5 Fingers
| 5 Fingers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Otto Lang |
| Screenplay by |
Michael Wilson Uncredited: Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Based on |
book by L.C. Moyzisch |
| Starring |
James Mason Danielle Darrieux Michael Rennie |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography | Norbert Brodine |
| Editing by | James B. Clark |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox |
| Release dates | February 22, 1952 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,350,000 (US rentals)[1] |
5 Fingers, known also as Five Fingers, is a 1952 American spy film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Otto Lang. The screenplay by Michael Wilson was based on the book Operation Cicero (Original German: Der Fall Cicero) (1950) by L.C. Moyzisch. In the film, James Mason plays Ulysses Diello (Cicero), the character based on Bazna. The rest of the cast includes Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Herbert Berghof and Walter Hampden.
The film is based on the true story of Albanian-born Elyesa Bazna, one of the most famous spies of World War II. He worked for the Nazis in 1943–44 while he was employed as valet to the British ambassador to Turkey, Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen. He used the code name Cicero. He would photograph top-secret documents and turn the films over to Franz von Papen, the former German chancellor, at that time German ambassador in Ankara, via the intermediary Moyzisch, a commercial attaché at the embassy.
Plot summary
Turkey, 1944: German ambassador Franz von Papen and his British counterpart Sir Frederic Taylor attend a reception and encounter Countess Anna Staviska, who is a Frenchwoman and the widow of a Polish count. Now destitute, the countess volunteers to become a spy for a fee, but she is turned down.
A man approaches a German embassy atttache, Moyzisch, offering to provide Von Papen with top-secret British documents for a price: 20,000 pounds. What is not yet known by the Germans is that the man, Diello, is the personal valet to Sir Frederic as well as the former valet of the late count.
The documents taken from Sir Frederic's safe and photographed prove genuine. Diello is given the code name "Cicero" and asked to continue his subterfuge. Diello gives his money to Anna for safekeeping and pays her a portion of it, provided he be allowed to use her new villa as a meeting place for his transactions. When the valet also tells Anna his dream of living in South America together, she slaps his face. But she agrees to his conditions.
Moyzisch is summoned to Berlin by military officers suspicious of Cicero's true intent. A bombing of a Romanian City is carried out, exactly as Cicero's photographed documents had outlined. Colonel Von Richter is sent to Ankara to take over the negotiations with Cicero, while the British send a counter-intelligence man, Colin Travers, to identify the spy.
Anna's newfound wealth and previous willingness to become a spy cause her to fall under suspicion from Travers, who also rigs the ambassador's safe with a burglar alarm. Von Richter requests a document detailing an Allied operation called "Overlord." It is the D-Day invasion plan and Cicero wants 40,000 pounds for it.
Diello realizes that he could soon be killed by one side or captured by the other. He decides to leave for South America, only to discover that Anna has stolen all of his money and departed to Switzerland instead. A letter arrives from her to Sir Frederic that identifies his valet as the spy. Diello intercepts it while breaking into the safe, but sets off the alarm and must flee. He now knows for certain how Anna feels toward him.
Broke and on the run, Diello demands a 100,000-pound payment from the Germans for the D-Day information. He receives it, then manages to avoid getting killed or captured. A forged letter from Anna informs the Germans that the valet is actually a British spy, so they dispose of the D-Day document as unreliable.
Diello travels alone to Rio, where he is enjoying a new life of prosperity and freedom. Or at least he is until Brazilian authorities arrive to take him into custody because his money is counterfeit. Anna's money in Switzerland, he finds out, is fake as well.
Cast
- James Mason as Ulysses Diello / Cicero
- Danielle Darrieux as Countess Anna Staviska
- Michael Rennie as Colin Travers
- Walter Hampden as Sir Frederic Taylor
- Oskar Karlweis as Moyzisch
- Herbert Berghof as Colonel von Richter
- John Wengraf as Count Franz Von Papen
- Ben Astar as Siebert
- Roger Plowden as McFadden
Awards
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Director for Mankiewicz and Best Screenplay for Wilson. Mankiewicz was also nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America and Wilson was nominated for Best Written American Drama by the Writers Guild of America. He won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Screenplay.
Notes
Five Fingers was adapted to television in a 1959-1960 NBC and 20th Century Fox 16-episode series starring David Hedison and Luciana Paluzzi.
References
- ↑ 'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953
- Bazna published his own account of the events in his book, I Was Cicero, in 1962 (Bazna, Elyesa, with Hans Nogly. I Was Cicero. New York: Harper & Row, 1962)
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to 5 Fingers. |
- 5 Fingers at the Internet Movie Database
- 5 Fingers at allmovie
- 5 Fingers at the TCM Movie Database
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