Five Graves to Cairo
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Corporal John Bramble (Franchot Tone) is the sole survivor of a British tank crew after a major battle with Erwin Rommel's victorious Afrika Korps. Delirious, he stumbles across the North African desert into the Empress of Britain, a small, isolated hotel owned by Farid (Akim Tamiroff). The staff consists of just Frenchwoman Mouche (Anne Baxter), as the cook has fled and the waiter Davos was killed the night before by German bombing.
Before Farid and Mouche can decide what to do with the newcomer, the swiftly advancing Germans take over the hotel to use as headquarters for Field Marshal Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) and his staff. Bramble assumes the identity of Davos to save himself. When Rommel summons him to a private chat, Bramble is stunned to discover that Davos was a valued German spy, but manages to play along. He learns that he is to be sent to Cairo next.
Later, he steals a pistol from genial, music-loving Italian General Sebastiano (Fortunio Bonanova), planning to serve the field marshal a bullet rather than coffee the next morning. Not wanting trouble, Mouche steals the pistol and waits on Rommel herself. When some captured British officers are brought to the hotel for a luncheon with Rommel, one of them (a past guest) realizes that Davos has been replaced. Bramble privately explains who he is and what he plans to do. The officer orders him to use his position of trust to instead gather military intelligence.
At the luncheon, Rommel teases his guests, allowing them to ask him twenty questions about his future plans. Bramble listens with interest. From the conversation and later remarks by Rommel, he eventually deduces that the field marshal, disguised as an archeologist before the war, had secretly prepared five hidden supply dumps, the "Five Graves to Cairo", for the conquest of Egypt. The final piece of the puzzle (their locations) falls into place when Bramble realizes that Rommel's cryptic references to points Y, P, and T refer to the letters of the word "Egypt" printed on his map.
Meanwhile, Bramble and Mouche clash. She despises the British for abandoning the French at Dunkirk. He in turn is disgusted at how she is playing up to the Germans. As it turns out, Mouche's motives are not mercenary; she pleads with Rommel to release her wounded soldier brother from a concentration camp. He is unmoved, but his aide, Lieutenant Schwegler (Peter van Eyck), is more appreciative of her charms. He pretends to help her, showing her fake telegrams to and from Germany.
That night however, when everyone takes shelter in the cellar during an Allied air raid, Schwegler discovers the body of the real Davos (easily identifiable by his clubfoot), uncovered by the bombing. In the noise and confusion of the raid, Bramble and Schwegler play a deadly game of hide and seek in the darkened hotel before Bramble kills his enemy and hides the body in Mouche's part of the servants' room. When Mouche finds out, she threatens to unmask him.
However, she has a change of heart. Schwegler's body is soon found, and Rommel accuses her of killing his aide when she discovered he was lying about his assistance. Mouche does not deny it. Bramble leaves for Cairo, but arranges for Farid to present faked evidence the next day that Bramble committed the crime.
Bramble's information allows the British to blow up the dumps and thus thwart Rommel's plans, culminating in the Second Battle of El Alamein. When Bramble returns in triumph with his unit to the hotel, he is devastated to learn that the Germans had executed Mouche, not for murder, but because she would not stop saying that the British would be back. He takes the parasol he had bought for her, something she had always wanted, and uses it to provide shade for her grave.

Review: There are other excellent performances by Anne Baxter and Akim Tamiroff and a scene reminiscent of "La Grande illusion," where Field Marshal Rommel, played with swagger and arrogance by Erich von Stroheim, entertains several British POW officers.
The part then fell to Franchot Tone who gave a good account of himself as did Anne Baxter and Akim Tamiroff.The film though really revolves around Von Stroheim and his portrayal of Erwin Rommel.
The film is set on an Arab Hotel called Hotel Imperial, where its proprietary Farid(Akim Tamiroff) accords to let a British soldier named Bramble(Franchot Tone) assume the identity of a deceased barman.
Billy Wilder was one of the best directors of his era, so it's no surprise that, in spite of a certain amount of wartime propaganda, 'Five Graves to Cairo' has a fizzy plot, a strain of black humour and a lightness of touch that sets it apart from the majority of films made at this time.
It's also interesting as a film made while the war was still going on: far from demonising the enemy, it provides a generous portrait of Rommel, an unpleasant but human German army and a comedy Italian general for light relief.
