Joseph L. Mankiewicz – 5 Fingers (1952)

Based on a true story. In neutral Turkey during WWII, the ambitious and extremely efficient valet
for the British ambassador tires of being a servant and forms a plan to promote himself to rich
gentleman of leisure. His employer has many secret documents; he will photograph them, and with
the help of a refugee Countess, sell them to the Nazis. When he makes a certain amount of money,
he will retire to South America with the Countess as his wife

Variety.com wrote:
20th Century-Fox. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz; Producer Otto Lang; Screenplay Michael Wilson; Camera Norbert Brodine; Editor James B. Clark; Music Bernard Herrmann; Art Director Lyle Wheeler, George W. Davis

A good, if somewhat overlong, cloak-and-dagger thriller has been concocted from an actual World War II espionage case. Screenplay is based on the novel Operation Cicero, written by L.C. Moyzisch, Nazi agent in the espionage dealings with ‘Cicero’, the fabulous spy.

Mason portrays Ulysses Diello known to the Nazis as Cicero, a valet to the British Ambassador in Turkey. A cold, assured character, he decides to make himself a fortune by selling Allied war plans to the Germans. Cicero’s operations are moving forward without a hitch until the British begin to suspect someone within the Embassy and turn Michael Rennie loose on a counter-espionage job.

The script runs to considerable dialog in the first portions. However, pace quickens and becomes sock suspense drama, tight and tingling, when the story gets down to cases. Actual locations in Berlin, Ankara, Turkey, London and Istanbul were used for a documentary background effect.

1952: Nominations: Best Director, Screenplay

(B&W) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1952. Running time: 107 MIN.