The man who never was

We had all read Operation Mincemeat by Ben McIntyre who had the wonderful good fortune of first finding Montague's son and then with him discovering the the proverbial tin trunk ful of material relating to this marvellously eccentric operation. Most had also seen the BBC docudrama of the same name. The original film while being a period piece from the 1950s though set in the 1940s reminded us of the way in which people spoke, smoked and generally related to each other. There is a major departure from the 'real' story with the inclusion of Riley who is supposed to be Irish yet talks with a rather odd German accent and is supposed to be a German spy. The truth was in fact much more complicated with agents and consuls/vice-consuls and various other personages in Spain either working for or against their own countries and a clear head is needed to remember who is who and who is betraying whom. The film is preceded by a waiver that the name of the "man" is not revealed and he is given a father while in fact the man's name was known and his parentage was unknown but we have to keep remembering that society was different in the 1950s. This is also particularly relevant with regard to Montague who was, if not in love with Pam then at least much taken by her and wined and dined her frequently. When the film was made of course he was still alive as was his wife so it could not have been revealed. There was another very fifties deference to current mores when the body is being dressed for the operation - we never see how they get the clothes on or indeed his face. The final scenes show the grave as it was - William Martin's real name has now been added to the gravestone. We all enjoyed it and no one went to sleep - which has happened before - we think that the original was in black and white and that the film has been coloured up.