Worth watching for a multitude of reasons - the opening shots of the desert, the end sequences of pure war-worship, Anne Baxter's well-drawn and bitter maid, Stroheim's compelling and scene stealing portrayal of Rommel, the comic Italian general (I think this works as a bit of light relief despite being just that little bit xenophobic).
Franchot Tone plays a British tank commander, corporal John Bramble who survives Erwin Rommel's (Erich von Stroheim) Afrika Korps in the North African desert.He walks into a small desert hotel.There he meets the hotel owner Farid (Akim Tamiroff) and Mouche (Anne Baxter).Bramble takes the identity of the former hotel worker and now deceased Davos after the Germans take over the hotel.Billy Wilder's wartime thriller Five Graves to Cairo (1943) is a really fine movie.This movie has many intense moments.I could mention the fighting scene between two men in a dark room with only the flashlight bringing some light.Franchot Tone is perfect in the lead.He does at least as good job as Wilder's first choice Cary Grant would have done.Anne Baxter was a woman blessed both with good looks and talent.Akim Tamiroff as the nervous Farid is great.Erich von Stroheim, the great director and the great actor does a real good performance as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.Billy Wilder was a fantastic director.They're showing his movies on Sundays here in Finland right now.This one is a real good movie from his production.All you Wilder fans out there- don't miss it..
a good picture of war time,without much blood and guts.i saw this movie when it was released in 1943,and have seen it on amc this past january.all of the characters in the picture were class actors.franchot tone was my favorite actor..
Minutes later, German troops arrive under the leadership of Peter van Eyck (Lt. Schwegler) who takes over the hotel to accommodate his troops and a special guest yet to arrive – none other than the main man Erich von Stroheim (Field Marshal Rommel).
He is helped by the Egyptian owner, Farid (Akim Tamiroff), under the protest of the French chambermaid Mouche (Anne Baxter) that is afraid with the imminent arrival of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) and the Germans that are heading to Alexandria and Cairo.
Further, he needs to disclose the secret about Professor Cronstraetter and the five graves mentioned by Rommel to Lieutenant Schwegler (Peter Van Eyck) that can change the fate of the British Army in Egypt.Billy Wilder is among my top four directors of all times, but "Five Graves to Cairo" is a deceptive war propaganda of this great master.
This film could have been a great war movie, but the problem is that it presents Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as a stupid commander instead of one of the greatest and most respected military leaders of history.
The plot has British officer Franchot Tone, the sole survivor of a battle with the Nazis in which all of the men in his tank crew were killed, wandering into a hotel in the North African desert.
Soon the Nazis arrive, led by Erwin Rommel (a commanding performance from Erich von Stroheim), and Tone takes the place of a German spy working at the hotel who was killed the night before.
Now that TCM is able to secure a few more Paramount films for their audience, it's a pleasure to report that FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO stands as one of the most worthwhile films I've seen in a long time.Not only are none of the characters stereotypes (well, except for FORTUNIO BONANOVA's singing Italian general), but it gave me new appreciation for the talents of FRANCHOT TONE, ANNE BAXTER, PETER VAN EYCK and ERICH VON STROHEIM.
AKIM TAMIROFF supplies the only comic interest as an overly nervous hotel keeper in the middle of the desert who fears the German will discover that the man he's hiding (Tone) is a British corporal.
I went into Five Graves to Cairo only knowing that this was Billy Wilder's attempt to make some pro-ally style war movie, and that it was one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite films - anyone with two eyes and ears can tell it's a big influence on Inglourious Basterds - and finally seeing it, it holds up, as far as it goes.
The Tarantino connection is a lot thicker than one might expect; Wilder in 'Cairo' is all about mounting suspense and keeping up the rouse of Franchot Tone's JJ Bramble turned German spy turned English hotel waiter Paul Davros around a bunch of German officers occupying the hotel while planning an offensive maneuver in North Africa.Every moment is tense and taut when this man is around these officers, and while Tone is not the best or most expressive actor of his time he does enough for what the role and Wilder ask of him, giving some charm and personality to a character who has to be different things at different moments.
