5 Fingers (1952)

5 Fingers, known also as Five Fingers, is a 1952 American spy film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Otto Lang. The screenplay by Michael Wilson was based on the book Operation Cicero (Original German: Der Fall Cicero) (1950) by L.C. Moyzisch. In the film, James Mason plays Ulysses Diello (Cicero), the character based on Bazna. The rest of the cast includes Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Herbert Berghof and Walter Hampden.

The film is based on the true story of Albanian-born Elyesa Bazna, one of the most famous spies of World War II. He worked for the Nazis in 1943–44 while he was employed as valet to the British ambassador to Turkey, Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen. He used the code name Cicero. He would photograph top-secret documents and turn the films over to Franz von Papen, the former German chancellor, at that time German ambassador in Ankara, via the intermediary Moyzisch, a commercial attaché at the embassy.

Synopsis

In neutral Turkey in 1944, German ambassador Franz von Papen (John Wengraf) and his British counterpart Sir Frederic Taylor (Walter Hampden) attend a reception and encounter Countess Anna Staviska (Danielle Darrieux), who is a Frenchwoman and the widow of a Polish count. Now destitute, the countess volunteers to become a spy for a fee, but she is turned down.

Actors