Five Graves to Cairo

Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 World War II film by Billy Wilder, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. 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, Mouch... more

Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 World War II film by Billy Wilder, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. 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. Complications arise when the Germans take over the hotel to use as headquarters for Field Marshal Rommel (Erich 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... less