Five Graves to Cairo
1943 · Movie · NR · 96 min · ★ 7.0 · 95% critics
In the North African desert during World War II, a lone British soldier stumbles into an isolated hotel just as enemy forces take it over as a command post. To survive, he poses as a staff member and plays a dangerous double game, hoping to turn his cover into a chance to disrupt the enemy’s plans.
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Details
- Years
- 1943
- Release date
- 1943-05-26
- Language
- English
- Rated
- NR
- Runtime
- 96 min
- Critic score
- 95/100
- TMDB rating
- 7.0/10 (152 votes)
- Budget
- $855,000
About
You’ll likely enjoy this if you want a suspenseful, mostly hotel-set WWII spy drama with sharp dialogue and dark humor rather than big battles; Not for you if you dislike propaganda-tinged stories or slow second acts like some found here.
Pros: tense cat-and-mouse suspense; clever plotting; strong villain presence | Cons: heavy wartime propaganda; uneven middle stretch; coincidences strain believability
Themes
- hotel
- egypt
- world war ii
- grave
- german officer
- black and white
- desert
- british soldier
- assumed identity
- nazi spy
- rommel
- north africa
- +2 more
Awards & recognition
- Academy Award — Best Film Editing · 1944 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Art Direction, Black and White · 1944 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Cinematography, Black-and-White · 1944 · nominated
Cast & crew
Franchot Tone
as Cpl. John J. Bramble / Paul Davos
Anne Baxter
as Mouche
Akim Tamiroff
as Farid
Erich von Stroheim
as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Peter van Eyck
as Lt. Schwegler
Fortunio Bonanova
as Gen. Sebastiano
- PA
Philip Ahlm
as Second Soldier (uncredited)
- RC
Roger Creed
as Fourth Soldier (uncredited)
- HM
Hans Moebus
as Third Soldier (uncredited)
- LD
Leslie Denison
as British Captain (uncredited)
Directed by Billy Wilder