User reviews

I'm lucky to live very close to a wonderful video store which has an incredible stock of VHS films. I read a description of the film here at the data base and put it on my list. It blew me away from the very first moment. Sadly , I've been unable to show it to many people since it seems to exist on DVD only in a PAL version although it has made its way to Divx recently . I can only compare it to Casablanca and The Desert Fox in terms of plot and the quality of the writing and acting. It was a pleasure to watch this actor Tone who was a complete novelty for me walk the tightrope that this story truly is. His history seems to suggest he lived life as he wanted to without much regard for fame .For once I'm glad not to see Cary Grant in a film (I never thought I would say that!).

This 1943 World War II film is Billy Wilder's second directorial effort and it's a pretty good outing. According to a recent biography of Wilder, Cary Grant was offered the lead and turned it down, saying he didn't feel like going on location in the desert near Yuma, Arizona in August. 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. In 1943 all that was known of Rommel was his military prowess in the desert. After the war we learned about his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler and the real story of his death. That's all covered in The Desert Fox and in James Mason's outstanding portrayal there.

What we get here is a portrayal of a cold, merciless, military machine Hun and no one did that better than Erich Von Stroheim. You watch this as did so many in the theaters in 1943 after the North African campaign was over and he became the man you love to hate.

Because of what later came out about Rommel this film became immediately dated. Yet it's still a curiosity and worth a look.

It's WW2 and British corporal Franchot Tone (Bramble) is unconscious inside a runaway tank somewhere in the Sahara. He stumbles across a bombed hotel where he is met by the owner Akim Tamiroff (Farid) and the chambermaid Anne Baxter (Mouche). 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). Tone is in trouble at this point – what to do? Anne Baxter doesn't particularly like him and threatens to betray him to the new guests. He has to do something bold.

I enjoyed this film. It has a different setting to most war films and it doesn't involve any battles apart from the flag-waving nonsense at the end, which, unfortunately, knocks a point off this film as it goes on for too long. The actors do well, especially von Stroheim and Baxter, although her name in this film isn't very complimentary! Both these actors give their characters a depth that brings them to life. The comedy characters of Tamiroff and Italian General Fortunio Bonanova are OK for what they need to do although Tamiroff can be slightly annoying and Fortunio Bonanova is as unrealistic as his name. It doesn't matter too much as we get a film that keeps the viewer watching with tense scenes and an interesting storyline that ends on an emotional note.

Can Billy Wilder do no wrong? Except for the last few minutes, which are strictly WWII propaganda, this film is the goods. Franchot Tone's tone is at once sardonic and dutiful, a combination that brings out the irony of the situation he finds himself in when he stumbles into a bombed out hotel in the middle of the desert. It is the height of the war in North Africa, the British have retreated into Egypt, the German/Italian army is on the move, and there is intrigue in the air. 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. Wilder handles the material deftly, his timing never falters, as the mystery and the tension build. As for those last few minutes, well, this film came out at the height of the war, so I'll forgive the propaganda excesses.

This picture was a popular hit in the time, concerning about historical deeds, as well as intrigue, action and comedy. In June 1942 things looked black indeed for British Eight Army. It was beaten, scattered and in flight Tobruck had fallen and the rats of desert were besieged . The victorious General Rommel(Erich Von Stroheim) and his Africa Korps were pounding the British back and back toward Cairo and the Suez Canal. On July first 1942, Rommel and his Afica Korps reached El Alamein, as far east as they ever got. 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. There finds a French chambermaid named Moush(Anne Baxter) whose interest is in obtaining her brother out of a Nazi POW camp . Then, she asks to German lieutenant(Peter Van Eich) to win her brother's release. But the dead waiter results to have been a German spy , so Bramble tries to know where the Nazi supply depots have been stashed. Later Bramble is assigned one mission in Cairo, and on September seventh 1942, a new made Lieutenant bought a parasol at a little shop in Cairo. On October twenty fourth to the skirt of a bagpipe General Montgomery's Eight Army launched its counter offensive .

