The Man Who Never Was

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

1956 1h 43m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🍅

88%

FRESH

⭐

7.4

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 96🍅88%Rotten Tomatoes★7.4IMDB · 6,427

ThrillerWarDramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

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

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Cast

Clifton Webb
Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu
Gloria Grahame
Lucy Sherwood
Robert Flemyng
Lt. George Acres
Josephine Griffin
Pam
Stephen Boyd
Patrick O'Reilly
Laurence Naismith
Adm. Cross
Geoffrey Keen
Gen. Nye
Moultrie Kelsall
The Father

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ronald Neame
Writers: Nigel Balchin
Languages: English, German, Latin, Spanish
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

70 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, German, Latin, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ronald Neame, shot by Oswald Morris. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Rawsthorne. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Peter Taylor shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame and Robert Flemyng carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The most fiendish plot ever conceived! The most amazing "human being" ever created! The most diabolical phantom--".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0049471 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ronald Neame directs. Oswald Morris behind the camera. Alan Rawsthorne scores. Peter Taylor cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, German, Latin, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

170 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Dialogue crosses 4 languages: English, German, Latin, Spanish.
3Directed by Ronald Neame, shot by Oswald Morris. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Alan Rawsthorne. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Peter Taylor shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame and Robert Flemyng carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "The most fiendish plot ever conceived! The most amazing "human being" ever created! The most diabolical phantom--".
8IMDB entry: tt0049471 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 96 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Original score: Alan Rawsthorne
Editing: Peter Taylor
Makeup / hair: Harold Fletcher
Runtime: 103 min · 1h 43m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Man Who Never Was (1956)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.4/10 · 6,427 votes
MPAA: Approved

Awards

Won 1 BAFTA Award. 2 wins & 4 nominations total

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Ronald Neame

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-08-11
★ 7/10
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.

Production companies