Movie: The Man Who Never Was (1956)

• Director: Ronald Neame
• Release Date: 9 May 1956 (France)
• Writers: Ewen Montagu (book) Nigel Balchin (screenplay)
• Run Time: 103 min
• Country: UK
• Genre: War , Drama  

Tagline: The most fiendish plot ever conceived! The most amazing "human being" ever created! The most diabolical phantom–  

Trivia: Clifton Webb, who usually wore a mustache in his films and in real life, had a full beard in this film because Royal Navy regulations forbade its officers and men from wearing only a mustache. To comport with the Navy’s rules, Webb’s choice was to be either entirely clean-shaven or to have a beard. The real Ewen Montagu, the character Webb portrays in the movie (and who is seen in a cameo as an Air Marshal in the meeting of the Chiefs of Staff), was in fact clean-shaven.
 

Goofs: Continuity: While O’Reilly is waiting in his room to see if he’ll be arrested, the light level outside varies continually over the hour of movie time. It starts in the evening. When O’Reilly looks out and sees the drunk it’s already quite dark. But when the special branch officers arrive and hide outside, it’s quite bright.
 

“British Intelligence during World War II is trying to get the German High Command to shift it’s forces away from Italy prior to the invasion. To create the illusion of a plan for England to invade Greece a dead body is to be procured, allowed to be found with secret papers on him by Spanish &authorities who will send the papers on to the Germans, or that’s the plan. First they have to find a body that will look drowned, and create an identity for him that will pass the examination of the German agent who is sure to check him out. Based on a true story. Written by John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>”