Customer Reviews

Five Graves to Cairo [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Here's one of Billy Wilder's earlier works which has his magic touch - by far the best director Hollywood ever produced; an action-packed WWII thriller.
With a complete story, actors, scenery, photography, and drama and his intangible ability to draw you into the story without knowing it - and ring's every emotional nerve you have. A genuine genius at storytelling and beautiful workmanship to look at.
Franchot Tone, one of the cruelly underrated finest actors and the breathtaking Ann Baxter will tear you apart.
Superb supporting cast of Eric Von Stroheim (sp), and Akhim Tamiroff (sp) et al, all make this thriller spin together seemlessly. A genuine suspense mystery with the threat of action everywhere. One of my favorites.
The stunning and exceptionally talented very young Ann Baxter is delicious and excellent, as also in the Fighting Sullivans and The Razors Edge (an oscar). Gawd she was lovely.
Don't miss this. You'll also get a taste of Billy Wilder's unique artist's hand which are in all his works.

This is one movie I recommend to everyone. It captures a period of WWII and simplifies good and bad. It's about the ordinary citizen making a small effort that will make a difference. My first exposure to Franchot Tone, whose intriguing character opposite Anne Baxter and Von Stroheim keeps you glued to the screen.

I treasure this film as one of the best films in my library. A classic Wilder, with witty script, terrific performances, but also a heart pounding and heart moving film. What more can we ask?

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 archeologist, 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. There is no DVD, unfortunately, but the VHS offers a transfer which looks very good.

Billy Wilder's WW2 Oscar nominated classic "Five Graves to Cairo" released in 1943, is typical of propagandized movies coming out of Hollywood at this time.

British corporal John J. Bramble played by Franchot Tone gets abandoned in the Egyptian desert, falling off his tank retreating from Tobruk. He makes his way to a remote desert hotel just before the arrival of the German high command. Nervous hotel manager Akim Tamiroff and a youthful Anne Baxter playing a French chambermaid help him pose as the clubfooted hotel waiter.

Upon the arrival of the pompous Field Marshal Rommel played by acting ham Erich von Stroeheim, we learn that the waiter is actually a German spy. He becomes privy to military secrets that allow Rommel to successfully wage battle in Africa. His mission becomes the delivery of this information to the British high command.

While the acting is decent, I never was impressed by the timid Tone as a leading man. I would have preferred original choice for the role, Cary Grant. Tamiroff, however, proves time and time again to be an excellent character actor.

FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO (1943)

***SPOILERS***

Directed by Billy Wilder, well-written by Charles Brackett, and anchored by Erich von Stroheim's performance, FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO remains a splendid WWII film for classic movie lovers. And though it may be less historically accurate than THE DESERT FOX (1951), in my opinion, it is more fun.

The plot involves Franchot Tone, who plays Corporal John Bramble. As the film begins, we meet Bramble, drifting aimlessly in a battle-scarred tank. He eventually 'comes to' and finds himself the only survivor. Still dazed, he manages to escape the smoke of the tank by hurling himself outside, onto the hot sand. It only takes a moment for him to realize that he is still in trouble, now from the desert heat.

The next scene shows a severely sun-afflicted Bramble, babbling and hallucinating. He has managed to find refuge in a solitary desert hotel, somewhere near the Egyptian border, west of Cairo. The hotel is managed by Farid (Akim Tamiroff) and a hired French maid, named Mouche (Anne Baxter); both are Allied sympathizers. Once recovered, they have Bramble impersonate their hired help, the club-footed Davos, who was killed in the cellar during an Axis bombing raid the night before. The impersonation is necessary, because Field Marshal Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) and his entourage soon arrive, and use the hotel as their base.

The fun begins when Bramble finds that Davos was a German spy, and if Bramble plays his cards right, he can kill Rommel. The assassination is stopped by a captured Allied Colonel (Miles Mander), who convinces Bramble that the true opportunity here lies in the information that can be obtained and given to the Allies. Bramble's spying eventually pays off, as he discovers the secret of the "Five Graves" the Germans have been using, as they advance on Cairo.

A tribute to Tone is the fact that such an outlandish role is pulled off so well. But both the performances of Tone and Baxter, IMO, revolve around the magnetic von Stroheim. His interpretation of Rommel was a character he was born to play. It seems to reflect his domineering directing style. IMO, one of the few WWII villians captured on celluloid that rivals the like characterizations portrayed by Conrad Veidt.

It is a shame that a Region 1 DVD of this film has yet to be released.

A lone British tank lumbers through the desert. Further and further into the waste. Inside the crew is unconscious/dead. One man comes to and, in his groggy state, climbs out of the tank and falls to the sand. He struggles to his feet to watch the tank rumble away into the desert. He begins walking north.

A guilty pleasure since I first saw it some 45 years ago.

Erich von Stroheim's Rommel has to be experienced because you can't explain it.

Propaganda is heavy and heavier. In its day, it said a lot. Today it is merely uninentionally funny.

Tightly filmed with some wickedly funny moments from Stroheim as Rommel never was nor wanted to be.

Finding the five "graves" and their true meaning really holds this film together. You will never guess until it is revealed.

If not one of his masterpieces, "Five Graves to Cairo" is a very entertaining outing from Billy Wilder. I am afraid to ruin the surprises that are thrown at you one after the other. You think that you are watching a escape film, and later one about spies, and later the suspense seeps in. It is worth watching for many reasons, and the acting of Erich von Stroheim is only the icing on the cake. Released in 1943, this is the best war propaganda film I saw from the American side of the battle. Disregard the poster, this film is not melodramatic, and doesn't contain a single anachronistic moment of unwanted sweetness. It works like, you know, a German watch.

This was a video that my Dad was desperate to get! I was blessed to find it on Amazon in a used copy. It arrived in the alloted time in perfect condition and was reasonably priced.

I actually give this film 3 1/2 stars. Fine direction by Billy Wilder and a witty script make this a most entertaining World War II spy film. Fine performances from Franchot Tone,Anne Baxter et al, and a marvelous one from Erich von Stroheim as a strutting, arrogant Rommel. Classic line: Rommel: "We'll take that fat cigar out of his (Churchill's) mouth and make him say HEIL".