In 1941, in the middle of a long list of bad news items from North Africa, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did something very unusual for wartime. In addressing the House of Commons , Churchill admitted that the British were facing an enemy led by a brilliant general. It was the first time in modern history that an enemy leader gave a wave of approval (in it's way) to an enemy commander. That leader was, of course, Erwin Rommel, the Nazi German commander of the fabled Afrika Corps.
Churchill's note of admiration was one more element in the creation of the legend of "the Desert Fox" who defeated one British Army after another, until defeated finally at El Alamein by a plan created by General Auchenleck, but carried out by his replacement General Bernard Montgomery. Actually El Alamein simply stopped Rommel's drive to the Suez Canal - he and his men remained a viable opponent to the Allies in North Africa for another year, even winning a humiliating defeat of American forces at Kasserine Pass in 1943. Then Hitler ordered Rommel back to Europe, and his replacement, lacking Rommel's genius, was finally defeated. Rommel, sent to stiffen the "Western Wall" in France from invasion, eventually got involved in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, and would be forced to commit suicide or find his family endangered by a vengeful Fuhrer. By the actions of 1944 Rommel, the best known German military genius the Second World War produced, gained a posthumous place as an eleventh hour member of the Allies.
Rommel would, of course, be the first Axis figure to be honored by a film biography from Hollywood - THE DESERT FOX starring James Mason. But in 1943 he represent Prussian militarism. So, when Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett made FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, they did not water down the nastiness of Rommel. Eric Von Stroheim, former silent film director, and now widely respected character actor, was chosen to play Rommel, and the character fit the brutal caricature (with some light touches fortunately) that Von Stroheim had developed a quarter century earlier when he played German soldiers in World War I films, or when he played the commandant of the prison camp, in Jean Renoir's LE GRAND ILLUSION.
The plot begins when a British tank appears that has just been in battle with the Germans. It's crew is dead, but for one man - Franchot Tone. Tone manages to stumble into a desert hotel that is run by Akim Tamiroff, where there are two members of the staff. One is Anne Baxter, a French girl, and the other is a male servant who is not around. Subsequently Tone finds that the male servant has been killed in a bombing of one of the hotel's supply buildings. He assumes the identity of the dead man. Tamiroff is doubtful about this act of duplicity, but remains silent out of a sense of pity for Tone's safety. Baxter is more openly hostile - she has lost family to Allied bombings in France, and has been reduced to working in this backwater. But she keeps a watchful quiet on the scene - leaving Tone wondering if she will betray her or not. As she soon is taking up with German Lieutenant Peter Van Eyck Tone's his concerns for her increase.
He realizes as the number of German troops coming grows that there is something big here. Soon he learns that Rommel is coming to the hotel for a brief rest before resuming his stunning sweep across North Africa. We see Rommel arrive, but do not hear anything until later - when we see Rommel dictating a letter to High Command in Germany. He is standing like a colossus with his back to us, playing with a swagger stick. He ends the letter comparing the speed of his advance through the desert with the forty years in the desert of Moses.
When Von Stroheim learns that Tone is in the hotel, he starts talking somewhat archly to him. Tone realizes that the servant was actually a gifted German spy. He keeps up the pretense to see what Von Stroheim might tell him. It's all centers on what the German calls, "the Five Graves to Cairo", and Tone tries to figure out what it all means.
I won't go into the rest of the story, but Wilder does very nicely with it. His Rommel is not the future ally that Mason created in the 1950s, but the cold, ruthless, brilliant enemy. He is a little arrogant , giving a military lecture to captured British officers (led by Miles Mander), but also capable of regretting the loss of promising German officers.
Wilder stressed that not all of the enemy were bad. Fortunio Bonanova plays an Italian general who is a liaison to Rommel's army - and is extremely friendly and likable. Actually he is totally ignored and despised by the Germans, who had sent the Afrika Corps to North Africa in 1941 after Italy was smashed by General Archibald Wavell's men in Libya. Bonanova's appearance and personality resemble the then famous Italian Fascist Minister of Aviation, General Italo Balbo, who had wanted Italy to remain friendly to the Allies or neutral (as opposed to the views of Mussolini).
