Customer Support
  Loading... Please wait...

Five Graves To Cairo (1943) Starring Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter

Posted by

Five Graves To Cairo (1943)

Starring Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter

Five Graves to Cairo is the third take on Lajos Biro's theatrical tale of romance and espionage, Hotel Imperial. This time, the action is transplanted from World War I Galicia to World War II Egypt as Rommel's Afrika Corps viciously forces the British Army to retreat towards Cairo. Protagonist John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is stranded in the Sahara, the lone survivor of a British tank crew. In shock and suffering from sunstroke, Corporal Bramble deliriously staggers across the desert searching for the nearest outpost. What he finds is the Empress of Britain Hotel in the Libyan border town of Sidi Halfaya. The city has been deserted and destroyed; no one remains but the Inn's owner, Farid (Akim Tamiroff), and the French chambermaid, Mouche (Anne Baxter). To the woman's chagrin, Farid conceals the English soldier as the Germans commandeer his hotel for the lodging of General Rommel (Erich Von Stroheim). Mouche is unsympathetic toward the plight of any Englishman. She feels the British had abandoned the French Army at Dunkirk, where one of her brothers was killed and another was captured. She has remained in Sidi Halfaya only to wait for the German Army and to bargain for her sibling's freedom, not to help the British. Despite Mouche's protests, Bramble assumes the identity of the hotel's deceased waiter, Davoss, who was crushed during an air raid. Surprisingly, the disguise affords him an immediate audience with Rommel. Davoss was, in fact, a top-secret Nazi spy. This access to Rommel, the invincible Desert Fox, inspires Bramble to remain at the Empress. It becomes his mission to steal the crucial secret of the five supply depots the Germans have buried from Tobruk to Cairo -- which gave them a fighting advantage -- and possibly turn the war in Britain's favor. Meanwhile, after being rejected by the General, Mouche is desperately reduced to "entertaining" Rommel's deceitful lieutenant in order to help her brother. She and Bramble inevitably grow closer as they each struggle to save what is dear to them. When the body of the real Davoss starts to emerge from the rubble in the Empress' basement, it becomes Mouche's fate to make the ultimate decision between saving one brother and saving many.
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder (screenplay)


Stars: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Erich von Stroheim, Peter van Eyck

Academy Awards, USA 1944

Nominated

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White: John F. Seitz
Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White: Hans Dreier , Ernst Fegté, Bertram C. Granger
Best Film Editing: Doane Harrison
In the film, when Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) says to Mouche (Anne Baxter) that her trial will not be conducted under German law in order "to show you we are not the barbarians you think - according to your own law, the Code Napoleon", this is, according to Leonard Rubinstein in his book 'The Great Spy Films', a reference to von Stroheim's character Raufenstein in La Grande Illusion (1937). Moreover, according to the Virgin Film Guide, Otto Preminger's POW Camp Commandant character Colonel Oberst von Scherbach in Stalag 17 (1953) (Billy Wilder's other WW II movie) is also a play on the same character.
Both of Billy Wilder's two war films, Five Graves to Cairo and Stalag 17 received the same number of Academy Award nominations: three. Five Graves to Cairo received Oscar nominations in technical categories (Editing, b/w Interior Design, b/w Cinematography) whereas Stalag 17 received Oscar nominations in performance-related categories (Director, Actor, Supporting Actor), the latter winning Best Actor. They were both released in years where another black-and-white World War II movie dominated at the Oscars: Casablanca (1942) winning three and From Here to Eternity (1953) winning eight.
The tank seen at the start of the picture was an actual American army tank but not authentically a British one. It was loaned to the production by a neighboring American army base. The production had attempted to get a real British tank had their request denied.
This movie utilizes World War II story elements relating to the military campaign in North Africa which were current and topical current affairs at the time and were only months old at the time of production and release.
Erich von Stroheim playing Field Marshall Erwin Rommel dictatorially insisted on garnishing his own military uniform and he got permission from the Paramount studio to design this costume as well as his hair & makeup. He studied photographs of Rommel and then made requests for specific equipment, clothing and props. These included authentic German field glasses, a whisk, and a 35mm Leica camera with actual film. These items were all fully functional, in working order and of the correct provenance. Stroheim maintained that his performance could be affected as an actor would know if the items he were wearing or using were not authentic. Director Billy Wilder queried him about the real film in the camera which wouldn't be seen by viewers with von Stroheim replying, "An audience always senses whether a prop is genuine or false." Rommel dressed casually and wore loose-fitting uniforms yet von Stroheim demanded that he wear "a uniform as it is supposed to be worn." Von Stroheim believed that Rommel never took off his cap in the desert sun and so did not have sunburn face make-up above his eyes.
Cinematographer John F. Seitz and Director Billy Wilder examined in detail a large number actual black-and-white photographs of the real locations of the settings featured in this film including battle shots so as to give the film the right look of authenticity.
For the first shot of Erich von Stroheim playing Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in this film, director Billy Wilder filmed him in a close-up from the back of his neck as an establishment shot. Wilder said: "Standing with his stiff fat neck in the foreground he could express more than almost any actor with his face."
This movie utilized actual World War II combat footage from the Battle of El Alamein.
The North African desert in this movie was portrayed by the American sand dunes of Yuma, Arizona. Filming also took place at the Salton Sea and Camp Young, Indio, Riverside County, California where the battle sequence was staged with the assistance of the Army Ground Forces.
The movie has a Chiaroscuro (literally, Italian for "light-dark") look i.e. a monochrome picture made by using several different shades of bold contrast of light and dark.
The meaning and relevance of the film's title "Five Graves to Cairo" is that it refers to five buried fuel and supplies dumps (the secret location of which was identifiable from each letter of the word Egypt in a map of the same) which were secretly established prior to World War II to prepare for Germany's invasion of Egypt.