The film displays suspense, intrigue, action as well as lots of humor and wartime feats. Excellent performances, special mention Erich Von Stroheim as one of his prestigious roles as Nazi general and Fortunio Bonanova as an Italian singer official. Interesting script by Charles Brackett; Billy Wilder also collaborated on the screenplay and is based on the play 'Hotel Imperial' by Lajos Biro. In 1938, started the famed friendship between Charles Brackett and Austrian born Billy Wilder, following his initial hit there the former year with very funny 'The major and the minor' and prospered on such movies as 'Hold back the dawn, Ball of fire and Ninotchka', before they became a director-writer-producer tandem with Billy Wilder doing the film-making . The movie packs an evocative cinematography in black and white by magnificent cameraman John B. Seitz. Atmospheric musical and appropriate musical score by the master Miklos Rozsa. This highly successful motion picture is perfectly directed by the classic Billy Wilder. Rating : Better than average, well worth watching.

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. The plot also features a cynical Frenchwoman and a slightly racist realisation of an Egyptian: in some ways it's surprising to see how little this almost-fresh picture differs from those made later (if anything, since we discovered Auschwitz, it's been harder to make a film that shows that humanises the Nazis). 'Five Graves to Cairo' isn't Citizen Kane, and of course today this sort of thing would be done with much more violence, sex, and swearing: but that's a kind of recommendation in itself.

Not your usual action battle movie, but a thoughtful, well-cast and well-written piece of propaganda. 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). Keeps the interest. Excellent.

I really enjoy WWII films made during the war because the movies always end with the future unknown except that the Allies will keep fighting to save the world. In "Five Graves to Cairo", there is that spirit but Billy Wilder also showed the cost of the fight. The film also shares with "Beau Geste" the most eerie of beginnings. The only sore spot is that I think the ending should have been left unknown, to me that is more like war. Just memories. Other than that one the best WWII movies ever made.

It's June 1942. Tobruk had fallen and Rommel is pursuing the British back to Cairo. A crippled British tank is slowly rolling across the desert with most of the crew dead. Sole survivor Corporal John Bramble stumbled out of the tank and gets stranded in the middle of nowhere. He happens upon the Empress of Britain, an isolated seaside hotel owned by Farid. The only remaining staff is French maid Mouche. Bramble assumes the identity of the dead waiter Davos. When he is summoned by Field Marshal Rommel, it's revealed that Davos was a German spy and Bramble is forced to play the part. Rommel proudly declares that he has secret supply depots all the way to Cairo.

There is good potential with this premise. I expected more tension with the possibility of being backstabbed by Mouche or Farid. There is some good tension with the Germans. The secret is good although the map is a bit small for precise locations. The bigger issue is the ending. It's not exciting. It has no thrills. Bramble should not expect anything good had happened to Mouche. I would rework that ending.

Got to see FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO recently; saw it last about 20 years ago. The same thing that I'd forgotten bothered me then came back to bother me once more: I simply could not get past the fact that Franchot Tone's accent was never taken into account by the German characters in the story. Of a sudden, Tone, a British Armoured sergeant (with a "suspect" British accent), adopts the identity of the spy Davos, with no noticeable change of accent. Nor does Wilder, the film's director, account for the nationality of Davos. Is Davos multilingual? Are we to assume he's addressing Rommel in German? English? French? This inexplicable glitch compromises the verisimilitude of the entire film and strains the viewer's credulity. As a result, I could not enjoy other elements of the film to the fullest, despite a charming performance by Akim Tamiroff. Furthermore, Von Stroheim is totally miscast as Rommel who, by all accounts, was a svelte, elegant, and heroic figure, not a vainglorious, pompous, and porcine caricature.

As a teen, during WW II, I saw nearly every war film released. This one is in the top 5. The fact that most of the story was in one locale allowed the various characters to expand. The plot twists were fascinating and the "5 graves" idea was quite believable. I was particularly swept away by Ann Baxter and Peter van Eyck. From that point on I followed her career up to her death. I would have given anything to look like Peter an Eyck. Too bad they nearly always made him the heavy in his movies. I think he had a lot of sex appeal and would have made a terrific love interest in certain films.

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.

