Operation Mincemeat: British war film about the conquest of Sicily by Allied forces in 1943 and the special role of the deception “Operation Mincemeat”.
Film plot and background
A man who never existed, a good deception and some luck. These are the main cornerstones of the madcap “Operation Mincemeat” in World War II. On 26 May 2022, the biopic starring Colin Firth and Matthew MacFayden will be released in German cinemas.
“The Deception” – plot
To retake Sicily from Hitler and his forces and defeat a decisive attack on Mussolini during World War II, British officers devised an elaborate deception to keep the invasion of Sicily under wraps.
As early as 1939, a British Navy memo was circulated by Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Isaacs), presumably written by his assistant Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn), creator of “James Bond”. In it there was a passage about a fresh corpse that was to be disguised, provided with misleading papers, placed on enemy shores and thus fall into enemy hands.
The basic plan was to be devised by RAF soldier Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfayden) and Navy expert Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth). In London they found the perfect body, but the new identity as William Martin had to be made believable. A fictional girlfriend was invented, portrayed in a photograph by MI-5 agent Jean Leslie (Kelly Macdonald).
Fictitious love letters, a seemingly believable passport, a worn uniform and alleged letters from British leaders pretending that Allied forces were travelling not to Sicily but to Greece and the Balkans were placed in the body’s pockets. Finally, the body was placed on the Spanish coast at Huelva, where it was inspected first by Spanish, and later by German soldiers. The plan worked. Hitler withdrew the forces from Sicily, within three weeks Sicily was completely conquered by the Allies and Mussolini was defeated. “
“The Deception” – Occupation, Background
Already in 1956, a film version of the madcap deception story “The Man Who Never Was” appeared in cinemas, based on the factual novel by the real Ewen Montagu. The biopic by John Madden “The Deception” is based on the accounts of historian Ben Macintyre and was adapted for the screenplay by Michelle Ashford.
It stars Colin Firth (“1917”), Matthew Macfayden (“Pride and Prejudice”), Johnny Flynn (“Emma”), Jason Isaacs (“Harry Potter” series) as well as Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”) and Penelope Wilton (“Downton Abbey”). Shakespearean actor Simon Russell Beale can be seen as Winston Churchill.
Filming already took place in December 2019 in the UK and Spain, but dragged on until March 2021. On 26 May 2022, you can see “The Deception” here on the big screen.
