Spikeopath Five Graves to Cairo is directed by Billy Wilder who also co-adapts the screenplay with Charles Brackett. It's based on the Lajos Biró play Hotel Imperial. 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. Assuming the identity of a dead waiter at the hotel run by Farid (Tamiroff), Bramble gains the trust of everyone only to learn that the waiter he is pretending to be was actually a secret agent for the Germans. If he can keep up the pretence and not get found out, Bramble could have great impact on the North Africa Campaign.A cracker is this, an early Billy Wilder film that thrives on tension and clever plotting while pulsing with great literate strength. 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. Tech credits are grade A stuff, the sound department and Seitz's photography especially lifting the picture still further to classic status. This is no high energy war movie, it's character driven but all the better for it, with Wilder even slotting in moments of humour to sit alongside the sharper edges of the dialogue. From the sombre opening of a tank aimlessly trudging across the desert, its pilot hanging dead from the turret, to a very touching finale involving a parasol, Wilder's movie holds the attention greatly. A masterful story brought to us by a master director. 8/10

deschreiber I watched this film after reading several positive reviews of it. My expectations were raised, but watching it was a big disappointment. As an average little suspense story, it is OK, not particularly thrilling and with a rather simple storyline.Why do some people praise Franchot Tone for his acting? Balderdash! This "Englishman" doesn't even have an English accent. But apart from that, he only manages to get the job done in a sort of uninspired way (Imagine what Bogart could have done with the role!). His portrayal of a meek, cringing, club-footed waiter is so unconvincing as to be almost laughable.The Turner Classic Movies Network showed this movie as an example of a portrayal of Arabs in a positive light. Gasp! I can't believe somebody down there at TCM considers the character Fareed as a positive image. He's all cowardice, hand-wringing, forever flustered and running in circles, begging not to be hurt, in sharp contrast to the brave Englishman, the tough French woman and the strutting Germans. He borders on being a comic character, certainly a minor one who merely adds local colour and shows how superior the Europeans are. The only thing positive about his image is that he is working against the Germans, although he's pretty much forced into that position after the single act of hiding the Englishman behind the bar when the Germans arrive; afterwards he keeps begging the Englishman to go away and muttering to himself in a trembling voice about being shot against the nearest wall. The TCM presenter thought the Englishman's comment, "You're a great man, Fareed," was a great moment in American cinema, but in fact Fareed had done nothing wonderful at all, simply having opened a drawer and happening to notice that its newspaper lining had a familiar name on it. The Englishman called him great just out of his own excitement, meaning nothing whatsoever about the character of Fareed. It was a complete non-moment.Most reviewers admit that, being made in 1943, it has propaganda elements. But the truth is that it's much worse than that, dealing in the barest stereotypes, so bad as to be cartoonish. An Italian general can't stop singing opera arias and shrinks like a sullen, scolded child when the Germans put him in his place for stepping out of line. The French chambermaid is pretty and offering to trade sex for favours (was that supposed to be a French accent Anne Baxter was speaking with?). The Germans are arrogant and dominating. The English officers are easy-going and likable. The Arab is timorous and cowardly.

edwagreen An extremely interesting plot becomes tedious at best in this 1943 film. British officer Franchot Tone finds himself on a remote part of the Egyptian desert with proprietor Akim Tamiroff and maid Anne Baxter, the Nazis soon arrive and Tone makes believe that he is a waiter at the hotel who had been killed earlier in a bombing. The irony is that the waiter was working for the Germans.Rommel arrives at the hotel and is well-played by Erich Von Stroheim, who even looked old in 1943.The film suffers because it becomes way too talky and the action doesn't pick up until the very end. Baxter's ultimate sacrifice was not played well here. There needed to be more excitement, especially at that phase of the story.

Claudio Carvalho 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")