What's not to like in this suspense filled WW II picture. Franchot Tone does some of his best work ever as an allied soldier who finds himself thrust into the position of being a spy. Fortunio Bonanova (my all-time favorite actors' name) plays a somewhat cowardly Italian officer. But, the real star of this show is Erich Von Stroheim who, as Field Marshall Rommel plays the part with his typical style of Prussian arrogance. He is at once both the perfect gentleman yet also an senior officer to be feared by all who surround him. This movie is great fun and I highly recommend it to one and all......

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.

Little was know about the real Rommel when this movie was made. Von Stroheim played him as a Prussian arrogant aristocrat, imperious, self aggrandizing, and over confident. This was quite different from the James Mason character, Rommel, in the 1950s, a thoughtful considerate military genius who tried to kill Hitler. Well, surprise, the Von Stroheim character was closer to historical truth. The real Rommel was a Nazi who made his way up in the military by brown nosing Hitler. He was arrogant, overconfident, and disliked by his subordinates (and he wasn't in the plot to kill Hitler). He certainly was a superior general, but no genius. He lost in North Africa and he abandoned his troops when they faced heavy losses. Closer to Von Stroheim than Mason, for sure.

This movie is mainly about how this arrogant man who thinks he is a teutonic Napoleon gets his comeuppance from lowly people. As such it is very good. The cast is very superior. I especially liked the easy-to-hate Von Stroheim, Fortunio Bonanova, and Peter van Eyck. Van Eyck played a Nazi officer in so many later movies, that I was surprised to see him in an American film made during the war. Wow! he was really on our side.

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.

Shot in 1943, this movie gives you what you deserve : some sort of propaganda. But at that time, how many movies could afford to be so unrespectful ? Even if the allies are good and the axis forces evil, they are not depicted as a cliché. For example, Rommel, who was certainly the only "healthy" German general, is full of spirit, always has a good word and is well educated. Erich von Stroheim gives a nice shape to this character. In the meantime, Mouche, the little French maid, is tortured between Pétain and the image of allies. She remembers that "French soldiers were left behind by English ones in Dunkerque and captured or killed". What a stupifying sentence in 1943. But Billy Wilder is cunny enough to say what he had to say owing to his humour. And the screenplay is so clever that for anybody interested in the period (and even if you're not), this movie is worth seeing.

"We shall take that big fat cigar out of Mr. Churchill's mouth and make him say Heil." Erwin Rommel in Five graves to Cairo !

June 1942, Egypt. In the British Army's headlong retreat from Libya, a British straggler, Corporal John Bramble, stumbles into a small town and finds shelter in the town's (guestless) hotel. He has hardly arrived when the German Afrika Corps pours into the town and commandeers the hotel as the headquarters of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Bramble manages to pass himself off as a waiter who was a German spy. With the Germans' confidence gained he has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.

Written and directed by the legendary Billy Wilder, but far from Wilder's best work. It was only Wilder's third film as director and he still hadn't hit upon the style that would seem him direct some of the greatest films in history (Witness for the Prosecution, The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17, The Lost Weekend, to name but a few). Moreover, this film was made in 1943 and is clearly a propaganda film: the Germans are all heartless thugs, Rommel is evil personified.

This makes for a film that doesn't have the usual watertight Wilder plot or tense human drama. It's a war drama, with a bit of intrigue and espionage thrown in. It works quite well in this regard, proving quite interesting, if a tad implausible at times and, as mentioned, biased.

Overall, reasonably entertaining.

In June 1942, the 8th British Army Corporal John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is retreating from Rommel's Afrika Korps and has sunstroke, reaching a remote hotel in Sidi Halfaya. 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. John assumes the identity of the deceased Alsatian lame waiter Paul Davos that has clubfoot to survive, but he discovers that Davos is a German spy. 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. Further, a single British Corporal is smarter than German officers and together with an Egyptian owner of an isolated hotel and a chambermaid, they are capable to lure the German troops. But maybe the most ridiculous is the language spoken by people of different nationalities in this movie. The Alsatian Davos is performed by an American actor in the role of a British Corporal that speaks in English with the German officers. The American actress Anne Baxter performs the role of a French woman and speaks in English with the other characters. And Rommel switches from English to German like a clown. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Cinco Covas no Egito" ("Five Graves in Egypt")