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The Man Who Never Was

83 statements
15 feature instances
6 referencing feature instances

The Man Who Never Was	type	TVTItem
The Man Who Never Was	label	The Man Who Never Was
The Man Who Never Was	page	TheManWhoNeverWas
The Man Who Never Was	comment	This 1956 British espionage thriller, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Clifton Webb and Gloria Grahame, is the story of a World War II plot to deceive German intelligence regarding the then-imminent invasion of southern Europe by the Allied forces. The film was adapted from a 1953 memoir of same title by Ewen Montagu (played by Webb in the film), a serving Royal Navy intelligence officer then ranked lieutenant commander.This was to be achieved by allowing a dead body, dressed as a British officer named William Martin, to wash ashore in southern Spain carrying "plans" for the invasion (which the Germans were expecting anyway), in the hope of making the enemy think that he was a courier who had drowned en route. Spain was technically neutral but friendly to Germany, and would certainly allow them to obtain a copy of any documents on the body, but they would also hand the body back to the British if asked, and so offer the Germans just a couple of days to handle the original documents and possibly investigate the body in detail. To make it all work, the British invented a Backstory about Major Martin's career, tastes, private life, etc., designed to provide enough detail to convince the enemy that their windfall was genuine.It succeeded, and German High Command ordered several army units to move to Sardinia (where the purported invasion was to take place) from Sicily (where the actual invasion was going to be). As with D-Day a year later, the quality of the deception was such that while the actual invasion was underway, the Germans still believed it to be a decoy.The story focuses to a large degree on the technical aspects of "inventing" a person that the enemy can believe is real and much of the pleasure comes from that. However, in making the movie, some extra elements are put in to flesh out the plot. This is an interesting movie and as well carries some of the "atmosphere" of a traditional British World War II movie.The true identity of 'Major Martin' was a closely-guarded secret for the duration of the war; his body was obtained on the condition that his name never be revealed publicly. It wasn't until 1998 (a full 56 years later) that the British government added a dedication to 'Glyndwr Michael' (a semi-literate homeless man with no surviving family) on 'Major Martin's' tombstone.
The Man Who Never Was	fetched	2023-04-18T03:44:26Z
The Man Who Never Was	parsed	2023-04-18T03:44:27Z
The Man Who Never Was	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Man Who Never Was / int_1f067b97	type	Invented Individual
The Man Who Never Was / int_1f067b97	comment	Invented Individual: Major Martin is a completely fictional identity crafted from whole cloth for a cadaver for the purposes of planting disinformation about Allied plans for the invasion of Italy.
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The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_1f067b97
The Man Who Never Was / int_3f0b2f50	type	Make It Look Like an Accident
The Man Who Never Was / int_3f0b2f50	comment	Make It Look Like an Accident: Slight variation: unlike typical examples of this trope, William Martin wasn't a murder victim but died in a hospital. However, the Backstory is that Martin is acting as a courier bringing battle plans to the British Forces HQ in North Africa. His plane crashed at sea, and his body, with messenger bag attached, washed ashore on the Spanish coast. So the cause of death would have to be indistinguishable from drowning.
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The Man Who Never Was / int_3f0b2f50	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_3f0b2f50
The Man Who Never Was / int_4f0d950e	type	Unwanted Revival
The Man Who Never Was / int_4f0d950e	comment	Unwanted Revival: One of the potential "candidates" at the hospital disappoints them by discovering his lack of qualifications for the operation. As Lt. Acres said, he "up and recovered: very unreliable type".
The Man Who Never Was / int_4f0d950e	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_4f0d950e
The Man Who Never Was / int_5d3483cc	type	Reading The Enemy's Mail
The Man Who Never Was / int_5d3483cc	comment	Reading The Enemy's Mail: Inverted and Subverted. The whole point is to make the Germans THINK they are doing this.
The Man Who Never Was / int_5d3483cc	featureApplicability	-0.3
The Man Who Never Was / int_5d3483cc	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_5d3483cc
The Man Who Never Was / int_73d1a356	type	The Noun Who Verbed
The Man Who Never Was / int_73d1a356	comment	The Noun Who Verbed: The title.
The Man Who Never Was / int_73d1a356	featureApplicability	1.0
