“Five Fingers” is a spy noir movie along the lines of “Notorious”. It was directed by the famous screenwriter Joseph Mankiewicz (“The Quiet American” (1958)). The film is based on the book Operation Cicero by Ludwig Moyzisch. The book and movie are the true story of Albanian-born Elyesa Bazna. He was the valet to the British ambassador in Turkey. Bazna would photograph top secret documents from the ambassador’s safe and sell them to the Germans. It was filmed on location in Ankara and other sites.
The film begins in 1944 in neutral Turkey. Polish Countessa Anna Staviska (Danielle Darrieux) offers her services to German Ambassador Count Van Papen (John Wengraf) as a spy. Surprisingly, he turns her down. And then he turns around and agrees to let Ulysses Diello (James Mason) play amateur spy for money. Diello has access to British secrets and sells them. He may be an amateur, but he has the moxey of a James Bond. Because there has to be a dame in a movie like this, Diello falls in love with the downtrodden countessa and shares some of his payments with her. The British get suspicious and sent a counter-intelligent agent to Ankara. Colin Travers (Michael Rennie) starts snooping around Ulysses and Anna. The couple plan to escape to Argentina or so Diello thinks), but they need one last big score. It involves the plans for Operation Overlord. Don’t ask why those plans are in the British Ambassador to Turkey’s safe.
“Five Fingers” is better than expected. It is not in a league with “Notorious”, but it is a true story so it has one up on the Hitchcock film. (Both films star the always reliable Mason.) Mason is great as Diello. His character is not a Nazi. He’s just in it for the money. Carrieux is not on the same level of acting as him, but she does well as a femme fatale. Their relationship has some interesting twists.
Dialogue is crucial in this type of film and “Five Fingers” is strong in this area. Some of it is crackling. The plot rests on the usual cat and mouse format. The movie is unpredictable and that is saying a lot because the subgenre of spy movies is rife with cliches. The score supports the movie well. It is a well-crafted film. It is entertaining, but how educational is it?
The movie adds a
lot of historical license. Banza did get a job as a valet to Sir Hughe
Knatchbull-Hugessen. If the name gives you the impression that the ambassador
was a daft nobleman without a clue, you would be right. Banza was hired with
the flimsiest of background checks. His Lordship made Banza into a glorified
butler and dressed him like a guard in a harem. Banza hooked up with his bosses
nurse-maid, but she was not his partner in crime. The true story has no one
equivalent to the Countessa. Banza was adept at picking locks so he easily got into
the safe. Knatchbull-Hugessen was very careless with security. Banza passed on
information about the Teheran and Cairo Conferences. Nothing earth-shaking. He
was paid a lot, but it was mostly counterfeit money. Ha ha! The money came from
Operation Bernhard. (Covered in the film “The Counterfeiters”.) Banza’s biggest theft was documents about
Operation Overlord which ironically, the Germans failed to use. The British did
suspect someone in the embassy was passing secrets, so they sent a Cornella
Kapp to catch the mole. She was not successful. There are several historians
who think Banza was a double agent and there is evidence supporting this. I bet
Knatchbull-Hugessen prayed that was true. He didn’t get a lot of party
invitations after the war. Banza also had a depressing post-war. The money was
discovered to be counterfeit and he spent some time in prison for passing it.
He did not go to Rio.
GRADE = B+