5 Fingers

5 Fingers
Directed by	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenplay by	Michael Wilson Uncredited: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Based on	Der fall Cicero 1949 novel by Ludwig Carl Moyzisch
Produced by	Otto Lang
Starring	James Mason Danielle Darrieux Michael Rennie
Cinematography	Norbert Brodine
Edited by	James B. Clark
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	February 22, 1952 (1952-02-22)
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 Ludwig Carl Moyzisch, Nazi commercial attaché at the German Embassy in Ankara (1943–44).^[2] In the film James Mason plays Ulysses Diello (Cicero), the character based on Elyesa 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, a spy who 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.

Plot[]

In neutral Turkey in 1944, German ambassador Franz von Papen attends a reception. Von Papen encounters Countess Anna Staviska, a Frenchwoman and the widow of a pro-German 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 attaché, Moyzisch, offering to provide von Papen with top-secret British documents for a price; £20,000 British. 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. He gives his money to Anna for safekeeping and pays her a portion of it, provided he is 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 with her, she slaps his face but she agrees to his conditions.

Moyzisch is summoned to Berlin by SS General Kaltenbrunner, suspicious of Cicero's true intent. Allied bombing of a Romanian oil refinery 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 newly-found 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 is offered £40,000 for it.

Diello realises 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 being paid by the Germans. Diello breaks into the safe and photographs the D-Day plans and intercepts the letter, but when returning the plans to the safe he sets off the alarm and has to flee.

Broke and on the run, Diello demands a £100,000 payment from the Germans for the photographs of the D-Day plans. He receives it, then manages to avoid getting killed or captured. A second malicious letter from Anna to the Germans misinforms them that the valet is a British spy, whereupon they dispose of the D-Day information as unreliable.

Diello escapes alone to Rio, where he is shown enjoying a new life of prosperity and freedom. Or at least he is until Brazilian authorities arrive to take him into custody because all of his money is counterfeit, from Operation Bernhard. Anna's money in Switzerland, he finds out, is fake as well, which offers him consolation and amusement in his new, dark circumstances.

Cast[]

James Mason and Danielle Darrieux in Five Fingers (publicity shot)

• James Mason as Ulysses Diello / Cicero (Elyesa Bazna)
• 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
• Ivan Triesault as Steuben (uncredited)
• Lumsden Hare as MP (uncredited)
• John Sutton as Narrator (uncredited)

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.

Television adaptation[]

Five Fingers was adapted into a 1959-1960 16-episode TV series, starring David Hedison and Luciana Paluzzi.

Notable quote[]

"The five fingers perform a single task." -- Rumi (13th c. Sufi mystic and poet)

References[]

• 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[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 5 Fingers.

• 5 Fingers at IMDb
• 5 Fingers at AllMovie
• 5 Fingers at the TCM Movie Database
• 5 Fingers at the American Film Institute Catalog