Count Five and Die

Supposedly based on a true story, this British film starring Jeffrey Hunter is very good, considering what was in all probability low budget.

The plot concerns feeding incorrect information to the Axis about where D-Day would actually take place. When a young woman comes from Holland to join the intelligence team, she needs to be checked out carefully, as she is suspected of being a spy.

Hunter and Nigel Patrick do a very good job and Hunter's boyishness is especially appealing. He had a nice, relaxed way about him before the cameras and like so many other incredibly handsome men, undoubtedly had a tough time convincing anyone that he could really act. But he really could. Sad that he died so young. Anne-Marie Duringer is the love interest under suspicion.

It may be a little slow at times, but also quite interesting.

...but there are no subtitles and the sound is horrendously unclear, so at least I, with poor hearing, can only grasp about a quarter of what's going on. I can tell Nigel is temperamental and fussy, that the broad is hot but probably a Cherman spion, and that J Hunter shifts his mood and personality every 3 minutes -- may be using an egg timer. He gets her prize, and speaking of eggs I am expecting her to go preggers now and complicate the plot, which, when you can't hear what's going on, sounds like it is a planning meeting for a vacuum cleaner manufacturer convention. Why does a Nawzi spy care about vacuum cleaners -- do they use the cannisters for bomb casings?? If only I could hear this damn movie, I might goose the stars to 8. Sadly, yours truly, perplexed and looking for plot spoilers to tell me what is going on, BlueF86

This little gem hits all the right buttons; great story, excellent acting and directing, moody black and white photography, easy to follow plot line etc. Well worth the watch.

I could nearly confound this WW2 espionage film with BETRAYED - 1954 - because it takes place in Netherlands too - Holland - and the evil character is also very interesting, surprising. This movie is good but maybe lacks budget and also a bit ambition. I like the woman character, and after the viewing, you can easily guess why.... It's not at the same scale as 36 HOURS - another movie speaking of the approaching D DAY - nor even BETRAYED, starring Clark Gable, Lana Turner and Victor Mature. Speaking of Victor, I am also amazed to see that the director here, Victor Vicas, is the same film maker who, later, direct the famous French series LES BRIGADES DU TIGRE, where, there will also be some women characters rather close to the one here, played by Annemarie Düringer.

OSS Major Jeffrey Hunter is seconded to Colonel Nigel Patrick. They seem to be running a film company. In reality they're working on the Normandy invasion. Their unit leaks information like a sieve. It's meant to. They're trying to convince the Germans that the invasion will take place, at least in part, in the Netherlands. If the Germans believe this, they'll station divisions far from the actual invasion. Among the people they think is a German spy is Dutch Annemarie Düringer. Has she caught onto the game they're playing?

Even though the War years kept warning us about German propaganda and German spies -- who seemed to wander about the landscape without anyone noticing what they were doing -- there seems to be little doubt that the British played both games much better. At least some of the claims about German atrocities were not believed because they seemed to be repetitions of what had been said during the Great War. It was only after the war that the exploits of British Intelligence like this and THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS began to surface, and even longer for it to turn out that Ian Fleming was an insane operations runner.

It's a standard but well executed espionage thriller, even though it takes almost a third of its length to start moving.