Five Graves to Cairo (1943)

Directed by Billy Wilder; produced by Charles Brackett (associate producer)

It’s 1942, and in north Africa, the British have suffered a defeat at the hands of the Germans, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Erich von Stroheim). A survivor of the battle, Corporal Bramble (Franchot Tone), stumbling through the desert, arrives at an isolated community and collapses in the lobby of a hotel. Saved by Farid (Akim Tamiroff), the compassionate owner, and his cynical maid, Mouche (Anne Baxter), Bramble must impersonate a dead waiter when he learns that the hotel is about to become the German general headquarters. His charade becomes more complicated when he discovers that the man he is supposed to be was a German spy.

Billy Wilder’s only war-themed movie was his third directorial effort (but his forty-third produced screenplay!), and benefits from his deft hand. The film moves along quickly, with little excess dialogue; exposition is often included with on-going action, even if it is only a change of clothes or the preparation of a meal.

There is little fighting, and no combat; the war in Five Graves to Cairo is one of spies and intrigue, but the direction and script (co-written by the associate producer) keep it involving. 

The rather fantastical plot integrates the notion that the Germans were preparing for a north African war as early as 1937, which is untrue: German participation in the desert conflict was almost spontaneous, occurring only to salvage Axis fortunes after the annihilation of the Italian Tenth Army by the British. The premise, however, fits with the near-omniscience ascribed to the Germans in the movie, a trait held by many at the time in real-life, and which British Army officers in the desert were at great pains to contradict. Nonetheless, it heightens the suspense of the film, and is a key element of the story.

(The story, interestingly, is an adaptation of a 1917 play, in which the hero is an Austro-Hungarian Army officer, and the villains are Tsarist Russians. The versatility of the movie’s writers is shown in that their previous collaboration, the year before, was the successful mistaken identity comedy The Major and the Minor.)

The acting is good. There is a flaw in Tone’s performance in that he doesn’t even try to imitate an English accent of any kind. Aside from this, he is capable in the role, though not more. Baxter does well as a bit of a conniver, someone with a private agenda, a sort of role she would play more than once. The most interesting part, however, is reserved for Stroheim.

Five Graves to Cairo may have been unique in its time in having as a character - and not a minor one, either - a living, real-life personage, and an enemy soldier at that. Rommel was, and is, probably the only German general of World War Two respected by his opponents as a man, and not just as a commander. His reputation rests largely on his excellent performance in the Battle of France, his mastery of the ‘clean’ war in the desert, and his courtesy to his foes.

Whether or not this reputation is deserved, it is used in Five Graves to Cairo to create a man who is brilliant, arrogant, brutal, cultured, harsh and not without humour (witness his remark that ‘Germany needs paper,’ and, with a slight smile, ‘lots of paper’, perhaps referring to all the crap he’s heard in the Fatherland). Stroheim is excellent in the role.

That such a character could be incorporated in the film is a credit to the screenwriters, who, with the exception of an Italian general (Fortunio Bonanova), avoid stereotypes. Even the Egyptian Farid, who superficially seems a coward, is actually a brave and resourceful man. The character who is the least convincing, ironically, is the main one. The short synopsis we are given of Bramble’s personality does not suggest the inventive and dedicated individual we see on screen, though the précis of the character is given by Bramble himself, so it may be self-deprecation.

Despite a few mis-steps, this film is an enjoyable war-thriller with a decently complex plot and good writing. Add to these aspects characters who are well-performed and direction which is very well managed and Five Graves to Cairo becomes a satisfying adventure.