The Man Who Never Was is a nonfiction 1954 book by Ewen Montagu and a 1956 World War II war film, based on the book and dramatizing actual events. It is about Operation 'Mincemeat', a 1943 British Intelligence plan to deceive the Axis powers into thinking Operation 'Husky', the Allied invasion of Sicily, would take place elsewhere.
The film was directed by Ronald Neame and starred 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 Adml. Cross, Geoffrey Keen as Gen. Nye, André Morell as Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Michael Hordern as Gen. Coburn and William Squire as submarine commander Bill Jewell.
It was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival
Operation 'Mincemeat' involved the acquisition of a human cadaver, dressing it as a 'Major William Martin, R.M.' and putting it into the sea near Huelva, Spain. Attached to the corpse was a brief-case containing fake letters suggesting that the Allied attack would be against Sardinia and Greece. When the body was found, the Spanish Intelligence Service passed the papers to the German Intelligence Service which passed them on to their High Command. The ruse was so successful that the Germans still believed that Sardinia and Greece were the intended objectives, weeks after the landings in Sicily had begun.
Dialog between Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu and "Major William Martin's" father...:
- I can assure you that this is an opportunity for your son to do a great thing for England.
- The Father: My son, sir, was a Scotsman. Very proud of it.
- Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu: Oh, I beg your pardon.
- The Father: Never mind. We're used to that. You English always talk about England when you mean Britain.
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