User Reviews

... and that surprised me as the movies made by Fox in the ten years after mogul Darryl F. Zanuck abandoned the company to bean counters in 1956 were some of the worst films that the company ever made, and this film was made in that ten year period. Now Zanuck did return in the early 60's but Rome and 20th Century Fox were not built/rebuilt in a day.

Lt. Charles Winston (Keenan Wynn) is an American officer during WWII in India, sharing a camp with British soldiers during the time before they are to move out and start a campaign against the Japanese in southeast Asia. At the beginning of the film Winston takes his revolver, walks over to where the British officers are bunking and shoots dead unarmed British staff sergeant Quinn in the full view of witnesses, and then just turns around and goes back to his own quarters and turns out the lights. He probably went to sleep.

Enter stage left Robert Mitchum as Lt. Colonel Barney Adams, who has been appointed defense counsel for Winston. There are two competing pressures here. Apparently Winston's brother-in-law is a congressman and has been applying pressure - thus the high ranking defense counsel versus some random JAG representative, and the apparent motiveless killing of a British soldier by an American soldier is causing friction between the troops when the focus should be on preparing to fight the real enemy.

So Adams - quick on the uptake - learns very fast that he is there to make a show of a defense in a trial in which the only acceptable outcome can be the hanging of Winston. But there are problems. Apparently the army psychiatrist who examined Winston first considered him insane, but was overruled by his commanding officer for no apparent reason. When Adams finds this out the psychiatrist is abruptly transferred to a remote army hospital. A nurse slips Adams a paper showing him the first psychiatrist's diagnosis, although it is an unsigned carbon copy of the original and destroyed report. And when Adams tries repeatedly to interview Winston he gets either stone silence, irrelevant ramblings, AND the motive - that Winston was a racist and did not like the fact that the British soldier he killed was "defiling the white race" by consorting with women of another race when on leave and bragging about it.

So the great irony here is that the armies involved in a world wide conflict to defeat powers that will ignore the facts to get the outcome they desire want their military justice system in this one case to ignore the facts to get the outcome they desire - that they are willing to hang a possibly insane man for the sake of allied cohesion.

Of course Mitchum is great in this role of the lifer army man who is faced with doing things that might damage his career for the sake of justice. Of course he has a love interest - the nurse who handed him the report. Because she looks Asian and this IS 1964, she makes a point of mentioning that she is half French and half Chinese. Wynn is doled out in small doses. Some people find fault with him being the killer and having such a small role, but I think it is to keep doubt in the viewers' minds - is he crazy, or was there some other motive and is he just faking it? Wynn has some important lines though such as "the real war is after the war - east versus west, black versus white". Brave words for a film released in a country at the beginning of an unpopular war and in the midst of the civil rights movement. Finally, Wynn as Winston refuses to take the stand - "Do you think I'm nuts?" he says.

So how will this all work out? Justly or not, and what is that justice? What exactly is going on with Winston in the first place? Watch and find out in this film set in WWII with undercurrents of what was going on in the United States - and worldwide - at the time.

"Man In The Middle" (1964) is arguably Mitchum's best performance (certainly his most nuanced) and one of those situations where you can't imagine anyone else in the role. Although the focus is a "military" court martial in India during the last months of WWII, it is basically a standard courtroom drama with Mitchum's character playing the defense counsel. The actual proceeding is very similar to that shown in "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). With a running length of just 93 minutes and a relatively complex story to tell, Director Guy Hamilton had to utilize a lot of stereotypes and nonverbal clues from Mitchum to assemble a coherent film. He is largely successful although it appears a lot of the romantic side story (between Mitchum and "South Pacific's France Nuyen) was trimmed before release. That is of little importance to the theme, what was left works mainly as a way to go out on Mitchum's closing line "you might not be able to beat them but you don't have to join them".

Out of combat, recovering from his wound, a limping career Army lieutenant colonel with a law degree and limited legal experience finds himself assigned to defend an American officer (Lt. Winston-played by Keenan Wynn) who has already confessed to the murder of a British Staff Sergeant. In fact, the film opens with the murder so the viewer is never in doubt about the "who done it" issue. All that remains is the punishment phase of the proceeding. Winston's brother-in-law is a congressman who has rejected several other potential defense counsels but has agreed to Mitchum's appointment. The area commander (nicely played by Barry Sullivan) wants the proceeding expedited ASAP with a death sentence, the best way to satisfy the British so everyone can go back to pulling together. He is a friend of Mitchum's family and is confident that Mitchum will take one for the team and do what is best for the war effort.

