The Man Who Never Was (1956)

Facts

The Man Who Never Was
DVD Price: $9.99
As of Sep 6 16:43 EDT (details)


Directed by	Ronald Neame
Cast	Clifton Webb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, Josephine Griffin, Stephen Boyd, Cyril Cusack, Allan Cuthbertson, Joan Hickson, Michael Hordern, Geoffrey Keen, Moultrie Kelsall, Terence Longdon and Laurence Naismith
Theatrical Release	November 30, 1955
DVD Release	June 7, 2005
Running Time	103 minutes
MPAA Rating	Unrated
UPC Code	024543173236
Buy this item	$9.99 at Amazon.com As of Sep 6 16:43 EDT (details) 1 DVD, 20th Century Fox, Usually ships in 24 hours, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Languages: English (Original Language - Dolby Digital 1.0), German (Original Language), Latin (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language - Dolby Digital 1.0), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) Or 38 new from $8.09, 12 used from $6.75

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User Reviews

Average user review:

(44 reviews)

The Man Who Never Was

A true war time adventure.Clifton Web did a great performance.A clever plan to fool the Germans. June 29, 2008

Tales of British wartime Derring-Do!

It IS a true tale and a lot of the detail is correct - till about half way through when an "Irish spy" arrives in the UK on behalf of the Germans. Not needed in the real world story - the twist is needed to add some tension at the end of the film.

Clifton Webb acts like Clifton Webb - that is to say like a plank of wood! However for the period it is well done.

Spot the pennant number on a Castle Class frigate in the background of one scene and then go and watch "The Cruel Sea". Guess the Admiralty "lent" the British cinema the same ship in more than one movie!

Topical (early 2008) because as of late the identiy of the "body" used in the real war has become subject of fresh debate. April 26, 2008

Cheers for The Man Who Never Was

I had always tought of clifton Webb as that weird guy who starred only in The Stars And Stripes For Ever, A 1950's verson of The Titanic and Cheaper By The Dozen. He comes a accross as a brilliant ex attorney, an Hercules Poirot type almost, trying to think one step ahead of the Gerries in this wonderful espionage thriller.
True there are no big battle scenes but how all the pieces come together and the tension that builds when the German spy comes to check on things was masterful. Everything fits.
I had read the book on this tale at 15 and now at 42 have seen the film for the first time and give it 4 + stars. February 3, 2008

What a surprise

I loved this movie. It is a true story told honestly. It holds you in suspense like any good thriller. Of course it is dated, but that adds to its quality. Also, it was in color and I feel that helped. Very few people know that a corpse played a very important part in WWII when it was used as a decoy by the British to fool the Germans that they planned an invasion in a different place to where it did happen. The Germans were not fools, and they sent an Irish agent to check out the corpse story. That was where it got really exciting. For its age and subject matter, the movie was quite impressive. Also the dvd has excellent quality color and sound. It survived surprisingly well over the years. You won't be disappointed if you like WWII movies. November 24, 2007

Great simple spy thriller

I never knew of this film but now that I have seen it I feel it is one of the better thriller spy films I have seen. Also, it is not so over the top as any film version of it of today would be. No crazy car chase, no massive explosions... Sometimes simple is better. November 16, 2007

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