Part of it also comes from who knows what piece of information, the fact that from the start some p-eople know more than others (as, in a fantastic opening that sets much of the tone, Bramble stumbles sun-baked into the hotel after leaving his blown-apart tank, and Tamiroff and Anne Baxter have to do their best to make sure the Germans don't see him behind the bar, which does get moved mid-scene), and that there is other stakes going on, like with Baxter's man in a prison camp.All the while, Wilder gives some wonderful scenes for Peter van Eyck, who's the Lieutenant overseeing the operation, and his commanding officer especially Erich von Stroheim.
Von Stroheim is the strongest part of the film, as every time he gives this character dimension and presence, and how every line is delivered makes him a man who is clearly out to do his duty as a Nazi officer on the move towards Egypt (and those 'five graves', which becomes a plot point but isn't as important as seeing what the characters do about it), but is also a sort of a human villain, if that makes sense.
One British soldier, John Bramble (Franchot Tone), falls from his tank and drags himself to safely at the isolated Hotel Imperial which had recently been bombed by the Germans.
But, no sooner had they treated him when a group of Germans and one Italian, General Sebastiano (Fortunio Bonanova), under Field Marshal Rommel (Erich von Stroheim), attack and take over the hotel.
An ingenious plot twist links the action in the film to the defeat of Rommel in Africa.The film opens with Captain John Bramble (Franchot Tone) seeking refuge in a small hotel that had been bombed by the Germans the night before.
Anne Baxter plays Mouche--a French maid whose brother is imprisoned in a German concentration camp.Erich von Stroheim plays Field Marshall Rommel--the seemingly unstoppable German officer whose battle exploits confounded the Allies--as possessing egotistical overconfidence.
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 fill up with Field Marshall Rommel and his troops.
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.
This was Wilder's third movie after his French effort ('Mauvaise Graine ") and "the major and the minor" .The cast is extraordinary:Von Stroheim,Tamiroff,Van Eyck and of course Franchot Tone,ideally cast as Bramble .On the other hand,although Ann Baxter is a good actress,she is not credible as a French girl:she has a vague French accent but the fact that she never says one word in her first language is implausible.Van Eyck and Von Stroheim were German and Fortunio Bonanova was Italian.OK ,Tone was American playing the part of an English soldier ,but it 's the same language after all.This is minor quibble :"Five graves to Cairo" is a very good war movie ,and a very special war movie:it's also a comedy with excellent gags (Tone giving his name to a liquor!)and it even features an enigma the solution of which you'll never guess.Most of the film takes place in a seedy inn in the desert .All the hatred Baxter feels for the English is credible ;the German propaganda wanted to make the French consider the English their enemies .On the other hand ,they were not aware of what was going on in the concentration camps.There are several incredible moments but the best is when Tone solves the riddle .Imposture was a subject Wilder would treat again afterward:"Witness for the prosecution" "the private life of Sherlock Holmes " (Genevieve Page's part),and even "some like it hot'" and " kiss me stupid" .And "five graves to Cairo" was the follow-up to "the major and the minor" where Ginger Rogers passed herself off as a little girl.I was immensely pleased when I saw Wilder's "Ace in the hole" make the IMDb top 250!It was about time!"Five graves" is perhaps not in the same league,but it would deserve a "bubbling under" mention..
Despite some recent reviews of this film that seem to miss the main points of the story and how it HAD to be portrayed and acted, this movie was well-made and a refreshing approach to an interpretation of the war in North Africa.This is especially true for the depiction of Rommel.
As has been said here by others, Von Stroheim had the real Rommel nailed pretty well.Wilder was a great director, and knew what he had to do with the actors available to him during the war, and how they would depict the characters in this story.Bravo Mr. Wilder!.
As he went to and fro at the hotel from the likes of Mouche (Anne Baxter), to the Field Marshall (Erich von Stroheim), to the Lt.
It narrates a story of love and political intrigue involving Austrians and Russians during First World War. Given green light by Paramount to make a new film, Wilder and writer Charles Brackett discovered the property and, based on recent war events in North Africa during Second World War, decided to cash in the drama headlines of the times.
Erich von Stroheim plays his trite version of a ruthless European officer, while Anne Baxter unconvincingly tries to pass as a French girl, Akim Tamiroff overacts as he frequently did (this time as a Egyptian, but he used the same tics to play a Chinese general, a Spanish Republican, a Mexican mafioso, a Turkish cook or an Italian monsignor), and Fortunio Bonanova is a bad joke as a ridiculous Fascist general who loves to sing arias.
