Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Micransix Crappy film

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

shakercoola A film about how a jobbing actor, Meyrick Edward Clifton James, with seemingly all the qualifications for a role has to convince hundreds in a way that is more terrifying than any theatrical role ever required of an actor, and which has huge import for the war effort in World War II. Some aspects of the true story were in fact interesting and left out of the film; it was actor and Lieutenant-Colonel David Niven who was the real life Army Film Unit contact that James would be sent to. Operation Copperhead, would see James assigned to Montgomery's staff in order that he may learn his speech and his mannerisms. James had to quit drinking and smoking and, having lost the middle finger of his right hand during the First World War, a prosthetic one was made for him. While it is arguable the screenplay came up slightly short on impact in these and some other ways, the end of the film is a good climax to the film but is fictional. Also, the film has a reduced tension in the way the third act plays out because the audience is told at the beginning that the real person is playing the part of M.E. Clfton James. All in, this is a great little film and it tells a terrific story about disinformation. It has excitement and there's a little humour injected to make the story move along at a nice pace.

Goingbegging At the fag-end of the 50's, a generation of long-demobbed soldiers were still trying to cut it in uniform, in a spate of cheap black-and-white war films. More convincing than most was the unknown star of this true story, a minor Australian actor who had been rejected by the entertainment services, and was reluctantly pen-pushing in the pay office, when someone noticed that he was a dead ringer for Montgomery.This was in the run-up to D-Day, when the allies were desperate to draw enemy attention away from Normandy as the obvious invasion zone. Might a Monty-lookalike be able to fool German intelligence by touring North Africa, as though preparing for a big Mediterranean landing instead?The actor in question, M.E. Clifton James, is secretly employed as a driver on Monty's staff, in order to get close enough to study his speech and mannerisms. But he doubts his own ability to replicate the character and personality of the great man, not least because 'Jimmy' is a chain-smoking alcoholic. Eventually, jolly optimist John Mills persuades him to go through with it, and suddenly he's stepping off a plane in Gibraltar, under scrutiny from enemy agents (one of them brilliantly sinister, as played by Marius Goring), as well as certain officers who remember Monty from before the war.Defying many attempts on his life, Jimmy overcomes his desperate shyness, and learns to take massed salutes from whole armies. Then all too soon, D-Day has come and gone, his one brief star-performance is over, and it's back to the humble pay office. Except... they felt it necessary to bolt-on a false ending, about which we can reveal nothing, except that it never happened.As for the real-life outcome, we have to face the disappointing fact that it was only part of a much larger decoy operation, which did throw the enemy into some confusion, but reports of Jimmy's own effort reaching Hitler's desk seem to be wishful thinking. The film displays some recognisable weaknesses of those low-budget productions. The over-long opening section is taken up with John Mills' various flirtations, whose only consequence for the story is that his humourless boss (Cecil Parker) decides to replace their seductive secretary with the ugly-beautiful Barbara Hicks, in some ways more arresting. And the way Mills and Parker chat freely in public about top secret plans will grate on the ear of anyone who has worked in intelligence. No war-film of its day was complete without the stuffed-shirt spoilsport Allan Cuthbertson, who duly pops-up here, as does the perennial plug-ugly sergeant Anthony Sagar. Jimmy's one meeting with Monty is awkwardly dodged; we simply cut away from him on the steps of the general's caravan, although split-screen techniques had long since enabled an actor to shake hands with his own double (try the 1937 'Prisoner of Zenda').None of this really detracts from the joy of the film, principally the deeply-believable performance of a professional actor, acting himself acting Monty. Sympathy and charm shine through this modest man, who seems to have been shabbily treated after the war, when he was reduced to the dole. Hopefully this popular film brought a little benison for the five short years that remained to him.

