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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Five Graves to Cairo (Directors Suite) (1943)

Five Graves to Cairo (Directors Suite) (1943)

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Released 11-Apr-2007

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Featurette-Hollywood Remembers : Anne Baxter
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1943
Running Time 92:00
RSDL / Flipper RSDL Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Billy Wilder
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Franchot Tone
Anne Baxter
Akim Tamiroff
Erich von Stroheim
Peter van Eyck
Fortunio Bonanova
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI ? Music Miklós Rózsa


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.37:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Five Graves To Cairo is a film from 1943 that has lain forgotten in some Hollywood vault just as if the sands of the Egyptian desert had blown over it. Whilst no masterpiece it is a fun and often thrilling drama laced with some comedy that deserves a wider audience. Madman Entertainment merits serious praise not only for bringing it to DVD but for doing so in such an accomplished fashion with a nice essay and a stellar transfer.

There is actually only one reason why the film, which is part of the Madman Directors Series, has surfaced on DVD. . It lives solely because it was only the second U.S. film directed by the great Billy Wilder.

Wilder is arguably the greatest director of the golden age of Hollywood creating great works over three decades including Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend in the 40's, Sunset Boulevard and The Seven Year Itch in the 50's and The Apartment in the 60's.

Wilder had come to Hollywood in 1933 and fell into the familiar role of scriptwriting, earning himself an Oscar nomination for Ninotchka in 1940. Not bad for a man who had to teach himself English! After making his directorial debut with The Major and The Minor in 1942 he was given this minor film. Wilder wrote the script with regular collaborator Charles Brackett which was based on a play by Lajos Biro. The play was originally set in the First World War and had been filmed before in the troubled production which became Hotel Imperial Swapping the lead from female to male the talented screenwriting team managed to update it into a contemporary context and add in some of the zippy dialogue for which Wilder is justly revered.

It is 1942 in North Africa. The Desert Fox, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, has the Brits on the run. Corporal John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is a British tank commander in a world of trouble. Routed by Rommel's tank divisions he stumbles through the desert with heat stroke and is near death when he discovers a bombed hotel, humorously named the Empress of Britain. The hotel is run by Amir (Akim Tamiroff) and a French maid named Mouche (Anne Baxter). All the rest of the staff have abandoned the hotel except for the unfortunate Davros who lies dead in a bombed out cellar.

Before Bramble has a chance to recover the all conquering Germans arrive. Not only will they be taking over the Hotel but Rommel himself will be staying there for a few days to plan his next move!

Amir wants to protect the Britisher but Mouche is not so sure. Her reasons are personal. When the British retreated from Dunkirk they abandoned the local French, including her brother, who was taken away to a concentration camp. Why stick their neck out for him? After he tells her about his (non-existent) wife and children she reluctantly agrees to help him.

Bramble dresses in the clothes left by Davros, including his shoes adapted for a club foot, and assumes his identity. As luck would have it the Germans know Davros very well (but not by sight), for he was a German spy!

Over the next 24 hours drama and tension bubble to the surface with all characters living on the edge. The five graves of the title are the entirely mythical hidden locations of supplies placed under the ground by Rommel prior to the war in preparation for the tank campaign.

Once the action gets going it barely lets up and the resourceful Bramble and Mouche have some decisions to make. Should Bramble assassinate Rommel and perhaps change the war in Africa even if it means certain death for the whole staff? Can he spy on Rommel and pick up enough information to assist the war effort without endangering anybody? Will he and the initially hostile Mouche form a lasting attraction? Will she be able to convince a German Lieutenant to intervene on her brothers behalf just by being "nice" to him? Will Bramble be found out by the Nazis and put up against the wall? These questions and more are answered in the tight final act of the film.

Five Graves to Cairo was, at the time of its release, an amazingly contemporary film. By the release date in Mid 1943 Rommel had been defeated at El Alamein and the war in Africa was over. But the story must have been extremely vivid to an audience kept up to date by newsreels and dispatches. It is not revered now perhaps because it is seen as an also-ran amongst a swathe of patriotic war movies. This is misplaced as there is actually very little war in it.

The movie is surprisingly taut particularly in the second act where the plot goes up another gear. Tone, playing against his usual wealthy gadabout role, puts in an energetic performance as the plucky Brit even if his accent wanders across the Pacific on more than a few occasions. The idea of quintessentially American Baxter playing the role of a French maid with a slightly risible (or should I say wizable) French accent must have seemed like career suicide at the time. However, once you get past the initial giggles she gives quite an engaging performance as the conflicted woman torn between Tone and her brother. For his part Bramble is never really conflicted - like all great heroes he rarely stops to consider the consequences of his actions.

Von Stroheim is magical as the autocratic battlefield technician Rommel, despite the fact that he bears no physical resemblance to the Field Marshall himself. He chews up the scenery with his riding crop flicking about whilst spitting out some crafty lines. In fact, in a review published in The New York Times the great Bosley Crowther said:

It's a good thing the German armies and Field Marshal Rommel in particular had been chased all the way out of Africa before "Five Graves to Cairo"
opened at the Paramount yesterday, else the performance by Erich von Stroheim of the much-touted field marshal in it might have been just
a bit too aggressive for the comfort of most of us.
As a matter of fact, it is still a shade on the terrifying side.

