I Was Monty's Double is a 1958 film that broadly follows an account by M. E. Clifton James in his book of the same name. It was directed by John Guillermin, from a screenplay adapted by Bryan Forbes.
A few months before the D-Day landings during World War II, the British government decides to launch a campaign of disinformation; spreading a rumour that the landings just might take place at a location other than Normandy. The details of the operation (actually, there were several such operations) are handed to two intelligence officers, Colonel Logan (Cecil Parker) and Major Harvey (John Mills). They are initially unable to devise such a plan - but one night, Harvey sees an actor at a London theatre, who looks just like General Bernard Montgomery.
Logan and Harvey discover that the actor is M. E. Clifton James (playing himself), a Lieutenant stationed in Leicester with the Royal Army Pay Corps and that he was a professional actor in peacetime. He is called to London, on the pretext that he is to make a test for an army film, and a plan is devised that he should tour North Africa, impersonating "Monty". Note the uncanny resemblance below!
A few months before the D-Day landings during World War II, the British government decides to launch a campaign of disinformation; spreading a rumour that the landings just might take place at a location other than Normandy. The details of the operation (actually, there were several such operations) are handed to two intelligence officers, Colonel Logan (Cecil Parker) and Major Harvey (John Mills). They are initially unable to devise such a plan - but one night, Harvey sees an actor at a London theatre, who looks just like General Bernard Montgomery.
Logan and Harvey discover that the actor is M. E. Clifton James (playing himself), a Lieutenant stationed in Leicester with the Royal Army Pay Corps and that he was a professional actor in peacetime. He is called to London, on the pretext that he is to make a test for an army film, and a plan is devised that he should tour North Africa, impersonating "Monty". Note the uncanny resemblance below!
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| The real Monty |
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| The actor M. E. Clifton James (playing himself), impersonating Monty. |
The intelligence officer who initially recruited James was David Niven, at that time serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel at the War Office. On some prints, the title is HELL HEAVEN OR HOBOKEN, words from a speech by the title character when he forgets the prepared text and is obliged to improvise.
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