Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 World War II film by Billy Wilder, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. This article is becoming very long. ... Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was a screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. ... Franchot Tone Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor. ... Baxter in The Blue Gardenia (1953) Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ...

Plot

A British tank commander (Tone) survives a battle with Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the North African desert. He finds sanctuary in a small desert hotel owned by Farid (Akim Tamiroff). The staff consists of just Mouche (Baxter), but is augmented by "Davos", the identity that Corporal John Bramble assumes. At first hostile and cynical, Mouche gradually falls in love with the newcomer. Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ( ) (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) was one of the most distinguished German Field Marshals of World War II. He was the commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps and also became known by the nickname The Desert Fox (Wüstenfuchs, ) for the skillful military campaigns he... The seal of Afrikakorps The German Afrika Korps (German: Deutsches Afrikakorps, DAK ) was the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in Libya and Egypt during the North African Campaign of World War II. Since there was little turnover in the units attached to the corps, the term is... Akim Tamiroff (October 29, 1899, Baku, Azerbaijan - September 17, 1972, Palm Springs, California) was an American actor. ...

Complications arise when the Germans take over the hotel to use as headquarters for Field Marshal Rommel (von Stroheim). Davos is mistaken by the Germans for one of their local spies and he makes use of this fortuitous mistake to steal some vital military information, the locations of the "Five Graves to Cairo", hidden buried fuel dumps prepared before the war for the conquest of Egypt. He takes that knowledge to the British, who use it to thwart Rommel's plans.

When Bramble returns in triumph to the hotel, he is devastated to learn that the Germans had executed Mouche in his absence because she wouldn't stop saying that the British would be back. He takes the parasol he had bought for her, something she had always wanted, and uses it to provide shade for her grave.

Cast

• Franchot Tone - Corporal John Bramble / Davos
• Anne Baxter - Mouche
• Akim Tamiroff - Farid
• Erich von Stroheim - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
• Peter van Eyck - Lieutenant Schwegler
• Fortunio Bonanova - General Sebastiano

Franchot Tone Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor. ... Baxter in The Blue Gardenia (1953) Anne Baxter (May 7, 1923 – December 12, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Akim Tamiroff (October 29, 1899, Baku, Azerbaijan - September 17, 1972, Palm Springs, California) was an American actor. ... Erich von Stroheim (September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was a filmmaker and actor, noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts. ... Fortunio Bonanova is the pseudonym of Josep Lluís Moll (January 13, 1895 - 1969), who was a baritone singer and a film, theater, and television actor, as well as occasionally functioning as a producer and director. ...

Trivia

The Germans are played by German actors and thus speak with the right accent, except for the actor who plays Rommel, who emigrated from Austria to the US at the age of 24 and whose accent occasionally slips. In this light, it is surprising that the main character, a British soldier, is played by an American actor who consistently speaks with the wrong accent.