OPERATION MINCEMEAT

UK, 2021, 126 minutes, Colour.

Colin Firth, Matthew McFadyen, Kelly MacDonald, Penelope Wilton, Jason Isaacs, Johnny Flynn, Simon Russell Beale, Alex Jennings, Mark Gattis, Hattie Morahan.

Directed by John Madden.

The title sounds like one of those comedy satires from the 1950s or 1960s starring Peter Sellers and Terry Thomas. In fact, it was the code name for one of the most significant deception operations perpetrated by the British on the Nazis during World War II. It was a plan to deceive Germany into thinking that the Allied invasion would be through Greece rather than Sicily. 1943. If you remember the story or if this intrigues you, then you will want to see this 21^st-century interpretation, Operation Mincemeat. (The original title of the operation was Operation Trojan Horse, quickly dismissed as too obvious, a dead giveaway, so to speak.)

Back in the day (more precisely, 1956), there was a film version of this story with the intriguing title, The Man Who Never Was. This reviewer still remembers it with great warmth, an exciting story, well told, stirring, and of all people, Clifton Webb as Ewen Montague, the organiser of the operation and the author of a book on which this film was based. It was filled with a whole range of British character supporting actors, an intriguing entertainment.

65 years later, based on a book by Ben McIntyre, with a lot more information available about the operation and the identity of “the man who never was”, this is a tribute to the ingenuity of the team and the details of the operation.

This time it is Colin Firth who is Ewen Montague. It is a typical Britishly Firth-ish performance. Legal counsel, seconded to the war effort, working undercover, his Jewish wife and children sent for safety to the US. His brother, Ivor, was under official suspicion for Soviet contacts – but who later was an eminent filmmaker and film critic (played here by Mark Gattis). Also in the team is Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew McFadyen), the epitome of stitched up British emotions, stiff upper lip, devoted to his task, awkward in relationships. Also in the team is Penelope Wilton as a veteran secretary and assistant and Kelly MacDonald, who works in the office but becomes integral in creating the story of the man who never was.

The plan was to create a fictional narrative, find a body of a man who had drowned, do detailed research which would enable him to be placed in a container, eventually on a submarine, put into the sea off the coast of Spain, and carrying all kinds of documents which would mislead Nazi readers. The plan does not always go according to plan after the body is washed up in Spain, involving the local police commander, the British ambassador, a Spanish associate, hopes that a prominent but easily-taken-in German spy or get the material to Berlin. And, even then, there is a twist as the deceit is finally successful.

There are some subplots involving relationships in the team, some jealousies, spying and reporting to the wary and sceptical Admiral Godfrey (Jason Isaacs). And Simon Russell Beale does a cameo as Winston Churchill.

This is one of those World War II occasions when, secretly, Britannia did rule the waves.

1. The title? The tone? Initially Operation Trojan Horse? The story of The Man who never was?
2. Audience knowledge of the story, Ewen Montague’s popular book in the 1950s, the film version? Further research, new information, the identity of the man and the acknowledgement of him in the headstone in Huelva?
3. The very British tone of the film? The British cast? Few Americans seen? Jean’s boyfriend, his leaving for action, and the Americans during the invasion of Sicily?
4. The introduction to Ewen Montague, Colin Firth’s screen presence and performance, very British, his legal work, seeming retirement, undercover work for the war effort, being part of The 20, his relationship with his wife, tense, reading John Buchan to his son (and the references to the Buchan -type authors, especially military, writing novels? His wife and children going to the US? Her writing to Hester and not to him? His brother, seeming dilettante, the Soviet connections, under official suspicion is an observation? The two brothers living in the same house, further suspicions?
5. The introduction to Charles Cholmondeley, stiff upper lip, restrained emotions, living with his mother, her devotion to her dead son, pleading for Charles to get him home, his spying on Montague and reporting to Godfrey and the brother’s body being returned? His skill at his work? Relationship with Montague? The attraction towards Jean, going out, at the dance, her not responding? His observing her relationship with Montague? And jealousy and resentment, consequences in his judgement?
6. The meeting, Godfrey, in command, scepticism about the plan, the meetings with Churchill, his manner, observations? Operation Trojan Horse? The later change of the name for deception? The various meetings, the proposals, the details? The presence of Ian Fleming, his voice-over, the incidence of the watch gadget intimating James Bond?
7. The details of the plan, getting a body, a drowned man, no connections? Montague and Cholmondeley going to various morgues, the whole rather the doctor, Montague helping in him in court cases? The finding of a body, vagrant, from Scotland, rat poison, his death? His being prepared to be the body of William Martin? The search for someone resembling him, for a photo? and the American boyfriend? Jean, becoming more involved in the story, the details, becoming Pam, writing the letters, refining the details of the relationship, his career, their meeting?
8. Hester, friendship with Montague and his wife, the correspondence with the wife? Working in the office, collaborating with the plane, writing the letters?
9. The screenplay’s attention to the detail of the planning and the research? The body in a submarine rather than drop from a plane? The Spanish coast, space neutrality, politicians and spies? The meeting with the British ambassador, the Spanish associate? The British ambassador, his double life and agents, listening in to conversations and the sexual encounter, the spy and the different sexual encounter?
10. Time, the deadline, the submarine, the commander, driving the body to the submarine? Cholmondeley and his decision to go on the voyage? Mixed motivations?
11. The group, the waiting? The information from Spain, the scenes of the body coming ashore, the fishermen, the local authorities, the police chief, spies and corruption, the local interventions to get the documents, the being prepared for return to England, persuasion to let the spy find them, his getting to Berlin, the authorities in Berlin checking them?
12. The spy arriving at Jean’s flat, his threats, the group of Germans planning to overthrow Hitler? His knowing all the details of the plot? Montague, suspicions, trying to identify him? And the final twist hypothesis that Hitler’s adviser was giving him the wrong information to prepare for his overthrow?
13. The plan, Churchill wanting the attack by the allies in Sicily, the false information about Greece, the transferring of trips to Greece?
14. Montague and Jean, the bond, decisions, the breaking of the relationship? Hester and her advice to Jean?
15. The final achievement, the significance of Operation Mincemeat in the changing of World War II and the saving of allied lives?