Billy Wilder directed some of the best movies ever made: Double
Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Some Like it Hot. Five Graves to
Cairo shows you how he hit the ground running with his second American film, adapting
a play and changing the World War I subject to fit the times and the setting to
the North African front of World War II.
Franchot Tone plays a British corporal, the delirious
sole survivor of a tank crew who wanders into an abandoned Egyptian border
hotel. Tone isn't welcomed warmly by Anne Baxter, a French maid who holds a
grudge against the British, but she and hotel owner Akim Tamiroff hide Tone when
Nazi Field Marshall Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) rolls in with the Afrika Korps
and commandeers the hotel.
Seeing it as his duty to get top secret information, Tone pretends to be a spy and tries to find out where German arms are located in the desert on the way to Cairo. Baxter, though sympathetic, remains an unknown quantity since she's only working there to grab her chance to put on some lipstick and "do business" with a German VIP to get her brother out of a Nazi prison camp. Some saw this angle as too obvious a personification of France being willing to prostitute itself for the Germans, but for Wilder it was usually not symbolism but realism to portray basic human interests.
Seeing it as his duty to get top secret information, Tone pretends to be a spy and tries to find out where German arms are located in the desert on the way to Cairo. Baxter, though sympathetic, remains an unknown quantity since she's only working there to grab her chance to put on some lipstick and "do business" with a German VIP to get her brother out of a Nazi prison camp. Some saw this angle as too obvious a personification of France being willing to prostitute itself for the Germans, but for Wilder it was usually not symbolism but realism to portray basic human interests.
There are some clever, memorable moments, like the tank
trundling along creepily through the desert, Rommel introduced with back turned
to the camera, the camera’s focus on a flashlight during a fight in the dark,
and shadowy noir like shots of Tone's eye peering through lattice, but even
better is the acting and tension between the characters.
Franchot Tone (one Joan Crawford's husbands) got the role after Cary Grant declined (reportedly to avoid the heat of the Arizona desert). Tone was a great actor with a bemused and knowing expression and sophistication that had him most often typed as an uppity socialite or playboy. His slick, cerebral, and ironic style has aged well and was perfect for this role that called for a quick and calculating intelligence, a believably upright and duty bound soldier with just the right amounts of reluctance and cynicism.
Anne Baxter, best known for her delightful scheming in All About Eve, is perfectly seething, bitter and ashamed at what she's willing to do for her brother, and proud at what she's willing to do for Tone.
Erich von Stroheim was the extravagant, talented and perfectionist director who chronically went overboard and over budget, once turning in a ten hour first cut and insisting on authentic underwear under period costumes. By the time of Five Graves, he had stopped making movies for about a decade and was enjoying a run as a character actor. Wilder, a huge fan from way back, eagerly sought von Stroheim for Five Graves, and then listened to his idol's ideas on improving every aspect of the film. As Rommel, von Stroheim is delightfully nasty, arrogant, overconfident, and egotistical (even comparing himself to Moses), and Wilder cast him again in Sunset Boulevard.
Five Graves is a tight little thriller where war is reduced to a puzzle on a map, a virtual chess board in a hotel, its pieces a handful of complex people with totally different goals and questionable motivations. It's one of the top classic war movies, and an absolute must see for fans of Billy Wilder and of suspenseful pacing, smart writing, dark wit, and great acting.
Franchot Tone (one Joan Crawford's husbands) got the role after Cary Grant declined (reportedly to avoid the heat of the Arizona desert). Tone was a great actor with a bemused and knowing expression and sophistication that had him most often typed as an uppity socialite or playboy. His slick, cerebral, and ironic style has aged well and was perfect for this role that called for a quick and calculating intelligence, a believably upright and duty bound soldier with just the right amounts of reluctance and cynicism.
Anne Baxter, best known for her delightful scheming in All About Eve, is perfectly seething, bitter and ashamed at what she's willing to do for her brother, and proud at what she's willing to do for Tone.
Erich von Stroheim was the extravagant, talented and perfectionist director who chronically went overboard and over budget, once turning in a ten hour first cut and insisting on authentic underwear under period costumes. By the time of Five Graves, he had stopped making movies for about a decade and was enjoying a run as a character actor. Wilder, a huge fan from way back, eagerly sought von Stroheim for Five Graves, and then listened to his idol's ideas on improving every aspect of the film. As Rommel, von Stroheim is delightfully nasty, arrogant, overconfident, and egotistical (even comparing himself to Moses), and Wilder cast him again in Sunset Boulevard.
Five Graves is a tight little thriller where war is reduced to a puzzle on a map, a virtual chess board in a hotel, its pieces a handful of complex people with totally different goals and questionable motivations. It's one of the top classic war movies, and an absolute must see for fans of Billy Wilder and of suspenseful pacing, smart writing, dark wit, and great acting.
See it SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 at 10:45 PM on TCM.
Find me at the Speakeasy for much more classic entertainment.
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