Finally, the cast is rounded out with two actors who carry the humour in the piece. Tamiroff gives a funny turn as the hotel owner who is never sure from one day to the next who is ordering him about. Then there is opera singer/actor Fortunio Bonanova playing an Italian General. The part is a token funny enemy character and may offend any Italian fans who hate their nation constantly depicted as surrender monkeys.

The film isn't perfect. The performances, as said above, are occasionally wayward and for all its ingenuity the script can't hide its potboiler origins. The scene in which a gloating Rommel explains his secrets to some captured British brass, whilst Davros quietly pours drinks in the background, must have served as a template for every Bond movie where the master villain rashly details the source of his evil powers. The ending seems tacked on after some really good tension leading up to the finish and it is difficult to buy some of the plot turns.

For all that it is a lot of Sunday afternoon fun and a glimpse of the Wilder to come.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    Five Graves to Cairo is presented on DVD in a Full Frame version at 1.33:1 , close to its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio.

The transfer provided by Madman is superlative. It is described on the case as fully restored and for once the result meets the hype. In fact, it looks better than the Madman Double Indemnity released last year, despite the fact that one would have expected more love to have been lavished on that critically revered film. Still, most of the problems of restoration are associated with overuse of the available print hence the successful films are often more tricky to fix up than the ones that have sat in their case undisturbed for years.

Billy Wilder liked working with the same crew hence the lovely black and white photography provided in this film by John F. Seitz who received the second of his seven Oscar nominations (he never won) for the film. The movie also received Oscar nominations for Editing and Art Direction.

There is a wonderful crispness to the image and the contrast is handled perfectly. The level of film grain is appropriate to the period.

In the early scenes there seems to be rampant aliasing in the sand dunes however Adrian Danks, writing in the essay booklet which comes with the film, say that the cinematographer worked hard to get a shimmering effect on the sand to suggest the disorded mind of the soldier as he stumbled through the desert.

The transfer is not perfect but nearly so. There are some minor problems at the reel changes and some scratches and occasional markings. None of these detract from the image and enjoyment of the film.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

  The sound for Five Graves to Cairo is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono running at 224 Kb/s consistent with the original sound.

There are a few scenes where a bit of subwoofer action would have been nice such as the bombing scene towards the end of the movie. But otherwise the surround sound is not missed. The dialogue is well produced although the viewer does need to listen closely as there are a variety of accents on board. The sound suffers from occasional dry patches and problems at the reel changes but otherwise it is in pretty good shape.

The audio sync appeared fine.

The score is by the legendary Miklós Rózsa and whilst it didn't earn him one of his 17 Oscar nominations it is a fine accompaniment to the film, full of drama and intrigue.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

There are three extras on the DVD.

Theatrical Trailer 2.15

The original theatrical trailer is worth a watch but it is really just a collection of moments strung together with screaming titles.

Featurette Hollywood Remembers: Anne Baxter 25.03

When reviewing the Double Indemnity release from Madman I was critical of the Hollywood Remembers series featured on that disc. Unfortunately my views are unchanged with this release. Whilst it is worthwhile exercise reviewing the career of Anne Baxter (why not Franchot Tone too?) the result is very ordinary. As with the previous Hollywood Remembers features this is composed entirely of excerpts from trailers, presumably in an attempt to avoid paying for the rights to the actual films. Therefore we only see what the trailer makers want us to see. Frankly, the comment from the cheesy narrator that Baxter "gives an inspiring speech in (a certain) film" isn't worth much if we don't get to see the speech. Surprisingly, Five Graves to Cairo doesn't even get a mention in the feature.

We did learn a few interesting things about her life via a snippet from an interview she gave on TV in the seventies, including her life as a cattle station owner's wife in Australia, but the overall impression is one of disappointment.

Booklet Essay - Adrian Danks

The essay by Adrian Danks, Head of Cinema Studies at RMIT University, is an enjoyable take on Wilder and the film. Whilst suitably scholarly it is fairly breezy to read and will enrich the film for buffs as well as the casual reader. He looks beyond the film examining the career of Stroheim. He hits it right on the head when he says that this is " a film that one can watch almost without registering its ultimate absurdity and strange mixture of tones, genres and performance styles as it rattles along with extraordinary pace and wit..."

An entertaining read and a continuing bonus in many Madman releases.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

   Five Graves to Cairo has not had a Region 1 release on DVD. There is mention of a Region 2 Europe release but details of it are sketchy. Buy this version.

Summary

    Five Graves to Cairo is a real popcorn movie that strives for thrills rather than greatness and often achieves those aims.

Given its age and obscurity it is a minor miracle that it has received such loving treatment in restoration.

The essay is a welcome read but the other extras are at best forgettable.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Trevor Darge (read my bio)
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DVR 630H-S, using Component output
DisplayPanasonic TH-50PV60A 50' Plasma. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080i.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationOnkyo TX - SR603
SpeakersOnkyo 6.1 Surround

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