5 Fingers (1952)

“So many more people go into German embassies than come out. I’ve often wondered what attraction could keep them there so long.” – Ulysses Diello

Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Sep 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A British diplomat in Turkey decides to steal top secret documents from his government and sell them to the Nazi’s at the height of World War II.

My Take on it – This is a film that I had never heard about before seeing that it was nominated for both best screenplay and Director at the Oscars.

The story itself is presented really well and they manage to keep things thrilling and suspenseful throughout.

The fact that this is based on a true story helps make it even more believable to think that such a story could actually happen.

The suspense and thrills are great and they do a really intriguing job of showing how a spy could act when he is only interested in money instead of duty and loyalty to his home country.

James mason is superb in the lead role and does a very convincing job in this role especially since we should find his character despicable yet it’s easy to actually like him and even root for him at certain points.

Bottom Line – Amazing story that would seem even more unbelievable if it weren’t true. The suspense and thrills works quite well here as we see how someone who elects to be a spy could act when all he wants is money for his work.  Mason is great in the lead and plays his character quite convincingly. The dialogue is great and helps us realize how dangerous such a situation can be.  They manage to get the viewer to actually care about the main character despite the fact that he is working against his own government the whole time.  Mankiewicz was very deservingly nominated for an Oscar for directing this great and compelling thriller. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This was Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s last film under his contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. A great deal of preparatory work had been already been done on the film when he expressed an interest in the story, and studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck was reluctant to let him wait out the last few months of his contract without doing anything. Mankiewicz rewrote the dialogue extensively without taking a credit, but his contract was up by the time the editing process had to begin. He always claimed that Zanuck, who supervised the editing, had taken out several of the film’s best scenes. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)

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