And at first Mitchum seems quite agreeable to the idea of providing no more than a token defense; pointing out to the two hot shot attorneys on his defense team that in a few months they will be back practicing law as civilians while he has found a home in the Army and does not want this to louse up his career. He has only been given a few days to assemble his case anyway.

But as he reviews the circumstances and interviews a few people he becomes convinced that his client is a psychological basket case who was unable to determine right from wrong at the time of the murder. There is no time for the film to explore the origins of Lt. Winstons's mental condition and no time to give any dimensionality to his character. Nor is it actually of any real relevance to the story Director Guy Hamilton is trying to tell, so Winston is simplistically portrayed as a totally unsympathetic character. Unlike in "A Few Good Men" (1992), it is intended that the viewer conclude that just going through the motions would really be in the best interests of everyone except the defendant.

Mitchum is on the screen 90% of the time and is the only character that undergoes any real change during the course of the film. And Mitchum must underplay the change process because the idea is to show that if the Army had not tried to hinder his efforts, he would never have put so much energy into the defense. It is a great nonverbal performance as Mitchum slowly gets his back up about what is happening and decides that personal integrity trumps career aspirations. Somewhat cliché and with the score more appropriate to an overwrought melodrama, it is a nice illustration of the condensed storytelling process of films.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

A first-rate cast, a fine script, a decent plot and a so-so director, (Guy Hamilton), so why wasn't "Man in the Middle" a better movie. It's certainly not a bad film but Hamilton was a dull director, ("Goldfinger" being the notable exception), who lacked imagination and the most he does here is help the movie plod along in an entertaining, if unimaginative fashion. It's set in India in the closing days of the Second World War and begins when an American soldier, (Keenan Wynn, very good), shoots dead a British soldier in full view of witnesses.

Robert Mitchum is the poor sap of an American officer drafted in to defend him and what looks like a cut-and-dried scenario is soon revealed to be anything but. Given the material, (it's based on a good Howard Fast novel), it ought to have been much more complex and exciting than it is but it's certainly a very handsome looking picture, nicely shot in black-and-white Cinemascope by Wilkie Cooper. Never destined to become a classic, it's still fine Saturday Afternoon Matinee fare.

"Col. Adams" (Robert Mitchum) is drafted in to conduct the defence, at court martial, of an American officer accused of murdering a British NCO in India. There's no doubt about the crime, nor that it was committed as charged so it all looks like fait accompli. "Adams" finds his grey cells starting to twitch when seemingly pointless obstacles are strewn in front of him. One witness is transferred suddenly and those supposed to be facilitating his work start to impede it. One conversation starts to ring alarm bells - perhaps his client isn't competent? Might he have a defence of insanity? That causes great consternation amongst the higher-ups who seem content to sacrifice their man for the sake of Anglo-American relationships. Ironically enough, it is the British doctor "Maj. Kensington" (Trevor Howard) who seems to want the truth told at the trial - but can they make their presence felt against some pretty formidable odds? This film benefits from quite an interesting storyline and a lead actor who is on decent form delivering a solid script. There are plenty of familiar faces amongst the supporting cast and there is just enough jeopardy to keep it interesting for ninety minutes before a fairly lively denouement.

Robert Mitcham was in his prime when he afe this film.However like all stars he didnt always chose roles that fit his persona.He is a rather unlikely defence lawyer called upon to defend a somewhat disturbed Keenan Wynne at a courts martial. Trevor Howand gives an effective performance in a supporting role.Lionel Bart composed the music.

I saw Man in the Middle with my dad at the old Rio Theater in Downtown Miami City in 1964. I was just a child, but I still remember the shocking scene in the beginning of the film where Keenan Wynn's character walks into a packed army tent and shoots a young soldier to death.

Filmed in black and white, the film was extremely well-acted and filmed. Robert Mitchem was outstanding as the officer in charge of defending Wynne and trying to determine just why he murdered this young soldier. However, the show is stolen by Keenan Wynn and he gives his greatest screen performance.

Man in the Middle rates a 10 out of 10.

Originally titled MAN IN THE MIDDLE, but bearing a different name in the US film circuit - THE WINSTON AFFAIR, if memory serves me right - this is a middling script off a middling novel by Howard Fast.

Director Guy Hamilton, famous for such James Bond vehicles as GOLDFINGER, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, LIVE AND LET DIE, MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, among others, never rose above middling status himself. In MAN IN THE MIDDLE, his mediocrity stamps just about every well shot, effective frame credibly bringing out a most unusual Indian background (I have to admit that I never knew of a British-US Command HQ in India during WWII) where US Army sergeant Keenan Wynn just shoots dead a British soldier for apparently making a noise at night, promptly retiring to his quarters and enjoying a good night's sleep.

