THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS

GB
1956
1hr 43mins
Dir: Ronald Neame
Starring: Clifton Webb and Stephen Boyd

In 1943, the British secret service fool the Germans by using a dead man with fake documents

This Second World War film, based on the 1953 book of the same name by Lt. Cmdr. Ewen Montagu (or the Hon. Ewen Montagu CBE, DL, QC as the film gives his name), dramatizes actual events. It is about Operation Mincemeat, a 1943 British Intelligence plan to deceive the Axis powers into thinking Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, would take place elsewhere. It includes a shot of the Praed Street ‘entrance’ to London Paddington station plus some shots filmed at a docks, with some railway wagons present. It is not known for sure where these latter scenes took place but it may be Plymouth and the Devonport area.

A military van pulls into a dockyard, thought to possibly be Devonport. A single flat wagon is visible on the sidings in the background.
The van now arrives onto the jetty where it comes face to face with a single 4-wheel open wagon
Passengers, mostly of a military nature, leave Paddington station in London. This is looking into the station from the Praed Street ramp.