For a film meant to beef up America's war effort and will to fight, even while looking somewhat awe-struck at a remarkable enemy figure, FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO is a surprisingly sturdy film sixty three years later. I recommend catching it when it appears on television.
Churchill's note of admiration was one more element in the creation of the legend of "the Desert Fox" who defeated one British Army after another, until defeated finally at El Alamein by a plan created by General Auchenleck, but carried out by his replacement General Bernard Montgomery. Actually El Alamein simply stopped Rommel's drive to the Suez Canal - he and his men remained a viable opponent to the Allies in North Africa for another year, even winning a humiliating defeat of American forces at Kasserine Pass in 1943. Then Hitler ordered Rommel back to Europe, and his replacement, lacking Rommel's genius, was finally defeated. Rommel, sent to stiffen the "Western Wall" in France from invasion, eventually got involved in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, and would be forced to commit suicide or find his family endangered by a vengeful Fuhrer. By the actions of 1944 Rommel, the best known German military genius the Second World War produced, gained a posthumous place as an eleventh hour member of the Allies.
Rommel would, of course, be the first Axis figure to be honored by a film biography from Hollywood - THE DESERT FOX starring James Mason. But in 1943 he represent Prussian militarism. So, when Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett made FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, they did not water down the nastiness of Rommel. Eric Von Stroheim, former silent film director, and now widely respected character actor, was chosen to play Rommel, and the character fit the brutal caricature (with some light touches fortunately) that Von Stroheim had developed a quarter century earlier when he played German soldiers in World War I films, or when he played the commandant of the prison camp, in Jean Renoir's LE GRAND ILLUSION.
The plot begins when a British tank appears that has just been in battle with the Germans. It's crew is dead, but for one man - Franchot Tone. Tone manages to stumble into a desert hotel that is run by Akim Tamiroff, where there are two members of the staff. One is Anne Baxter, a French girl, and the other is a male servant who is not around. Subsequently Tone finds that the male servant has been killed in a bombing of one of the hotel's supply buildings. He assumes the identity of the dead man. Tamiroff is doubtful about this act of duplicity, but remains silent out of a sense of pity for Tone's safety. Baxter is more openly hostile - she has lost family to Allied bombings in France, and has been reduced to working in this backwater. But she keeps a watchful quiet on the scene - leaving Tone wondering if she will betray her or not. As she soon is taking up with German Lieutenant Peter Van Eyck Tone's his concerns for her increase.
He realizes as the number of German troops coming grows that there is something big here. Soon he learns that Rommel is coming to the hotel for a brief rest before resuming his stunning sweep across North Africa. We see Rommel arrive, but do not hear anything until later - when we see Rommel dictating a letter to High Command in Germany. He is standing like a colossus with his back to us, playing with a swagger stick. He ends the letter comparing the speed of his advance through the desert with the forty years in the desert of Moses.
When Von Stroheim learns that Tone is in the hotel, he starts talking somewhat archly to him. Tone realizes that the servant was actually a gifted German spy. He keeps up the pretense to see what Von Stroheim might tell him. It's all centers on what the German calls, "the Five Graves to Cairo", and Tone tries to figure out what it all means.
I won't go into the rest of the story, but Wilder does very nicely with it. His Rommel is not the future ally that Mason created in the 1950s, but the cold, ruthless, brilliant enemy. He is a little arrogant , giving a military lecture to captured British officers (led by Miles Mander), but also capable of regretting the loss of promising German officers.
Wilder stressed that not all of the enemy were bad. Fortunio Bonanova plays an Italian general who is a liaison to Rommel's army - and is extremely friendly and likable. Actually he is totally ignored and despised by the Germans, who had sent the Afrika Corps to North Africa in 1941 after Italy was smashed by General Archibald Wavell's men in Libya. Bonanova's appearance and personality resemble the then famous Italian Fascist Minister of Aviation, General Italo Balbo, who had wanted Italy to remain friendly to the Allies or neutral (as opposed to the views of Mussolini).
For a film meant to beef up America's war effort and will to fight, even while looking somewhat awe-struck at a remarkable enemy figure, FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO is a surprisingly sturdy film sixty three years later. I recommend catching it when it appears on television.