David Lean in scale and more extensively released internationally. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) was based on a novel by Pierre Boulle recounting the story of British and American prisoners of war trying to survive in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. The film stars William Holden and Alec Guinness and became the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness, who had battled with Lean to give more depth to his role as an obsessively correct British commander who is
The Man Who Never Was radio to expect a message from him in an hour, unless British counterintelligence comes for him. Montagu almost makes this very mistake, but realises in time why O'Reilly left his address and, with some difficulty, convinces his superiors not to order O'Reilly to be arrested. O'Reilly then sends a "Martin genuine!" radio message, and the Nazis transfer most of their Sicily-based forces to Greece, making the Allied deceit successful. After the war, Montagu leaves a medal he was awarded at the grave of "the man who never was". Operation "Mincemeat" involved the acquisition and dressing up of a human cadaver