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DVD The Man Who Never Was
A real beauty of a true story provides the basis for The Man Who Never Was, a gripping World War II picture that has no combat scenes, no great vistas of troops. The time is 1943, as the Allies prepare the invasion of Sicily and desperately need a diversionary ploy to make the Germans suspect another invasion target. The solution is simple but ingenious: a dead man's body will be left in the sea to float ashore on the coast of Spain; made to look like a British pilot, he will be carrying papers suggesting an Allied attack on Greece. When the papers fall to the Nazis, they'll swallow the bogus story…or will they? The film's final third tracks an Irish spy for the Axis (Steven Boyd, in one of his first roles) as he travels to London to investigate loose ends.
Clifton Webb gives a crisp, disciplined performance as Ewen Montagu, the officer in charge of the scheme. The film errs only in some melodrama involving Gloria Grahame, the histrionic roommate of an Intelligence worker. Other than that, director Ronald Neame brings his steady, classy approach to bear on a good yarn, and saves special grace for the treatment of the unfortunate dead man who unwittingly loaned his body to a stunt that saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. The film's final haunting shots capture the ethereal shiver of its title. --Robert Horton
The true story of the British attempt to lay some heavy disinformation on the Axis in World War II. Clifton Webb plays Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu, the British naval commander who is both mastermind and chief promoter of The Plan, an elaborate concoction of forged papers, misleading faux orders, a convincing back story, and a suitable corpse meant to mislead the enemy about the Allied intentions prior to the invasion of Italy. I don't suppose it's giving too much away to report that things more or less go as planned (although the suspicious Germans do send spy Stephen Boyd in to liven up the last third of the film.) Even though this is indeed a war movie, bang-bang stuff, THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS practically wallows in minute details while eschewing the firefight and the foxhole. That's not to say it doesn't have its share of situational suspense - are those depth charges going to sink the sub and scuttle the movie? - but detail is much preferred over violent action.
Along with the likes of Monty Woolley, Webb more or less cornered the market on playing stuffy, condescending Englishmen. Here Webb's strength, a stiff and rather formal persona who needs a baby-sat seven-year-old to evoke his humanity, is put to good use. There are no kids around and Webb doesn't unbend, but this movie doesn't care that much about the personal life of its characters, anyway, save for poor Gloria Grahame, who's given the rather thankless task of shedding some plot-directed tears and seems rather out of place for her troubles.
Even though it's clinical and relatively bloodless - in every sense of the word - THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS is a great deal of fun. Director Ronald Neame lovingly dwells on every step of the preparation, through to the execution of the caper, and has us deeply involved when the whole thing is threatened with the appearance of the Boyd character. THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS is a fine, thoughtful film that should appeal to those who aren't necessarily great fans of action war movies.
The British Style of Warfare
Britain has traditionally been a naval power but never
had a large standing army. This has prodded its military
planners to think in unconventional terms in striking
at its enemies. This means using its naval forces to
move stealthily around its continental enemies
using naval forces and to try to use deception
to get the enemy off guard, rather than confronting
them head on. The failed First World War operation at Gallipoli was
a good example of this, trying to strike at Germany
"through the back door", rather than just head on
in the blood-soaked trenches of Flanders on the
Western Front.
In the Second World War, all the British leaders and
senior officers
had been traumatized by the slaughter of the
First World War and were desperate to come up with
ways of avoiding a replay. Thus, in 1943, after North
Africa had been cleared of Axis forces, the British
military leaders sought a way to distract the Germans
from the obvious next target, which was Sicily.
The result was deception of "Operation Mincemeat" which is portrayed
in this excellent film. The film is based on Ewen
Montagu's book "The Man Who Never Was". This film
is of a long-lost genre of films which are riveting
in spite of the fact that they don't have any "action",
(i.e. shoot-outs, fist fights, car chases, etc), like another of my favorites "Twelve Angry Men".
A close observation of the film shows, beside the main
story, a lot of other information showing what wartime
Britain was like, such as how London became run-down
and grimy during the long years of bombing and austerity,
how the British learned to take the air raids in stride,
the resignation to the on-going deaths of relatives and
friends
and the shortages of quality consumer goods. In addition,
we see the manifestations of the traditionally tense relationship between
Britain and Ireland as well as Scotland. For military
buffs, there is a brief look at the legendary Mosquito
fighter/bomber and the unsung British submarine force (as
compared to those of the United States and the German
U-Boat force).
One thing to keep in mind is that while Montagu makes
no mention of German efforts to authenticate the existence
of "Major Martin", the film devotes a considerable part
of its plot to that, which I assume is "overdramatized"
to keep the interest of the audience. The film claims
that the German (actually Irish) agent actually gets in
contact with someone who had a part in the whole operation,
and I doubt whether this is factual. However,
this is a minor point and does not detract from the excellence of the film.
Brought Back Some Good Memories
I first saw this great film when I was a kid. It was nice to view it again. It doesn't have any special effect or car race, but it is still a good suspenful thriller. Thank to the family who donated the body of their son to serve the effort of the war and thank to the British Intelligence Officer who thought of the deceiving plot, many British lives were saved. It was well worth the money to see it again and to lend it to my children. You'll enjoy it, I promise you. To you "Man who Never was" thank you.
This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Wayne - Claire Trevor - Laraine Day Director(s): William A. Wellman DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The long-awaited emergence of Nightmare Alley into the light of DVD should achieve two things: make a legendary film noir available to a new generation, and restore the horrific charge to the lately watered-down term geek, a concept that once had the power to give people very bad dreams indeed.
To his lasting credit, Tyrone Power--20th Century Fox's extraordinarily handsome but not terribly interesting star of the '30s and '40s--begged for the chance to play Stan Carlisle, the predatory charmer who snakes his way through this bracingly unwholesome story. A spieler for--and lover of--carnival mind reader Zeena (Joan Blondell), he displays uncanny skill at "reading" the susceptible rubes, including a tough sheriff who turns to jelly after Stan psychs him out. Once Stan's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tyrone Power - Joan Blondell - Coleen Gray Director(s): Edmund Goulding DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"What's the use of having a war if you don't learn from it?" The speaker is Alec Stiles (Richard Widmark), a menthol-sniffing asthmatic in a snap-brim hat who's nailed down the organized-crime franchise for a burg named Center City, and who runs it "scientifically," using methods he picked up in uniform during WWII. He can even tap into the databanks of the FBI. Which, by coincidence, is gearing up to bring his mini-crime wave to an end. Street with No Name invites us to sit back and watch both sides deploy their methodologies at each other.
The semidocumentary crimefighting/spybusting thrillers of the late '40s are fascinating for their blend of institutionalized rectitude (the FBI is totally trustworthy and awesomely competent), authentic locations ("filmed where it... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Mark Stevens - Richard Widmark Director(s): William Keighley DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The postwar vogue for documentary-style realism, prompted by The March of Time and the critical success of Roberto Rossellini's Open City, cross bred with film noir to create a compelling strain of crime films; this is one of the most low-key and credible, based on the true story of a Chicago reporter (James Stewart) who became convinced of the innocence of a death-row inmate (Richard Conte). Director Henry Hathaway (whose Kiss of Death started the trend) stages the action on the actual Chicago locations, providing a fascinating documentary record of an underfilmed metropolis (the convict's mother is a washerwoman at the Wrigley Building), and leads his cast to appropriately restrained, naturalistic performances. Stewart is just beginning to explore his newfound,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Richard Conte Director(s): Henry Hathaway DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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