At the fag-end of the 50's, a generation of long-demobbed soldiers were still trying to cut it in uniform, in a spate of cheap black-and-white war films. More convincing than most was the unknown star of this true story, a minor Australian actor who had been rejected by the entertainment services, and was reluctantly pen-pushing in the pay office, when someone noticed that he was a dead ringer for Montgomery.This was in the run-up to D-Day, when the allies were desperate to draw enemy attention away from Normandy as the obvious invasion zone. Might a Monty-lookalike be able to fool German intelligence by touring North Africa, as though preparing for a big Mediterranean landing instead?The actor in question, M.E. Clifton James, is secretly employed as a driver on Monty's staff, in order to get close enough to study his speech and mannerisms. But he doubts his own ability to replicate the character and personality of the great man, not least because 'Jimmy' is a chain-smoking alcoholic. Eventually, jolly optimist John Mills persuades him to go through with it, and suddenly he's stepping off a plane in Gibraltar, under scrutiny from enemy agents (one of them brilliantly sinister, as played by Marius Goring), as well as certain officers who remember Monty from before the war.Defying many attempts on his life, Jimmy overcomes his desperate shyness, and learns to take massed salutes from whole armies. Then all too soon, D-Day has come and gone, his one brief star-performance is over, and it's back to the humble pay office. Except... they felt it necessary to bolt-on a false ending, about which we can reveal nothing, except that it never happened.As for the real-life outcome, we have to face the disappointing fact that it was only part of a much larger decoy operation, which did throw the enemy into some confusion, but reports of Jimmy's own effort reaching Hitler's desk seem to be wishful thinking. The film displays some recognisable weaknesses of those low-budget productions. The over-long opening section is taken up with John Mills' various flirtations, whose only consequence for the story is that his humourless boss (Cecil Parker) decides to replace their seductive secretary with the ugly-beautiful Barbara Hicks, in some ways more arresting. And the way Mills and Parker chat freely in public about top secret plans will grate on the ear of anyone who has worked in intelligence. No war-film of its day was complete without the stuffed-shirt spoilsport Allan Cuthbertson, who duly pops-up here, as does the perennial plug-ugly sergeant Anthony Sagar. Jimmy's one meeting with Monty is awkwardly dodged; we simply cut away from him on the steps of the general's caravan, although split-screen techniques had long since enabled an actor to shake hands with his own double (try the 1937 'Prisoner of Zenda').None of this really detracts from the joy of the film, principally the deeply-believable performance of a professional actor, acting himself acting Monty. Sympathy and charm shine through this modest man, who seems to have been shabbily treated after the war, when he was reduced to the dole. Hopefully this popular film brought a little benison for the five short years that remained to him.

I Was Monty's Double is based on the real events of actor M.E.Clifton James who is hired to impersonate General Montgomery and so confuse the Germans by having him popping up in odd places, thus misleading the enemy into thinking the D-Day invasion just might take place at a location other than Normandy. The film itself broadly follows the account by Clifton James in his book of the same name, with the exception of a fictitious attempt to kidnap him. This story is extremely enjoyable watching the real life-double James as he learns to copy General Montgomery's mannerisms and style. John Mills is excellent in his role as James guide and supporter. The story is portrayed with a lot of good humour and is very well-done and well-acted by all, but it is the performance by M.E.Clifton James himself that makes this film extremely fascinating and most entertaining to watch.

I love this film and even though I have now bought it on DVD I never miss it when it turns up on TV. The writing, script and direction are bang on the nail, and the blend of tension, drama and gentle humour is perfectly judged. There are also several short moments of genuinely touching human warmth which are often missing from films of this nature. The one or two historical inaccuracies in the script do not detract at all from the sheer excellence of this marvellous picture.Even the theme music is beautifully matched to the content - a mixture of swaggering triumph and comedic undertone. The fact that the film is based (mostly!) on a real story is the cherry on the cake.

As improbable as it seems, Hitler sent a panzer division and 50,000 troops to the south of France just before the Normandy invasion. Hitler did it because he was so impressed by the performance of a second-string actor who up to May, 1944, was most proud of his lead role as Charley's Aunt in British regional rep. In this case, however, M. E. Clifton-James was playing Bernard Montgomery. Clifton-James bore an uncanny resemblance to the field marshall. When MI5 realized this, they organized one of the great WWII cons. Up until then, Clifton-James had been a middle-aged, low-ranking officer, in for the duration, who'd wound up in the Royal Army Pay Corps. He was pulled out of that, assigned for a few days to Montgomery's staff posing as an enlisted man so he could secretly study Montgomery's mannerisms and style, then sent as Montgomery first to Gibraltar and then to North Africa. Once there, posing as the field marshall, he attended high-level meetings, reviewed the troops, gave inspiring speeches...and all the while MI5 was insuring that his "secret" visits were being leaked to German intelligence. Would the Germans take the bait and believe Monty was prepping the field for a major landing at the underbelly of Europe? MI5 and Clifton-James had their answer when German fighters attacked the transport carrying the false Monty to another North African location. Then German commandos arriving by sub managed to kidnap "Montgomery" and move him to the beach before British soldiers (in the movie, two good-looking officers, one played by John Mills) daringly rescue the actor, who by now had fainted. All true? Well, supposedly, most of it. I'd take the kidnapping and the rescue with a grain of salt. Clifton-James after the war wrote his auto-biography titled "I Was Monty's Double" and it sold briskly. He was 46 during the seven weeks of his training and impersonation. MI5 kept him in seclusion in Cairo until after the Normandy invasion, then returned him to duty in England in the Pay Corps. He probably never had a better role, and certainly never a more important one, in his life. He was 60 when the movie was made and died five years later. He carries off playing himself very well. He holds his own with John Mills as the fictional Major Harvey and Cecil Parker as the fictional Colonel Logan. Parker runs the scam; Mills makes sure Clifton-James doesn't lose his nerve and stays with him during training and in North Africa. This being a sort-of Mills war movie, Mills is cheery, competent and loaded with upper-class confidence, either when trying to rekindle an old love while on leave or gunning down a large group of tough German commandos. The tone of the movie, with a screenplay by Bryan Forbes, is one of British insouciance, the undertaking of deadly serious actions with under-played bravery and deprecating humor. Some of the humor comes from cracks made by Mills as Major Harvey about actors' vanity. The last 20 minutes of the movie turns into a more standard war story with a midnight beach landing, silent knifings, an attack in the waves and bullets flying on the beach. The movie regains its footing of good cheer at the close. I Was Monty's Double may not be an unknown war classic, but it's a well-made, well-scripted and well-acted movie. M. E. Clifton-James turns out to be a sympathetic and even endearing person, something that would never be said about Montgomery.