I Was Monty's Double

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For the film, see I Was Monty's Double (film)

I Was Monty's Double is a book by M. E. Clifton James, first published in London in 1954. It was made into a film in 1958, directed by John Guillermin, from a screenplay adapted by Bryan Forbes.

[edit] Film vs book

The film broadly follows the account by James in his book of the same name, but according to James, there was no attempt to kidnap him. The German High Command did plan to have him killed, but Hitler vetoed the plan until he could be sure where the landings would actually take place.

Gibraltar was in reality a hotbed of German agents, and James/Montgomery was spied on by several operatives who were smuggled into Gibraltar specifically to discover what "Monty" was up to. James/Montgomery deliberately talked nonsense about non-existent operations and plans, in the hope that the spies would overhear and take such information seriously.

The intelligence officer who initially recruited James was David Niven, at that time serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel at the War Office.

The film also includes well-received performances by Leslie Phillips, Michael Hordern as the Governor of Gibraltar, "Rusty" Eastwood, Marius Goring as Karl Nielson and Barbara Hicks as Logan's formidable but highly competent secretary, Hester Baring. In common wth many British films from the period Sam Kydd makes a brief appearance. Bryan Forbes appears as a young officer co-opted to help intercept the kidnappers.

[edit] Satires

  • In 1959, Cecil Parker and Leslie Phillips appeared in a spoof version, The Night We Dropped a Clanger (known as Make Mine a Double in the U.S.), alongside Brian Rix.
  • The 1961 film On The Double, starring Danny Kaye, was also a take-off of I Was Monty's Double, in which Kaye plays the twin roles of the General and the private who (comically but successfully) impersonates him.
  • The 1989 Jason Connery film Casablanca Express freely borrows from the original tale, but with Churchill as the kidnap target. Glenn Ford appears briefly as a character resembling Gen. Williams.
  • British satirical magazine Private Eye carried a spoof version of the War Picture Library graphic novels entitled "Battle for Britain", a satire on then-current British political issues, most notably the miners' strike. The author was credited as "Monty Stubble", a pun on Monty's Double.

[edit] References

  • I Was Monty's Double, a condensation of the book by M E Clifton James. Readers Digest Secrets And Stories Of The War; published by Readers Digest 1963.