Eleven witnesses and a courtroom case later, the middling solution could only be for a competent lawyer like Mitchum - albeit a bit rusty after not practicing law for 15 years - to plead insanity on Wynn's behalf... and even the British expertt psychiatrist portrayed by Trevor Howard pretty much endorses that finding.

Whether the finale that every senior US officer apparently sought - death by hanging for Wynn - actually happened, goes open ended. Instead, we see a smarmy Mitchum bidding farewell to pretty nurse France Nuyen... and, as much as I admire Mitchum, the best bit happens when another US officer taps his belly and suggests that he is putting on weight. For the remainder, Mitchum looks more or less bored. I was reminded of his famous self-appraisal: "I have two acting styles: with and without a horse."

No wonder his performance should be middling, then: no horse and a mediocre script about a courtroom drama in which poor Wynn finally steps forward and acts the madman.

The point of this film? I couldn't see one. 6/10 stars for reasonable standards of acting from Sullivan, Howard, Wynn, and fair cinematography from Wilkie Cooper.

This movie shows what a fine and underrated actor Keenan Wynn was. His performance is sublime.

The story itself is very believable and convincing; adapted from the fine novel The Winston Affair by Howard Fast.

Robert Mitchem gives an excellent performance as does Leslie Howard.

This film addresses many issues of race and responsibility in a much better fashion than most newer films.

Unfortunately the film is not available on video. If you get a chance to see it take the chance! You will not regret it.

There is not a player worth their talent who does not eventually want to do a role in a courtroom drama. The sad thing is that Robert Mitchum got his turn in court in Man In The Middle.

Not that it's a bad role or a bad performance that Mitchum turns in. But ultimately you don't really care what happens to the victim here, an insane and racist army lieutenant played by Keenan Wynn who coldbloodedly shot down a British sergeant in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II.

It's the nationalities here, the American Army in the spirit of interallied cooperation just wants to get Wynn quickly convicted and hung in a proficient military manner. General Barry Sullivan has gotten Mitchum to be the defense lawyer with then presumption that because Mitchum is from a military family he will do the right thing by the army's standards.

But an army nurse and an army psychiatrist played by France Nuyen and Sam Wanamaker make him see that Wynn needs the best defense. The army has suppressed a report where Wanamaker has clearly stated that Wynn is certifiable, but the medical corps have deep sixed the report and Wanamaker. Doing that bit of dirty work is Alexander Knox.

What's keeping this thing alive is Wynn's unseen brother-in-law a Congressman. That will usually do it with the military.

The film was partially shot on location in New Delhi and the biggest problem on set according to Robert Mitchum's biographer Lee Server was keeping Trevor Howard away from the booze. Howard is in the film as well as a British psychiatrist and apparently at the time he was heavily drinking and he couldn't hold the liquor as well as Mitch. Not that he didn't stop trying. The biography goes into what must have been a hilarious scene where the director is trying to tell a drunken Howard on the set to change some mismatching socks which even a black and white camera could pick up.

Man In The Middle is well made and the performances sincere by the players. But in the end I really could not care what the army did with Keenan Wynn.

"Man in the Middle" is a movie based on a 1959 novel by Howard Fast, "The Winston Affair." The basic plot of the movie follows fairly closely the story of the book. Hollywood altered some of the facts. Robert Mitchum plays Lt. Col. Barney Adams in the film. In the book, Adams is a captain. He is brought into India to be defense counsel in a hot trial of American Lt. Charles Winston, who shot and killed a British sergeant in cold blood. In the book, Winston shot a British officer. Since Winston admitted to the killing, and nearly a dozen witnesses saw it, it's an open-and-shut case. The American command wants Winston tried and executed. It's a matter of morale and "necessity" to bolster allied relations among the Americans and British. But, they want the appearance of a fair trial. So, Adams, a decorated combat veteran, is assigned as defense counsel.

