Alex da Silva It's WW2 and British corporal Franchot Tone (Bramble) is unconscious inside a runaway tank somewhere in the Sahara. He stumbles across a bombed hotel where he is met by the owner Akim Tamiroff (Farid) and the chambermaid Anne Baxter (Mouche). Minutes later, German troops arrive under the leadership of Peter van Eyck (Lt. Schwegler) who takes over the hotel to accommodate his troops and a special guest yet to arrive – none other than the main man Erich von Stroheim (Field Marshal Rommel). Tone is in trouble at this point – what to do? Anne Baxter doesn't particularly like him and threatens to betray him to the new guests. He has to do something bold.I enjoyed this film. It has a different setting to most war films and it doesn't involve any battles apart from the flag-waving nonsense at the end, which, unfortunately, knocks a point off this film as it goes on for too long. The actors do well, especially von Stroheim and Baxter, although her name in this film isn't very complimentary! Both these actors give their characters a depth that brings them to life. The comedy characters of Tamiroff and Italian General Fortunio Bonanova are OK for what they need to do although Tamiroff can be slightly annoying and Fortunio Bonanova is as unrealistic as his name. It doesn't matter too much as we get a film that keeps the viewer watching with tense scenes and an interesting storyline that ends on an emotional note.

Edgar Soberon Torchia Billy Wilder, as many European film artists and technicians, also contributed his share of propaganda during the Second World War, with this film adaptation of Hungarian writer Lajos Biró's play, "Drama in Four Acts", previously filmed twice as "Hotel Imperial" at Paramount. It narrates a story of love and political intrigue involving Austrians and Russians during First World War. Given green light by Paramount to make a new film, Wilder and writer Charles Brackett discovered the property and, based on recent war events in North Africa during Second World War, decided to cash in the drama headlines of the times. I read that Biró's play had comic touches, but I really do not know who contributed the antics merged with the drama in this version, if they were the playwright's ideas, or if they were added by Brackett and (especially) Wilder, who even wanted Cary Grant to play the lead. The result of this spy story about Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the sabotage of his "Five Graves" operation, is plagued with stereotypes, caricatures and comic relief, all of which are so out of place that they become the real saboteurs of "Five Graves to Cairo". Erich von Stroheim plays his trite version of a ruthless European officer, while Anne Baxter unconvincingly tries to pass as a French girl, Akim Tamiroff overacts as he frequently did (this time as a Egyptian, but he used the same tics to play a Chinese general, a Spanish Republican, a Mexican mafioso, a Turkish cook or an Italian monsignor), and Fortunio Bonanova is a bad joke as a ridiculous Fascist general who loves to sing arias. The best performances are given by Franchot Tone and Peter van Eyck, who respectively play a British corporal and a German lieutenant, both under control. Tone is convincing and moving, especially in his last scene in a graveyard; and Eyck is good as an officer exchanging favors for sex. Wilder as usual keeps you interested, but for spy thrillers, sex melodramas or action war dramas, it is better to watch "Casablanca" (1942) or James Mason as Rommel in "The Desert Fox" (1951), which are much better, and were more honest about their business.

kedenbird I remember seeing this movie as a kid on Channel 9 in NYC as part of their Million Dollar Movie series. They always showed the same movie various times for one week. I thought it was great when I was a kid, 9 or 10, and have loved seeing it a few times over the years. My old friend sent me a email saying he saw this great movie and did I ever see it. I felt like the cat that swallowed the canary. Tone is one of our great actors but many don't know his name. Some time after seeing this movie I saw him on the Ben Casey MD TV Show. I knew it was him although he looked different. My wife said her mother loved Tone but my wife had never seen his photo. It's good to have IMDb !

JasparLamarCrabb Billy Wilder's second US directorial effort is a brilliant anti-war film that skips the preaching/morale boosting of other war films of the time while having the chutzpah to not only cast Erich Von Stroheim, but to cast the famed director as the still living Erwin Rommel. It's an outrageous move by Wilder but one that works! After a very creepy opening scene of a British tank drifting recklessly through the desert sands, it's sole survivor (Franchot Tone) falls out and ends up hiding out in a broken down desert hotel run by Anne Baxter and Akim Tamiroff. Field Marshall Rommel just happens to be on his way...Tone soon goes undercover as part of Rommel's entourage. The results are scary and satiric at the same time, both of which would become constants in the rest of Wilder's filmography. Tone is exceptional as is Baxter. Tamiroff is a bit hammy (as always) but Von Stroheim is wickedly good. FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO is one of the best films of the 1940s.