to the cast to the setting, of course, in London. The British director was originally a cinematographer, which might account for the solid (if unsensational) visual sense of it all. It's not a breakthrough, moving, or memorable film, surely, but as high quality entertainment with a toe in important history it excels.