The story is about the roadblocks Adams encounters in his quest to see that justice is served by giving Winston a fair trial. It makes for very good drama. The cast for this film is excellent. Mitchum's character seemed a little too nonchalant at first. But, that's partly Mitchum's persona, and it may reflect 18 years of service in which his man has learned to understand military "necessity." The other actors give excellent performances. Barry Sullivan is Gen. Kempton. Alexander Knox is great as the nervous Col. Burton. Sam Wanamaker is Maj. Kaufman. And, Trevor Howard is the British Major John Darryl Kensington. His scene is superb in the courtroom when Adams asks for his medical credentials. The major rattles off his degrees, honors, chairs and publications with a matter-of-fact air that only Trevor Howard could do. The looks on the faces of the court martial board members are telling and will bring a smile to a viewer's face

A couple reviewers saw Keenan Wynn's performance as Lt. Winston as exceptional, and I agree. It was worthy of an academy award nomination, but that didn't happen. On the other hand, the romantic aspect of the film, between Mitchum and France Nuyen as Kate Davray, doesn't click. It's OK for her to be in the story as a nurse, but not as a romance. Companionship and friendship would have been OK. But with them bedding down after just a couple of days, it lends a cheapness to the film. Is she just a hooker, or what? There is no love or romantic chemistry between them. The emotion she shows seems forced or contrived. It was a distraction in the film that lowered it at least one notch.

Movie buffs may be interested to know about other Howard Fast books made into movies. Fast's own background is quite interesting too. This film was the second of five novels by Fast to be made into a movie. The first was "Spartacus" in 1960 – a huge box office hit. After "Man in the Middle" came "Mirage" in 1965. It was based on his 1952 novel, "Fallen Angel." The last two had the titles of the novels. Fast wrote "April Morning" in 1961 and it was made into a move in 1987. "The Crossing" movie came out in 2000, based on Fast's 1971 novel of the same name.

Howard Fast (1914-2003) was a prolific writer and producer of books. Most of his work is historical fiction. He was highly popular and widely read. He may not be a household name today, but for the last six decades of the 20th century, Howard Fast was a well known writer. In the 1940s and 1950s, Fast was notoriously regarded for his communist leanings. His biography makes for very interesting reading. Fast was a writer and thinker who continued to defend the "every man" after he left the Communist Party in 1956. He and other American communists were fooled by the deceitful Soviet leadership under Stalin. Fast was well read and liked in Soviet Russia, and in 1953 he received the Stalin Peace Prize. In 1952, Fast ran for Congress on the American Labor Party ticket. By that time, the Labor party was mostly a front for the Communist Party.

During WW II, Fast worked for the U.S. Office of War Information, writing for the Voice of America. In 1943 he joined the Communist party. His obituary in "The Guardian" said that was a time when "The wartime love affair with the Soviet Union and the Red army was at its peak." Indeed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration put out a great deal of propaganda in support of Soviet Russia. That was to build support for the U.S. having the Soviets as allies, and to encourage the Soviet Union to fight Nazi Germany. Fast learned that some of his Soviet friends had lied to him and others about the whereabouts of silent Soviet writers. Then, Nikita Kruschev addressed the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in a closed session on Feb 25, 1956. Kruschev denounced the deceased Joseph Stalin and gave a laundry list of Stalin's abuses of power including the Great Purge of the mid-1930s, the crushing of the Hungarian revolution, and imprisonment and killing of thousands of Russians. When they learned of the Kruschev speech, Fast and more than three- fourths of the American members left the Communist Party.

In a 1957 autobiography, "The Naked God: The Writer and the Communist Party," Fast wrote about how good people were lied to and betrayed by Stalin and his henchmen in the American Communist Party. So, having once been derided for his communist leanings, Fast was later attacked by the communists for his exposes of their atrocities and lies. I highly recommend any of Fast's biographies and Kruschev's "secret" speech -- they make very interesting reading.

This is the film Guy Hamilton made just before the blockbuster of his career "Goldfinger" -which,although very different from "Man in the middle" ,remains one of the best (who says best?) Bond ever made-.

The problem with "man in the middle " is that there's not enough scenes with Keenan Wynn.We would like to know more about him,about his childhood,his relationship with his colleagues,women ,etc.Only Trevor Howard's final plea -which an ominous music makes disturbing- really tells us about his psyche.Also handicapped by a decorative female character who brings almost nothing to the plot whereas we 're waiting to know more about Winton's motives.Average.

A film detailing the defense of insanity with the background that the accused is the brother-in-law of a United States Congressman.

Keenan Wynn delivers an excellent performance as the American officer who in front of 11 witnesses shot a British army man for his alleged racist activities-cavorting with African American women. He epitomizes hatred in the film while claiming that the next war will be a racial one.

Robert Mitchum is called in to be his defense attorney in a case that is supposedly one to get out of the way and just hang Wynn.

A much younger Sam Wanamaker is the psychiatrist whose report on Wynn was conveniently ignored and when Wanamaker is called to testify, he is conveniently transferred and is killed in a car accident while attempting to join the trial.

