Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

atlasmb During WWII, Billy Wilder directed and at least co-wrote "Ball of Fire", "The Major and the Minor", "Double Indemnity" and "The Lost Weekend"--a remarkable string of films. In the middle of these, he directed and co-wrote "Five Graves to Cairo". Based upon a play, most of the action takes place in an Egyptian hotel. The remarkable thing is that the story involves military action that occurred just months before. An ingenious plot twist links the action in the film to the defeat of Rommel in Africa.The film opens with Captain John Bramble (Franchot Tone) seeking refuge in a small hotel that had been bombed by the Germans the night before. Due to some coincidences, he finds himself impersonating a waiter under the noses of the occupying Germans. Anne Baxter plays Mouche--a French maid whose brother is imprisoned in a German concentration camp.Erich von Stroheim plays Field Marshall Rommel--the seemingly unstoppable German officer whose battle exploits confounded the Allies--as possessing egotistical overconfidence. When on-screen, his presence is commanding.With his usual flair, Wilder combines drama, suspense, humor and--because of its wartime release--the obligatory morale-building pro-Allies patriotic message.

Martha Wilcox From the music begins you get the feeling that you're listening to 'Ivanhoe'. This is because the composer of 'Ivanhoe', Miklos Rosza is also the composer of this film. Anne Baxter plays a French woman who sounds more like a German woman and turns out to be liaising with the Nazis. I'm not sure if I'm convinced by her French accent, but it is a different role for her. The performance of Rommel with a pudgy bald head is magnetic, and Franchot Tone does have a good voice. However, I'm not sure if he's star quality as a leading man. He can act, but not as a lead. Only as a co- star. The direction is good, and you can tell that it is handled well by Billy Wilder. Despite this, it's not a good film.

Spikeopath 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 fill 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 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, its pilot hanging dead from the turret, to a very touching finale involving a parasol, Wilder's movie holds the attention greatly. A masterful story brought to us by a master director. 8/10

jpdoherty The films of writer, producer director Billy Wilder are regarded as some of the finest works of cinematic art in the history of motion pictures. Wilder, who with a handful of film pioneers such as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, John Houston and Henry Hathaway et al forged and created a unique style in the production of films that today are looked upon as enduring, inspired and unsurpassed classics. In the case of Wilder such dramatic and sublime fare as "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Ace In the Hole" (1951) and Hollywood's greatest film about itself "Sunset Boulevard" (1950). Plus his comedies like "The Apartment" (1960) and "Some Like It Hot" (1959) - regarded by many to be the funniest film ever made - can never, let's face it, be equalled. There is a timelessness and ageless quality about them that reaches out to anyone who watches them regardless of their generation. Contemporory film maker Cameron Crowe observed "Wilder's work is a treasure trove of flesh and blood individuals, all wonderfully alive".It is hard to believe that one of Wilder's earliest Hollywood efforts FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO was made in 1943. It seems to be a much later film in look, approach and concept. Yet this quite intriguing spy drama was the result of the day's headlines being utilized by Wilder for the movie's scenario. Based on Lajos Biro's play "Hotel Imperial" it was superbly written by Charles Brackett and Wilder and sharply photographed in monochrome by John Seitz. It was produced by Brackett for Paramount Pictures and was masterfully directed by Wilder. Franchot Tone is British tank Corporal John Bramble who stumbles into a Sahara oasis hotel after crawling through the desert during the North African campaign in 1942. The Germans also arrive at virtually the same time headed by none other than the infamous German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (Erich Von Stroheim). Rommel and his command take up residence in the hotel run by nervous local Arab Farid (Akim Tamiroff) and an attractive Alsatian maid Mouche (Anne Baxter). To conceal his identity Bramble pretends to be the hotel waiter and as such tries to find out from the formidable quest exactly where on the map the German arms dumps are located. With help from Farid and the maid and gaining Rommel's confidence he eventually acquires the information but not before Mouche sacrifices herself so that Bramble can leave and get back to the British lines.Performances are uniformly excellent! Tone gives an engaging portrayal of a reluctant spy. Anne Baxter has rarely been better than here in the role of the ill-fated Mouche and the amusing Akim Tamiroff as the ever fearful and stammering Farid is as appealing as ever. But the picture belongs to Von Stroheim! His striking performance just steals the show. Although the actor didn't resemble Rommel in the slightest his embodiment of the character is exactly what you would imagine the great German battlefield strategist should have, perhaps, looked like. Rommel himself died in 1944. It is interesting to ponder if he ever saw the picture and what his thoughts on Von Stroheim's flamboyant portrayal of himself might have been.Complimenting the picture throughout is the terrific score by Miklos Rozsa. Rozsa was one of Wilder's favourite composers and wrote the music for some of the director's best films like "Double Indemnity" (1944), "Lost Weekend" (1945) and "The Private Lives Of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). For FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO he wrote a spirited and heroic march to point up the British forces movements and a reflective and ravishing character theme for the maid Mouche which is given lovely renditions on solo violin.FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO is a superb and suspenseful spy thriller set in an atmospheric war background. And thanks to the great Billy Wilder it's a great movie that simply refuses to age in its appeal.Classic moment from FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO:Rommel, sitting up in bed as Mouche (Anne Baxter) enters with his breakfast, "I don't like women in the morning" he declares and when she pours his coffee and with a gesture of the back of his hand he instructs her to "take two steps back please".