Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Winifred The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Robert D. Ruplenas This 1952 classic is well worth watching. An added attraction is that it is based on the true story of Albanian Elyesa Bazna, code name Cicero, who served as valet to the British Ambassadaor in Turkey (Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen, if you must know) and funneled secret allied documents to the Germans.It's based on the book Operation Cicero by L.C.Moyzisch, who was Cicero's German contact. Mason, in a superb performance, plays Cicero, and Danielle Darriex plays Countess Staviska, Cicero's treacherous partner. Mason does a wonderful job of making us almost root for the suavely brash spy. Veteran character actor John Wengraf does a great job as Count von Papen, and Michael Rennie is Colin Travers, the British security agent who is sent in to uncover Cicero. Fine writing and acting all around, with a great director, Joseph Mankiewicz, and the distinctive sounds of Bernard Herrmann's score. There is a wonderful plot twist at the end that is well worth waiting for. Don't miss this underrated gem.

ronaldseto One of the best scenes was the scene where he opens the safe for his last photo session without setting off the alarm and then the cleaning lady plugs in the missing fuse and sets off the alarm causing him to flee. One fault I could find in the film was when he opens the safe after the combination was changed. It seems that the new combination would not have been given to him. I also liked in an earlier part, he brings the countess a drink, then after he establishes "equality" with her, tells her to "bring him a drink" I don't think anyone could have guessed the ending. It came as a total surprise; counterfeit money; perfect

Neil Doyle FIVE FINGERS is one of the better espionage movies that came out in the '50s, a post-war film that contains a wonderful central performance by JAMES MASON, an excellent script and fine direction from Joseph L. Mankiewicz. TCM was presenting it as a tribute to Bernard Herrmann, who contributes his background score to the film--a minor work, in my opinion, not as stirring as the scores he would later write for his collaboration with Hitchcock.It's the taut script that supplies all the suspense and the performances of an expert cast. DANIELLE DARRIEUX is assured as the greedy Countess who decides to go along with Mason's offer of assisting him in his little enterprise with the Germans so that she can acquire the wealth to which she is accustomed, rather than remain penniless. It's their relationship that leads to the stunning twist ending.There are clever touches in the screenplay that will have the viewer on the edge of the seat as Mason almost gets caught time after time, but is able to use his wits at all times to avoid capture. The satisfying ending is quite unpredictable and seems to be manufactured in order to add some zest to the spy story--but that's no matter.Mason was at the top of his form, using his voice and suave, debonair charm as an English gentleman who happens to be a very astute spy while working as a valet at the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey. MICHAEL RENNIE is fine as the American agent assigned to find out who is stealing "Top Secret" WWII plans for defeating the Germans. The last half-hour deals with his attempts to track down and capture Mason once he is aware that he is the culprit.Fascinating spy yarn deserves to be seen as one of the best of its kind with an ironic ending.

theowinthrop In the period between 1918 - 1939 most of the countries in Eastern Europe were notable for the strongman dictatorships that had arisen out of the ashes of the First World War. Except for Czechoslovakia and the doomed Baltic trio of states and Finland and Austria (for awhile), Poland, Hungary, Italy, and the Balkan states all became dictatorships. One might, on the surface, have added the former Ottoman Empire now Turkey. Certainly Turkey had some black marks against it: the Armenian massacres in the World War, and the brutal massacre of Greeks at Smyrna in 1922. But aside from those, Turkey surprised everyone. It's strongman leader, Mustapha Kemal (a.k.a. Kemal Attaturk) was determined to make Turkey a strong western country. To this day the military (from which Kemal came out of) has remained pro-Western, and been pushing (despite difficulties with Armenia, Greece, the Kurds, and Muslim fundamentalists) to keep modernizing Turkey. His (Kemal's) was the only positive spin on a dictatorship from Eastern Europe in that period. Kemal was lucky that he had a keen lieutenant and successor named Ismet Inonu. Ismet was as determined to continue Kemal's goals after his friend's death in 1938. One goal that both of them had discussed and agreed upon was that Turkey was not going to be pulled into any further nonsense that it could not afford to get involved in. This meant that if there was any major war hitting Europe again (and both Kemal and Ismet fully knew one was on the way after 1933) Turkey was going to be neutral. This was, on the surface, surprising and disappointing to the Axis when war came in 1939 - 1940. Hitler figured that, as Turkey had been allied to Germany in World War I it would be allied again in World War II. Actually Kemal (and Ismet) were less than enchanted by such an idea. Kemal made his reputation as a great military hero by his leadership against the British at Gallipoli. While the German commander Liman Von Sanders, took kudos for much of the triumph there, Kemal fumed at this - he knew that Von Sanders made several severe blunders that cost Turkish lives, and that he looked at the Turks as cannon fodder. Kemal was determined that no Turk would die for Germany again. Ismet swore the same thing.It is for this reason that Turkey is neutral from 1939 to 1945 (as De Velera's Eire was also neutral). This meant that the embassies of all the major powers were active in Ankara during the war, and that much spy activity was going on there as a result. Hollywood did take notice of it twice (as far as I can recall) - in 1943 when Warner Brothers made a film of Eric Ambler's 1940 novel BACKGROUND TO DANGER about a German plot to force Turkey into the war as an Axis ally (Sidney Greenstreet as the Nazi agent against George Raft as the American one), and the 1942 film JOURNEY INTO FEAR, where German agents are after an American engineer (Joseph Cotton) who has been arming Turkish ships. That too was from an Eric Ambler novel.With this as the background, you can suddenly understand the story of "Operation Cicero". Ulysses Diello (James Mason) in the film (his real name was Bazna) is personal valet to the British Ambassador to Turkey (Walter Hampden). But he is gifted spy, and has proof of it which he takes to the German embassy's espionage chief Moyzisch (Oskar Karlweis). Actually the information by itself would not unduly impress Moyzisch (it could be a plant for all that), but Diello opens the embassy safe while Moyzisch is out of the room. He knows that in Germany, since 1933, Hitler's birthday or his date of coming to power are the universal combinations favored in government organizations for their safes.The pieces of information that Cicero (the code name for Mason) checks out - although there is always a lingering sense of doubt by Moyzisch's higher ups in German intelligence. They continue paying Mason in British pounds (he may give them the information, but Mason has little faith the Germans are going to win the war). In the meantime the leak has been noticed by British intelligence, which sends Michael Rennie to investigate. Soon he begins to concentrate on Mason. Mason feels he still can carry on his espionage business. However Mason has started romancing a Countess (Danielle Darrieux) whom he once knew as a servant. She may be playing him for a sucker - but even if she is, he is determined to carry off the greatest espionage coup of all time. He is aware of some large scale Allied invasion being planned - and a copy of the plans is at the British embassy.The film shows what actually happened. He did get the information regarding "Operation Overlord" and sold it to the Germans. And their subsequent use of this masterstroke demonstrated again how smart Cicero was in judging German "intelligence". It is an exciting spy thriller, and (on the whole) factual. Mason, Rennie, Darrieux, Hampden give pretty good accounts for themselves in this film, and Joseph Mankiewicz' script and direction are excellent. A highly worthy film to be seen.