The film would have been ever better had we viewed the Congressman and the technique of flashbacks be used to see what Wynn's life was like before he joined the army. Even with a brother-in-law in Congress, it's hard to envision how such a nut case was ever accepted into the army.

France Nuyen places a nurse who falls for Mitchum in record time even for movie standards.

The film is one of duty and ethical dilemma.

The start of the movie shows Keenan Wynn walking calmly into a tent with his fellow soldiers, shooting one man dead, then walking calmly back to his barracks. It's very creepy, and it puts the audience in the mood for a very scary mental thriller. Man in the Middle doesn't really live up to the hype from the beginning, but if you like court martial movies or hate crime movies, you can try it out.

Robert Mitchum gets called in as defending counsel for Keenan's court martial, and he meets obstacles at every turn. Clearly, Keenan is insane, but no one will testify to that fact. Since the man Keenan killed was British, the officers are intent on hanging him to improve relations between the United States and England; the movie takes place during WWII. To me, that was a very weak motivation for the villains in the film. One murder case would make or break Allied relations? I doubted it. Also, the film takes a blatant viewpoint that because Keenan is a racist, he is therefore insane, which is a debatable argument.

As much as I love Robert Mitchum, he didn't need to be in this movie; it was a role Kirk Douglas would normally be cast in. Between Trevor Howard's incoherent mumbling, France Nuyen's inconsistent character, and Keenan Wynn's one-dimensional rantings, this felt more like a B-movie than a serious one. It's a cross between A Soldier's Story and Town Without Pity, but not nearly as good as either.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. In the courtroom scenes there are a couple of ceiling fans blowing, and it might make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

An intelligently written (by Keith Waterhouse & Willis Hall fresh from 'The Long and the Short and the Tall') and well-acted court martial drama depicting the murder trial of a racist reactionary played by Keenan Wynn who Bob Mitchum has the same thankless job of defending as Jimmy Stewart did of defending the even more rebarbative Ben Gazzara in 'Anatomy of a Murder'.

With the activities of jihadis in Europe currently constantly making headlines and the murder only three years ago of Labour MP Jo Cox by a far right extremist, the line "I've never met a murderer yet that somebody didn't say he was crazy..." continues to resonate.

A Military Court-Room Drama that Never Grips Enough to Make the Watch Intriguing, Interesting or Involving.

Everyone in the Good Cast Seems to be Operating in Slow-Motion, Even Lead Robert Mitchum Needs a Cane to Get Around.

The Central Point of the Story is Whether or Not Kennan Wynn, who Shoots a Fellow Soldier In Cold Blood, is Insane or Not. But if You Make to the Over-the-Top and Silly Ending, You Probably will Not Care.

There's a Lot of Talk About the Allies, this is Set in India at the End of WWII, and how the Army Needs a Rushed Conviction Because Wynn's Murder Might Upset Internal Camaraderie.

It Doesn't Ring True. None of it Does. There's 1 Scene where He Goes Off On a White-Supremacist Tirade, and then it's Never Mentioned Again.

The Movie Feels Disjointed and Disarmed of Anything with True Convictions. It just Sort of Lays there and Slowly Moves From one scene to Another with Absolutely No Gravitas.

There's a Love Interest Thrown in There for Mitchum that Seems Out of Place and Like Everything Else Here Goes Nowhere.

All the Good Cast Members are Wasted and Mitchum seems Bored as Hell.

You Will Be Too.

A Bona-Fide Misfire at this Level, if There Ever Was One.

Well written and acted courtroom drama. Robert Mitchum is sequesterd to defend accused murderer Keenan Wynn in what amounts to a show trial to appease British and American relations in WW 2 India. Mitchum is solid as usual. (Was the limp and cane part of the character or did Mitchum injure himself skiing prior to production?) He shows genuine anguish as he struggles between what he knows is a valid insanity defense and what the military wants him to do. Trevor Howard is always great although his role is so minisule you almost forget he's in the film. Then there's Keenan Wynn perfectly cast as our murderer. Although he seems for the most part slightly restained . I could have used a little of his Colonel Bat Guano from Dr. Strangelove wierdness here. France Nuyen. Ah France Nuyen! If only she'd fall for me as quickly as she does Mitchum in this movie. Indian locations are used to good effect. Then of course it brings up the old validity of avoiding the death penalty by reason of insanity. Of course this is standard ruling in law, but one has to ask the question is it true justice? Check this one out if you get a chance. The Winston Affair or Man in the Middle . It's well worth it.