April 19 - The Man Who Never Was

Today’s movie is an espionage thriller with a scene that happens on April 19. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS     

In the spring of 1943, the Allies need to devise a cover story to convince the Germans that they are not invading Sicily.  Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu and his associate, Lt. George Acres devise a plan to put a dead body into the sea near Spain, carrying secret fake documents that will fall into the hands of the Germans indicating the Allies are landing in Greece and Sardinia. The plan is approved; they get a dead body and create a persona for it as Maj. William Martin, Royal Marines. Montagu’s secretary, Pam gets her flatmate Lucy, who is in a relationship with a pilot, to write a very convincing love letter to Martin. Montagu and Acres prepare the body and drive it to a sub base. On April 19, 1943 [46:11 to 49:00] the HMS Seraph leaves the UK with the body of Major Martin on board. Montagu, Acres, Pam and Lucy use the theatre tickets, whose stubs had been put in Martin’s pocket. The body washes ashore in Spain and in spite of efforts by the British Consul, the Germans get copies of the documents. They send an agent, the Irish O’Reilly to London to investigate Martin.  He approaches Pam, but is convinced by Lucy’s real grief over the death of her pilot boyfriend that Martin was real. Montagu convinces MI5 to not arrest O’Reilly, who sends a message confirming Martin and therefore the documents he carried were real. The invasion of Sicily is a success. Montagu gets a medal, which he leaves on Martin’s grave.    

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plot Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied
Victory by Ben Mcintyre (Harmomy Books, New York, 2010) at page 175 gives the date of sailing

Director - Ronald Neame


Producer - André Hakim


Screenwriter - Nigel Balchin


Released – March 15, 1956


Runtime -  1 hour 43 minutes

Starring -

Clifton Webb as Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu

Gloria Grahame as Lucy Sherwood

Robert Flemyng as Lt. George Acres

Josephine Griffin as Pam

Stephen Boyd as Patrick O'Reilly

Laurence Naismith as Admiral Cross

William Russell as Joe

Geoffrey Keen as Gen. Archibald Nye

Moultrie Kelsall as The Father

André Morell as Sir Bernard Spilsbury

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015