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Poster for The Man Who Never Was

The Man Who Never Was

1956 · 103 min

A quietly gripping procedural that turns a bizarre wartime deception into a tense, human story of ingenuity and loss.

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

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • deception
  • war
  • identity
  • grief
  • loyalty
Places
  • big city
  • sea
  • single country house
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • true story
  • procedural
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action2
Horror1
Humour2
Realism8
Romance2
Tension6
Darkness4
Complexity6
Emotional weight5

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
thriller, war, drama, history
Directed by
Ronald Neame
Written by
Nigel Balchin
Starring
Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin, Stephen Boyd, Laurence Naismith, Geoffrey Keen, Moultrie Kelsall
Music
Alan Rawsthorne
Cinematography
Oswald Morris
Runtime
103 min
Country
United Kingdom
Languages
English, German, Latin, Spanish

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