5 Fingers (1952)
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Genres - Drama, Spy Film, Thriller |
Sub-Genres - War Spy Film |
Release Date - Feb 22, 1952 (USA - Limited), Mar 7, 1952 (USA - Unknown), Mar 7, 1952 (USA) |
Run Time - 108 min. |
Countries - United Kingdom, United States |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson
Based on a true story, 5 Fingers stars James Mason as a man known to his superiors only as Cicero. Ostensibly the valet of the British ambassador to Ankara during World War II, Cicero is actually a Nazi agent. He holds no particular political viewpoint: the Nazis offered the best price, so for the time being he is loyal to them. Falling in love with the beautiful Danielle Darrieux, Cicero uses her home as a contact point to meet his German associates. At great personal risk, Cicero secures secret British war files and smuggles them to the Germans; they find the information in the files too far-fetched to be taken seriously--and thus are caught unawares on the morning of the D-Day invasion. An ironic coda finds Cicero, setting himself up in luxury in Rio de Janeiro, double-crossed by both Darrieux and the Germans. What else can he do but laugh uproariously? 5 Fingers, based on the memoirs of the real-life "Cicero" L. C. Moyzisch, was adapted into a 1959 TV series, wherein the antihero was converted into a 100% good guy.
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Keywords
valet [servant], British, D-Day, document, embassy, espionage, Nazi, treason