The Man Who Never Was / int_73d1a356	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_73d1a356
The Man Who Never Was / int_7bd8307f	type	The Infiltration
The Man Who Never Was / int_7bd8307f	comment	The Infiltration: The Irish Nationalist Agent sent by the Germans to investigate the credentials of William Martin.
The Man Who Never Was / int_7bd8307f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Man Who Never Was / int_7bd8307f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_7bd8307f
The Man Who Never Was / int_9d3f4777	type	My Nayme Is
The Man Who Never Was / int_9d3f4777	comment	My Nayme Is: Charles Cholmondeley's last name is pronounced "Chumly".
The Man Who Never Was / int_9d3f4777	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_9d3f4777
The Man Who Never Was / int_a8559a9f	type	RealLife
The Man Who Never Was / int_a8559a9f	comment	In Real Life it went off pretty well, too well to provide much drama anyway, so it was necessary to add some difficulties per Rule of Drama. The second half, where there is doubt among the German camp so they send an Irish spy, is entirely invented to extend the runtime.
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The Man Who Never Was / int_b3d5d61	type	Real-Person Cameo
The Man Who Never Was / int_b3d5d61	comment	Real Person Cameo: The real Ewen Montagu appears as an Air Marshal who is extremely sceptical of Montagu's plan. Montagu and his fellow mastermind Charles Cholmondeley both acted as uncredited consultants on the film, but only Montagu would agree to appear onscreen.
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The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_b3d5d61
The Man Who Never Was / int_b9af5ef3	type	The Film of the Book
The Man Who Never Was / int_b9af5ef3	comment	The Film of the Book: The film was adapted from the real Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu's 1953 memoir of same title.
The Man Who Never Was / int_b9af5ef3	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_b9af5ef3
The Man Who Never Was / int_dc579c91	type	Contrived Coincidence
The Man Who Never Was / int_dc579c91	comment	Contrived Coincidence: The Irish spy sent to investigate "Martin"'s backstory visits his fake fiancée... who is legitimately grieving as she's just heard the news her real boyfriend was killed in action. This helps to convince the Germans that "Martin" is genuine.
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The Man Who Never Was / int_dc579c91	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_dc579c91
The Man Who Never Was / int_e4965307	type	Composite Character
The Man Who Never Was / int_e4965307	comment	Composite Character: Ewen Montagu in this film appears to be compressed with Ian Fleming (yes, that Ian Fleming) since in Real Life, the operation was partially his idea (he worked as a junior officer at the Secret Intelligence Service at the time of the operation).
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The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_e4965307
The Man Who Never Was / int_e4b69188	type	Very Loosely Based on a True Story
The Man Who Never Was / int_e4b69188	comment	Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The body of the real Glyndwr Michael was used without his family being told anything about it. In Real Life it went off pretty well, too well to provide much drama anyway, so it was necessary to add some difficulties per Rule of Drama. The second half, where there is doubt among the German camp so they send an Irish spy, is entirely invented to extend the runtime.
The Man Who Never Was / int_e4b69188	featureApplicability	1.0
The Man Who Never Was / int_e4b69188	featureConfidence	1.0
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	The Man Who Never Was / int_e4b69188
The Man Who Never Was / int_e9f52c2d	type	Britain Is Only England
The Man Who Never Was / int_e9f52c2d	comment	Britain Is Only England: Montagu tells the father of the dead man whose body he wants to use that this is an opportunity to "do a great thing for England." The father, who is a Scotsman, takes umbrage.
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The Man Who Never Was / int_name	type	ItemName
The Man Who Never Was / int_name	comment
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The Man Who Never Was / int_name	itemName	The Man Who Never Was

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	Badass Bureaucrat / int_3bd63f78
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	Britain Is Only England / int_3bd63f78
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	Disposable Vagrant / int_3bd63f78
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	Handcuffed Briefcase / int_3bd63f78
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	Hot Librarian / int_3bd63f78
The Man Who Never Was	hasFeature	Real-Person Cameo / int_3bd63f78

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