blanche-2 "I Was Monty's Double" is based on the book of the same name, by M.E. Clifton James, an Australian actor in the service who is drafted to impersonate General Montgomery. Though some dramatic license is taken, what makes the film fun is that James plays himself and the historical events are true.In order to make the Nazis believe that D-Day is taking place in Gibraltor, James, who makes an appearance at the end of a show as Montgomery, is asked to impersonate the general. He bears a strong resemblance - so strong, in fact, that when he comes out onto the stage, he gets a standing ovation and rousing cheers. His recruiters, played by John Mills and Cecil Parker, are hoping the troops have the same reaction. They get him assigned as a driver so that he can observe Montgomery at close quarters and copy his mannerisms. James, however, finally tells Harvey and Logan (Mills and Parker) that he can't do it. He's never led a command. Logan is dumbstruck. "You won't be doing any actual commanding," he objects. A consummate actor, James replies, "You don't understand. I have to have it inside." However, he's so good that he is able to find the ego and leadership qualities internally to carry it off.The film is directed by John Guillerman with emphasis on the humor. Marius Goring plays a Nazi spy who thinks he's in tight with the Allies on Gibraltor. "We feed him all kinds of garbage," the top brass says. "He's faster than calling Berlin." The whole bit at the end is fiction, but it doesn't deter from a fascinating story. Highly recommended.

Robert J. Maxwell This is the somewhat true story of Lt. Clifton James who impersonated Gen. Bernard Montgomery at various Allied bases in order to mislead the Germans into thinking that the D-Day invasions would take place somewhere in the Mediterranean.James is pretty convincing too. If he's not a bravura actor, he is at least an actor, which he was in civilian life. He's ably assisted by John Mills, who guides him through his various performances on stage and off, and by Cecil Parker, who is more or less in charge of all the fakery.The British are extremely good at this kind of deceit. I mean, here they have the huevos to pass off some second-rate vaudevillian as a British field marshal and parade him around the high brass, both British and American, in Gibralter and North Africa. Then, too, there was "The Man Who Never Was," a carefully prepared scheme designed to persuade the Germans that the Allies would invade the Balkans rather than Sicily. Outrageous. I don't know who thought up putting General George Patton in charge of the fake FUSAG before Normany, with its inflatable rubber tanks and trucks and its wooden airplanes and concocted radio transmissions but I suspect that if Sherlock Holmes were to investigate he'd be able to sniff out the residual odor of fish and chips. Even during the Falkland Islands war, in 1982, just after the invasion by Argentine troops, the British were entirely candid about the ships and airplanes that were lost, but they'd immediately announced a blockade of the islands, maintained by British submarines -- that were not there. The lesson to be learned from these tricks is that the deceit must be plausible, infrequent, and strategic. Americans seem to do it differently. They lie recklessly. If an American sports figure dies in combat, he's given a decoration even if the death was the result of friendly fire. If a beautiful young woman is rescued from her Iraqi captors, she must have fought heroically and been abused before her salvation.Wait. Someone is flapping a napkin at me from the other end of the table. Let me get back to the movie.This is more of a comedy with some tense moments than it is a war-time drama. With Cecil Parker in a prominent role it could hardly be a heavy movie. Mills is his usual competent self, playing an officer with an eye for the girls. There's one scene that always cracks me up. A gorgeous blond secretary enters the room preceded by her bouncing breasts. She's holding a few pages in front of her. Mills' hand darts out towards her chest and just for a moment -- But, no. He grabs the sheets of paper and yanks them away. Nothing is made of it and the incident only last a second or two but it's emblematic of the movie.Except for the climactic scene in which German raiders capture James, still thinking he's Montgomery, and try to pirate him away from his seaside base until they are foiled by Mills wielding a single Sten gun. Man, that's not only improbable. It's practically impossible. And in fact it never happened.The direction is by John Guillerman, who has had his ups and his downs. One of his ups, in which I had the good fortune to appear, was the serene and majestic art house hit, "King Kong Lives." Here, sadly, his technique is pedestrian. Each important statement is filmed in close up. (That's so the statement's importance doesn't slip past you.) And some scenes are clumsily staged. However, I forgive him any of that because of the way he handled that breasts/papers incident.I don't know if I'd want to watch this too often. We all appreciate Clifton James and his accomplishments but he's not a strong figure and the responsibility of carrying the film is largely his, although the script sticks with Mills and Parker as much as it can.Still, enjoyable, exciting, and -- for some younger folk, I'm afraid -- highly educational.