Five Graves to Cairo (1943)

In June 1942, the 8th British Army Corporal John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is retreating from Rommel's Afrika Korps and has sunstroke, reaching a remote hotel in Sidi Halfaya. He is helped by the Egyptian owner, Farid (Akim Tamiroff), under the protest of the French chambermaid Mouche (Anne Baxter) that is afraid with the imminent arrival of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) and the Germans that are heading to Alexandria and Cairo. John assumes the identity of the deceased Alsatian lame waiter Paul Davos that has clubfoot to survive, but he discovers that Davos is a German spy. Further, he needs to disclose the secret about Professor Cronstraetter and the five graves mentioned by Rommel to Lieutenant Schwegler (Peter Van Eyck) that can change the fate of the British Army in Egypt.

Billy Wilder is among my top four directors of all times, but "Five Graves to Cairo" is a deceptive war propaganda of this great master. This film could have been a great war movie, but the problem is that it presents Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as a stupid commander instead of one of the greatest and most respected military leaders of history. Further, a single British Corporal is smarter than German officers and together with an Egyptian owner of an isolated hotel and a chambermaid, they are capable to lure the German troops. But maybe the most ridiculous is the language spoken by people of different nationalities in this movie. The Alsatian Davos is performed by an American actor in the role of a British Corporal that speaks in English with the German officers. The American actress Anne Baxter performs the role of a French woman and speaks in English with the other characters. And Rommel switches from English to German like a clown. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Cinco Covas no Egito" ("Five Graves in Egypt")