5 Fingers (1952)

During WWII the valet to the English Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.

Director:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writers:

Michael Wilson (screenplay), L.C. Moyzisch (book),

Stars:

James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
James Mason	...	Ulysses Diello
Danielle Darrieux	...	Countess Anna Staviska
Michael Rennie	...	Colin Travers
Walter Hampden	...	Sir Frederic Taylor
Oskar Karlweis	...	L. C. Moyzisch
Herbert Berghof	...	Col. von Richter
John Wengraf	...	Count Franz Von Papen
Ben Astar	...	Siebert (as A. Ben Astar)
Roger Plowden	...	Keith Macfadden

Storyline

Based on a true story. In neutral Turkey during WWII, the ambitious and extremely efficient valet for the British ambassador tires of being a servant and forms a plan to promote himself to rich gentleman of leisure. His employer has many secret documents; he will photograph them, and with the help of a refugee Countess, sell them to the Nazis. When he makes a certain amount of money, he will retire to South America with the Countess as his wife.

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Plot Keywords:

countess | valet | ambassador | nazi | secret document | 

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Taglines:

5 FINGERS...BEHIND THEM THE FABULOUS TRUE EXPLOITS OF THE HIGHEST PAID SPY IN HISTORY! (original print ad - all caps)

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Portuguese Turkish

Release Date:

22 February 1952 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cinco dedos

Filming Locations:

Yeni Cami Square, Eminönü, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The real Cicero was Elyesa Bazna, an Albanian. In his book, "I Was Cicero" he retells the story, listing his collaborators as a chambermaid and his niece. The character of the countess was a Hollywood fabrication.

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Goofs

When the Britsh ambassador's valet Diello (Brit James Mason) suggests that his new German spymaster change the combination on the latter's safe, he gives the existing combination 1-30-33 as based on the date of Hitler's rise to power, suggesting instead 6-18-15, the date of the Battle of Waterloo. One would expect an employee of the Britsh Embassy (particularly one born in the UK) to have used "European" notation (date/month/year) instead of US notation (month/day/year), particularly when speaking with a German.

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Quotes

Ulysses Diello: [to Moyzisch] ... and please don't have me followed. You Germans have no talent for it. You keep wanting to get ahead of the people you follow.

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Crazy Credits

Before the movie title: This is a true story. All the exterior scenes in this picture were filmed in the locales associated with the story.

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Connections

Version of The 20th Century-Fox Hour: Operation Cicero (1956)

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Soundtracks

"Flight of the Valkyries"
(uncredited)
Composed by Richard Wagner

User Reviews

James Mason Had the Last Laugh!

Greatly enjoyed this 1952 film which was very well produced and the wonderful photography through out Istanbul, Turkey was outstanding. The Nazi agents and British tried to keep tabs on a spy who was giving out very important information and was sometimes not believed by the German Government. James Mason,(Ulysses Diello),"Voyage of the Damned",'76, gave an excellent performance and had lots of fun changing light bulbs and taking fuses out of the fuse boxes and setting alarms off, giving the cleaning lady a hard time trying to vacuum the rugs! Michael Rennie( George Travers),"The Lost World",'60, was a British Agent trying to track down the SPY. Ulysses Diello at one point in the film went into a wild laughing spell that just could not STOP! This is a great James Mason film, ENJOY!