Review of Five Graves to Cairo

Except for one glaring error at the beginning of the film, Five Graves to Cairo is a very entertaining tale of desert warfare in Africa during the desert campaigns of WW2. Billy Wilder does a very nice job with the material he was given, and Franchet Tone is superb as the soldier Bramble. Anne Baxter is ok, but von Stroheim is absolutely terrible as Rommel. He gives a stiff and overly-formal presence on film, which was nothing like Rommel in real life. The best Rommel, of course, was the portrayal by James Mason in later films. It was so good, they made TWO films of Mason portraying Rommel. The music by Rosza is, as always, excellent. Only films in the early 1940s have that realistic atmosphere of apprehension of not knowing what will happen next when it came to WW2. This is one of them. Good viewing. Oh, the major flaw? How does a common British soldier get to impersonate, not only a German, but a German SPY with his command of German? Need to suspend a lot of disbelief there lol.