Man in the Middle

Plot synopsis:
Friction develops between American and British troops stationed in India during World War II and culminates in physical outbreaks between the troops when, in 1944, American 2nd Lieutenant Winston (Keenan Wynn) shoots unarmed British Staff Sergeant Quinn (Bill Mitchell) multiple times seemingly without provocation before 11 witnesses. American General Kempton (Barry Sullivan) assigns Lieutenant Colonel Barney Adams (Robert Mitchum) to defend Winston at his court-martial because, even though everyone thinks it is an open-and-shut case, the general wants Adams to put up a vigorous defense to make it clear that the verdict is not simply a sop to reduce tensions between the two armies before a major offensive against the real enemy. Adams later finds out that Winston's brother-in-law, a Congressman, has been applying pressure.
The Army Lunacy Commission has found Winston fit and sane. However, Adams is informed by nurse Kate Davray (France Nuyen) that Colonel Burton (Alexander Knox), who headed the lunacy commission, refused to accept the report of the hospital's psychiatric head, Major Kaufman (Sam Wanamaker), who believes Winston is a psychopath. Burton is anxious to have Winston convicted and hanged to patch the strained relations between the two forces. Adams instructs Kaufman to bring his report to the trial, but when Burton is informed of this order he transfers Kaufman to a distant hospital. Adams visits British Major Kensington (Trevor Howard), a qualified psychiatrist who also considers Winston to be psychopathic but has been warned not to interfere. Kensington believes Winston killed Quinn out of a feeling of victimization because Quinn, a sergeant, had the same duties as Winston, a lieutenant.
Winston, in an interview with Adams, raves that he killed Quinn for defiling the white race by consorting with a black woman. Though he despises Winston, Adams refuses to rig the trial, and he holds back his defense, waiting for Kaufman to arrive as a witness. When he learns that Kaufman has been killed in an accident on the way to the trial, Adams calls Kensington to the stand after establishing that no member of the lunacy commission is a qualified psychiatrist. As Kensington describes Winston's mental illness to the court, Winston cracks and begins raving. Adams wins his case and spends a few days of peace and happiness with nurse Davray before leaving the area. The friction between the troops is eased, and they prepare to enter battle in complete unity.

Tags: murder

Review:
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
Apparently the army psychiatrist who examined Winston first considered him insane, but was overruled by his commanding officer for no apparent reason.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
The American command wants Winston tried and executed.
The story is about the roadblocks Adams encounters in his quest to see that justice is served by giving Winston a fair trial.
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.
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.
On the other hand, the romantic aspect of the film, between Mitchum and France Nuyen as Kate Davray, doesn't click.
Movie buffs may be interested to know about other Howard Fast books made into movies.
This film was the second of five novels by Fast to be made into a movie.
Fast was a writer and thinker who continued to defend the "every man" after he left the Communist Party in 1956.
When they learned of the Kruschev speech, Fast and more than three- fourths of the American members left the Communist Party.
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..
Considering that it's a Robert Mitchum film, I am pretty surprised that it isn't more well-known.The film begins in WWII with an officer (Keenan Wynn) marching into another soldier's tent and killing him--right in front of many witnesses!
The scene then switches--Wynn is awaiting trial and Robert Mitchum has been asked to defend the guy in a court martial.
At first, Mitchum is willing enough just to go through the motions--especially when he finds Wynn to be an obnoxious jerk when he tries to meet with him.
But, later, he slowly starts to realize that Wynn might be insane--and executed a man with this diminished capacity might be wrong.
Set in India during World War II, this film focuses on the hatred from an American Lieutenant (Keenan Wynn) who shoots a British NCO in cold blood, later we find out, because the man was in danger of "destroying the white race by mixing his blood with that of a black woman".Attorney Robert Mitchum is assigned to the case, at first he thinks to be a prosecutor, but later he finds out to be the defense.
Mitchum knows he is simply a puppet to prevent any issues between the British and American Governments for this murder, and that Wynn is sure to get the death penalty.
Barry Sullivan and Trevor Howard also give outstanding performances, and Guy Hamilton's direction is tight, direct and basically flawless.
An American officer, Keenan Wynn, shoots a British sergeant in India during the war and is put on trial for his life.
Everyone seems anxious to hang Wynn, get over this international incident that is somehow impeding the war effort.Robert Mitchum is assigned the task of defending Wynn.
He can go with the flow, follow the hypothetical imperative, and put up a lazy defense so that Wynn hangs and he, Mitchum, become a full bird colonel.
Or he can follow a moral imperative and try to see that justice is done, in which case he himself can look forward to a career in the Army that is a dead end.Yes, it sounds good.
Directed by Guy ("Bond, James Bond") Hamilton, shot more or less on location, with Mitchum, Wynn, Trevor Howard, and other respected actors.Lamentably, it looks like not much more than a variation on "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial." France Nguyen is thrown in gratuitously in order to prove that Mitchum is heterosexual, I guess.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE is an interesting more than entertaining legal drama that offers a leading role for permanently weary-looking Robert Mitchum.
He plays an army officer who's called in to defend an American soldier in Burma who cold-bloodedly executed a British ally.
Only France Nuyen's part — the obligatory romantic interest — strikes a false note but fortunately it is skilfully worked into the main plot and it is not allowed to become the central focus of attention and reduce the courtroom drama to a sub-plot, as happens in so many films.
Keenan Wynn has a difficult role and is not wholly successful, especially when you consider how much more impressive Bogart was as a somewhat similar character in "The Caine Mutiny".I also like the realistic way the author works politics into his script from high-level diplomacy to army ranking ("Look, gentlemen, I'm a career army man.
***SPOILERS*** Robert Mitchum is the limping-he's always seen walking with a cane-man US Army Let.Col Barney Adams who's assigned by his boss Gen. Kempton, Barry Sullivan,to defend the wild eyed and crazed US Let. Winston, Keenan Wynn, who murdered in cold blood British Sgt. Jackson,Errol John, in front of 11 eye witnesses in his barracks.
Barney is told flat out by Gen. Kempton that his client Let. Winston is to be found guilty and hanged but he has to get a fair trail first to make it, his forthcoming execution, look good in both the US and UK military eyes.
Barney after interviewing Sgt. Winston in his cell feels that the guy is as nutty as a fruitcake but with the US Army, through it's Lunacy Commission, having him diagnosed as being perfectly sane has no choice but go along in defending him only to do such a sloppy job doing it he'll end up being convicted and executed.It's when the assistant of Major Kaufman, Sam Wanamaker, Kate Davray, France Nuyen, told Barney that his evaluation of Winston's mental state was kept hidden from the court record that he decided to get Kaufman to testify in Winston's defense even though he doesn't want, in him willing to die a martyr for the white or Aryan cause, him to.
It takes a while for Barney to convince Major Kaufman to agree to testify to Winston's sanity or lack of it only for him to end up dead in a car accident on his way to court!
This leaves Barney with only one option to save Winston's life by having him be put on the stand and thus, on cross examination, show everyone just how crazy he really is!****SPOILERS**** There's also British Army psychiatrist and expert in dealing and treating loonies like Winston Major Kensington, Trevor Howard,who more then confirms the late major Kaufman's assessment of Winston's mental capacity that wins the case for Barney who decided to go based on the evidence not orders of his superiors -to let Winston hang on a vine or rope-and ending up getting him committed not executed for what he did.
By going against his superiors orders Barney has forfeit his upcoming promotion as a full bird colonel but at least he prevented and innocent but insane man from being executed for a crime that he didn't, in him being out of his mind crazy, consciously commit!