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Cameron Crowe describes Five Graves to Cairo as a masterful predecessor to the Indiana Jones action phenomenon. Over 40 years before Lucas and Spielberg, Billy Wilder created a captivating adventure film that deftly weaves its way in and out of actual history. The fictitious John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) must uncover vital Nazi secrets and, if successful, incite the genuine routing of the German Afrika Corps during World War II. The stakes are high (the fate of the world is in the balance), but the stage is small (the setting is an Egyptian hotel) -- historical fact is expertly whittled down to the personal arena. This allows for romance, as well as individual heroics. Moreover, it permits creative and spontaneous portrayals of even the most documented figures -- as evident in Erich von Stroheim's blustering and comic take on General Erwin Rommel. However, it is important to note that Wilder and co-screenwriter Charles Brackett do not simply capitalize on the harrowing world war as a setting for melodrama or wit. Filming in 1943, they understood that contemporary war films were a powerful form of propaganda. The movie's politics and beliefs are clear -- it exalts patriotism, sacrifice, and action -- but the film is not heavy-handed. Billy Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo is a skillfully executed adventure and a thoughtful film, which accounts, as Crowe points out, for its timelessness and its reflection in popular films today.
Quentin Tarantino on this movie,
"Five Graves to Cairo" — Ten years before he made "Stalag 17," Billy Wilder directed this 1943 tale centered on an undercover British officer (Franchot Tone) and a woman (Anne Baxter) who helps run a desert hotel where Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) establishes his headquarters. "One of my favorite war stories, hands-down," Tarantino said. "Billy Wilder and (co-writer) Charles Brackett wrote their own story for it. It doesn't follow history. They came up with their own way. It's not even a very credible version of Rommel, either, but it's a fantastic version of Rommel."
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