Synopsis
Turner Classic Movies and Universal Studios Home Entertainment present the 2-disc Directed by Billy Wilder: Five Graves to Cairo, and A Foreign Affair. FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO (1943)John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone), the sole survivor ofa British tank crew, makes his way to the desolate desert town of Sidi Halfaya. There he is given refuge by Farid (Akim Tamiroff), a hotel owner, and Mouche (Anne Baxter), a French chambermaid, who prepare to receive Field Marshall General Erwin Rommel (Erich Von Stroheim) and his German staff. Posing as the hotel's waiter, a German spy who was killed in an air raid, Bramble attempts to infiltrate Rommel's inner circle and report the general's plans to the Allies...but will he succeed? Nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Black and White Art Direction, FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO is especially notable for Von Stroheim's colorful, commanding performance as the infamous "Desert Fox."A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948) Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur), an upright Iowa Republican member of Congress, travels to Berlin to look into reports of corruption among the occupying American forces. She enlists an Army captain (John Lund) in her crusade and finds herself falling for him, unaware that he's the man romantically involved with a German cabaret singer (Marlene Dietrich) who can lead army investigators to a high-level Nazi war criminal. The post-war public was not ready to accept such a witty expose of American and German hypocrisy during its original release but A FOREIGN AFFAIR is now considered one of Wilder's most underrated and iconic films.