Five Graves to Cairo
05/04/1943 AD released
War film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. Set in World War II, it is one of a number of films based on Lajos Bíró's 1917 play Hotel Imperial: Színmű négy felvonásban, including the 1927 film Hotel Imperial.
Erich von Stroheim portrays Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in a supporting performance.
Hans Dreier, Ernst Fegté and Bertram C. Granger were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, John F. Seitz for Best Cinematography, and Doane Harrison for Best Film Editing.
Production lasted from January 4 to February 20, 1943. It was filmed at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, California, with some exteriors of Sidi Halfaya (a fictionalized version of Sidi Barrani) shot on location at the Salton Sea and other exteriors filmed at Camp Young at the Army Desert Training Center, Indio, California, where, with the cooperation of the Army Ground Forces, a battle sequence was staged, and in Yuma, AZ.
Reception Bosley Crowther of The New York Times gave the film a mixed review. He admired one performance, writing, "... von Stroheim has all other movie Huns backed completely off the screen" and " ... whenever he appears in this picture, ... , he gives you the creeps and the shivers. Boy, what a nasty Hun!"[3] However, he was less than impressed with the rest, complaining, "As though this fanciful story weren't sufficiently hard to take, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, a couple of old-hand Paramount wags, have dressed it up with shenanigans which have the flavor of fun in a haunted house."
In 2008, Quentin Tarantino listed Five Graves to Cairo as his 10th favourite film of all time.
Lattitude: 34.05° N
Longitude: 118.25° W
Region: North America
Modern Day United States
