The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel. He assumes the identity of a recently deceased waiter and is helped by the hotel's owner, despite protest from the French chambermaid, who fears the imminent arrival of Rommel and the Germans.
We shall take that big fat cigar out of Mr. Churchill's mouth and make him say Heil.
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 fills 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 a 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 - the pilot hanging dead from the turret - to a very touching finale involving a parasol, Wilder's movie holds the attention greatly throughout. A masterful story brought to us by a master director. 8/10