The best performances are given by Franchot Tone and Peter van Eyck, who respectively play a British corporal and a German lieutenant, both under control.
Wilder as usual keeps you interested, but for spy thrillers, sex melodramas or action war dramas, it is better to watch "Casablanca" (1942) or James Mason as Rommel in "The Desert Fox" (1951), which are much better, and were more honest about their business..
Franchot Tone is British tank Corporal John Bramble who stumbles into a Sahara oasis hotel after crawling through the desert during the North African campaign in 1942.
Rommel and his command take up residence in the hotel run by nervous local Arab Farid (Akim Tamiroff) and an attractive Alsatian maid Mouche (Anne Baxter).
And thanks to the great Billy Wilder it's a great movie that simply refuses to age in its appeal.Classic moment from FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO:Rommel, sitting up in bed as Mouche (Anne Baxter) enters with his breakfast, "I don't like women in the morning" he declares and when she pours his coffee and with a gesture of the back of his hand he instructs her to "take two steps back please"..
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.
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.
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).
At least in the interest of being cautious with captured British officers around, one would think Field Marshal Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) or Lieutenant Schwengler (Peter van Eyck) might have addressed Bramble/Davos in German, especially in the early going when all the characters at the Hotel Empress would have come under suspicion.Which brings me to my next point.
The ruse works only too well, as the big boss-man (Erich von Stroheim as Field Marshall Rommel) meets with Tone and begins talking about Tone's job as a German spy!
The British troops are forced out by Erwin Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) and Germans and Italians occupy the hotel.
Soon after Tone arrives, the Nazis show up, led by Erich von Stroheim, playing Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.
After a very creepy opening scene of a British tank drifting recklessly through the desert sands, it's sole survivor (Franchot Tone) falls out and ends up hiding out in a broken down desert hotel run by Anne Baxter and Akim Tamiroff.
SYNOPSIS: British army corporal poses as a waiter at Rommel's headquarters.NOTES: A re-make of Hotel Imperial (1926) directed by Mauritz Stiller from a script by Jules Furthman, starring James Hall, Pola Negri and George Siegmann in the Tone, Baxter and Von Stroheim roles, respectively.COMMENT: From the very moment that Erich Von Stroheim strides on to the screen, we know we're in for a real treat in Five Graves to Cairo.
**SPOILERS** Made during the hight of WWII the film "Five Graves to Cairo" did its best in trying to explain the reasons why German Field Marshall Ewin Rommel's, Erich Von Stroheim, Africka Corps was so successful in battling the numerically superior,in men and equipment, British forces in the North African Campaigen.
What Bramble was now determined to find out was Romell's future plans and somehow get them back to British 8th Army headquarters in Cairo before Rommel makes his next move!While all this is going on the owner of the hotel the Egyptian Farid's, Akim Tamiroff, French maid Mouche, Anne Baxter, has other ideas in dealing with the German occupiers!
'Five Graves to Cairo (1943)' was Wilder's third feature-length film as director {following 'Mauvaise graine (1934)' and 'The Major and the Minor (1942)'}, a tense war-time thriller about a British soldier who finds himself behind enemy lines and so must masquerade as a hotel butler in order to escape the notice of the German troops.Franchot Tone {in a role originally intended for Cary Grant} plays Cpl. John J.
Great silent film director Erich von Stroheim arguably steals the show as the proud and ruthless Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, a cold and cunning military strategist with high hopes of defeating the Allied forces.From the opening moments of the film, with Bramble tumbling from his forsaken tank and dragging himself across the parched sands of the Egyptian desert, 'Five Graves to Cairo' is an endlessly suspenseful and entertaining picture.
Writer & director Billy Wilder's sophomore frame as a helmer occurred with the World War II era suspense-thriller "5 Graves to Cairo," the first of several W.W. II movies that included a real-life personality from the war, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
Here there's some substance, and I think he does rather well.Anne Baxter and Akim Tamiroff do well enough, as well, although perhaps Tamiroff's role was played with a bit too much humor, although I have a hunch that is the responsibility of director Billy Wilder.I think the thing that people question about this film is whether the plot is at all logical.
Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) arrives, and the soldier (Tone) pretends to be the hotel waiter...with a club foot...and, unknown to him the real waiter (now dead) was a German advance man...and he begins to play double agent...and then the body of the real waiter is found...and....