Paramount Pictures
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Five Graves to Cairo
Did a Woman Start the Rout of Rommel?
During the 1942 North African campaign, a British straggler passes as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Erwin Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may provide an even better use.
- Original title
- Five Graves to Cairo
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- $855,000
- Revenue
- $1,200,000
John Chard
Jun 25, 2019 · via TMDB
We shall take that big fat cigar out of Mr. Churchill's mouth and make him say Heil. Five Graves to Cairo is directed by Billy Wilder who also co-adapts the screenplay with Charles Brackett. It's based on the Lajos Biró play Hotel Imperial. It stars Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Erich von Stroheim and Peter Van Eyck. Music is by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography by John Seitz. Tone plays John Bramble, the sole survivor of a British tank division who stumbles into a near deserted desert town only to find it suddenly fills up with Field Marshall Rommel and his troops. Assuming the identity of a dead waiter at the hotel run by Farid (Tamiroff), Bramble gains the trust of everyone only to learn that the waiter he is pretending to be was actually a secret agent for the Germans. If he can keep up the pretence and not get found out, Bramble could have great impact on the North Africa Campaign. A cracker is this, an early Billy Wilder film that thrives on tension and clever plotting while pulsing with a great literate strength. Cast are more than capable of making the material work as well, with Tone nicely restrained, Baxter very touching (decent French accent too) and Von Stroheim a ball of emotions as a complex laden Rommel. Tech credits are grade "A" stuff, the sound department and Seitz's photography especially lifting the picture still further to classic status. This is no high energy war movie, it's character driven but all the better for it, with Wilder even slotting in moments of humour to sit alongside the sharper edges of the dialogue. From the sombre opening of a tank aimlessly trudging across the desert - the pilot hanging dead from the turret - to a very touching finale involving a parasol, Wilder's movie holds the attention greatly throughout. A masterful story brought to us by a master director. 8/10
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Franchot Tone
Cpl. John J. Bramble / Paul Davos
Anne Baxter
Mouche
Akim Tamiroff
Farid
Erich von Stroheim
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Peter van Eyck
Lt. Schwegler
Fortunio Bonanova
Gen. Sebastiano
Bud Geary
English Tank Commander (uncredited)
Otto Reichow
German Engineer (uncredited)
Art Gilmore
Trailer Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Ian Keith
Capt. St. Bride (uncredited)
Miles Mander
Colonel Fitzhume (uncredited)
Fred Nurney
Maj. Lamprecht (uncredited)
Konstantin Shayne
Maj. Von Buelow (uncredited)
John F. Seitz
Director of Photography
Edith Head
Costume Design
Wally Westmore
Makeup Artist
Sam Comer
Set Dressing Supervisor
Billy Wilder
Director
Charles Brackett
Associate Producer
Miklós Rózsa
Original Music Composer
Billy Wilder
Screenplay
Charles Brackett
Screenplay
Lajos Biró
Theatre Play
The Unknown Past
At the Beginning of Summer
The Happy Couple
The Beginning and the End
Tokyo Story
The Seventh Seal
Metropolis
Rashomon
Banat bahari
Khataf Merati
سجن العذارى
The Forest of Freedom
Japan's War in Colour
Citizen Kane
Anatomy of a Murder
Nine Queens
Vivre Sa Vie
Cléo from 5 to 7
Cairo 30
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Others
Laura
The Dirty Dozen
Giant
Jules and Jim
Au Revoir les Enfants
Sunflower
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Lord of War
The Elementary School
Dirty Dancing
Last Holiday
Bunny Lake Is Missing
An Inspector Calls
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Kiss Me Deadly
Shoot the Piano Player
The Fortune Cookie
INT. CAFÉ – NIGHT
The Keys of the Kingdom
My Own Private Idaho
V hodine dvanástej
Das Tal der sieben Monde
Seeking Sun Paths
The Mystery of the Night before the 25th
To End All Wars
Up Periscope
Force 10 from Navarone
South Pacific
13 Rue Madeleine
Riders in the Sky
Executioner's Strange Talk
Dangerous Paradise
The One Who Went South
Suzanne
مجرم تحت الاختبار
Eghraa
Al-Haz Al-Sa'eed
The Longest Day
Zulu
The Guns of Navarone
Night Train to Munich
The Man Who Never Was
The Zone of Interest
Valkyrie
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin
The Young Lions
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
Alone in Berlin
The Last Rifleman
The Big Red One
All Quiet on the Western Front
Operation Mincemeat
The Counterfeit Traitor
Tobruk
The Hunting Party
Bitter Victory
Gods and Generals
Journey's End
The Bunker
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
The Monuments Men
Zulu Dawn
The Sea Wolves
May 26, 1943
New York City, New York
Jul 12, 1943
