This WWII movie is an unexpected delight, although coming from Billy Wilder the unexpected should be expected. The action in Five Graves to Cairo takes place in a flea-bitten, mud- brick hotel on the edge of the North African desert. It's 1942 and Tobruk has fallen. Rommel and the Afrika Corps are driving toward Cairo and the only thing that can stop them is a lack of supplies. The English are worried. The Egyptians are testing the wind. And Rommel seems to be supremely confident. "We shall take that big cigar from Churchill's mouth and make him say 'Heil'!" he says with a smirk. He has reason to be confident. "It's not the supplies which reach us," he says. "It's us who reach the supplies...thousands and thousands of gallons of petrol..." and water, ammunition and food. The only things that can stop him is a British tank corporal, John Bramble (Franchot Tone), the fearful Egyptian owner of the hotel, Farid (Akim Tamiroff), and the angry, resentful hotel maid, Mouche (Anne Baxter).
Bramble stumbled into the hotel after a tank battle that left the rest of his crew dead. Farid took him in reluctantly. Hours later Rommel and his army roared up and took over the hotel. Bramble had to disguise himself as Davos, the club-footed waiter who had been killed in an air-raid and whose body lies buried in the hotel's basement. Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) arrives, imperious and dynamic, and suddenly greets Davos by name. It seems Davos had been a German agent. John Bramble now has to play a very careful game for his life...especially when Rommel brags about the work of a German archaeologist, Professor Cronstettler, who in the late Thirties supervised a number of digs...five to be exact...along the North African coast between Tobruk and Alexandria. Rommel shows Davos his map of Egypt. Could it be, Bramble suddenly realizes, that where the five letters...E, G, Y, P, T...are placed might also be the locations of...? Bramble must escape to Cairo. His information could prove the tipping point in Montgomery's plan to defeat Rommel. And Rommel, believing Davos is a German agent, decides to send Davos to Cairo to prepare the way for Rommel's triumphant entrance to the city. He wants no bombs thrown at him hidden in bouquets, he says. He'll require a Luke-warm bath in the imperial suite. Oh, yes, and a command performance of Aida "in German...omitting the second act, which is too long and not too good." And then an ambitious German lieutenant discovers the real Davos' body in the basement. Now, Bramble must leave before he is discovered. Farid must think of some plausible excuses. And Mouche must deliberately become a distraction.
What is Mouche's role? Is there a romance? Not exactly. When the German's arrive she wants to turn Bramble in. Just give me five seconds before you do, he asks her, "five seconds before you call the Germans. Just five seconds." "What do you want to tell me about," she asks cynically, "blood, sweat and tears?" Instead, he scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it to her. "This is the address of my wife in London," he says. He wishes he had something to give his wife and his son. Mouche looks closely at him, then does not turn him in. Mouche, however, has a younger brother in a German concentration camp. She's prepared to do almost anything to save him. When it turns out to be too late, she proves to be braver than almost anyone else.
Five Graves to Cairo is a literate, amusing and exciting war adventure. It works in part because of the clever script by Wilder and his partner, Charles Brackett. It also works because of the performances of Franchot Tone and Erich von Stroheim. Tone was a fine actor, undone by time and a messy personal life. He might not have been anyone's first choice as an action hero, but in this movie we need a hero who is as clever as he is brave, who is believable in being able to out-fox Rommel and resourceful enough to get away with it. That he and Anne Baxter as Mouche do not fall into each others arms only adds to the sophistication of the film. von Stroheim dominates every scene he's in, except when he comes up against Tone's underplaying. As Rommel, von Stroheim sports a shaved head, a horse-hair fly whisk and an ostentatious German officer's hat. He's charming and he's imperious; he's calculating and he's cynical. When Mouche pleads with him to intercede for her brother, he simply stares at her and says, "This is a familiar scene, reminiscent of bad melodrama."
Billy Wilder delivers an unconventional war movie which remains entertaining and moving.
Bramble stumbled into the hotel after a tank battle that left the rest of his crew dead. Farid took him in reluctantly. Hours later Rommel and his army roared up and took over the hotel. Bramble had to disguise himself as Davos, the club-footed waiter who had been killed in an air-raid and whose body lies buried in the hotel's basement. Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) arrives, imperious and dynamic, and suddenly greets Davos by name. It seems Davos had been a German agent. John Bramble now has to play a very careful game for his life...especially when Rommel brags about the work of a German archaeologist, Professor Cronstettler, who in the late Thirties supervised a number of digs...five to be exact...along the North African coast between Tobruk and Alexandria. Rommel shows Davos his map of Egypt. Could it be, Bramble suddenly realizes, that where the five letters...E, G, Y, P, T...are placed might also be the locations of...? Bramble must escape to Cairo. His information could prove the tipping point in Montgomery's plan to defeat Rommel. And Rommel, believing Davos is a German agent, decides to send Davos to Cairo to prepare the way for Rommel's triumphant entrance to the city. He wants no bombs thrown at him hidden in bouquets, he says. He'll require a Luke-warm bath in the imperial suite. Oh, yes, and a command performance of Aida "in German...omitting the second act, which is too long and not too good." And then an ambitious German lieutenant discovers the real Davos' body in the basement. Now, Bramble must leave before he is discovered. Farid must think of some plausible excuses. And Mouche must deliberately become a distraction.
What is Mouche's role? Is there a romance? Not exactly. When the German's arrive she wants to turn Bramble in. Just give me five seconds before you do, he asks her, "five seconds before you call the Germans. Just five seconds." "What do you want to tell me about," she asks cynically, "blood, sweat and tears?" Instead, he scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it to her. "This is the address of my wife in London," he says. He wishes he had something to give his wife and his son. Mouche looks closely at him, then does not turn him in. Mouche, however, has a younger brother in a German concentration camp. She's prepared to do almost anything to save him. When it turns out to be too late, she proves to be braver than almost anyone else.
Five Graves to Cairo is a literate, amusing and exciting war adventure. It works in part because of the clever script by Wilder and his partner, Charles Brackett. It also works because of the performances of Franchot Tone and Erich von Stroheim. Tone was a fine actor, undone by time and a messy personal life. He might not have been anyone's first choice as an action hero, but in this movie we need a hero who is as clever as he is brave, who is believable in being able to out-fox Rommel and resourceful enough to get away with it. That he and Anne Baxter as Mouche do not fall into each others arms only adds to the sophistication of the film. von Stroheim dominates every scene he's in, except when he comes up against Tone's underplaying. As Rommel, von Stroheim sports a shaved head, a horse-hair fly whisk and an ostentatious German officer's hat. He's charming and he's imperious; he's calculating and he's cynical. When Mouche pleads with him to intercede for her brother, he simply stares at her and says, "This is a familiar scene, reminiscent of bad melodrama."
Billy Wilder delivers an unconventional war movie which remains entertaining and moving.