5 Fingers

The refined and impeccably spoken James Mason plays the traitorous Ulysses Diello, personal valet for the British ambassador to Turkey. Code named Cicero, Mason photographs precious wartime secrets pilfered from the ambassador's safe and sells them to the Nazis. Mason coaxes the exotic Danielle Darrieux playing the now penniless Polish Countess Staviska, wife of his previous employer, to partake in his ruthless ploy.
Insatiable in their desire for money, both Mason and Darrieux betray their friends and countries to the Gestapo.

Joseph Mankiewicz does a creditable job directing this reprehensible tale based on the book by L.C. Moyzisch, a member of the German consulate and bit player in this drama.


A Black Comedy Of Espionage And Exquisite Manners; One Of James Mason's Best Films   December 24, 2005
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Picture the results of the Normandy invasion if the Germans had known in advance that the Second Front would take place there in early June. It turns out they did know...and they didn't believe the information was true. Note that elements of the plot are discussed.

Ulysses Diallo (James Mason) is the valet to the British ambassador to neutral Turkey in 1944. He has perfect manners. He is invaluable to the ambassador. He is trusted. Diallo was born in Albania but came to England at an early age. Determined to become an English gentlemen, he decided that the best way to learn was to become an English gentleman's gentleman. "I may not be a gentleman yet," he tells Countess Anna Staviska (Danielle Darrieux) one evening after she slaps his face, "but I am the best gentleman's gentleman." The Countess has lost her husband and her wealth in the war, and now is an increasingly poor but highly attractive woman who is willing to serve the Germans or the English for money. In Ankara, full of intrigue and agents, there are always opportunities. Diallo had also, at one time, been gentleman's gentleman to her husband.

Diallo decides he can make very large sums of money by photographing secret documents the Ambassador keeps in the embassy safe, to which Diallo has access, and giving them to the Germans. He will insist on being paid in English pounds sterling. He estimates over a period of a few weeks he'll have enough funds to live the life of a gentleman in Rio de Janeiro. He recruits the countess to help him, to be his banker, in exchange for funds he will pay her. And as the days go by, their arrangement extends to her bed. The German's pay, but they aren't sure of the man they have code named Cicero. The information appears to be too good to be true. They suspect a British trick.

The British now begin to suspect there is a leak in the embassy. They send a man from London to find out. Things get dicey, but Diallo makes one last theft and is almost caught by the British. After turning over the photographs and getting his money, he also barely escapes from German agents who now want him, too. What was his last batch of documents he photographed and turned over to the Germans? Specific information on Normandy. The information was so big and came from a source so unlikely -- a valet -- that the Germans didn't believe it and took no action. This is a true story.

As for Diallo, well, he didn't care whether the Germans believed him or not, as long as they paid. He didn't even care what the documents contained as long as they were stamped Top Secret. But at the end of the movie, dining in his dinner jacket on the terrace of his sumptuous Rio villa, served by a discrete gentleman's gentleman of his own, he is visited by his banker and a senior Brazilian police officer. Diallo had already learned that it wasn't wise to trust the Countess. Now he is about to he learn he shouldn't have trusted the Germans.

Espionage may be the name of the game here, but the movie is really a black comedy of exquisite manners. No one could read a line of dialogue with the mixture of cool contempt and self amusement the way James Mason could. He is utterly self possessed. Even when he is taken off guard, as the Countess manages to do, he recovers quickly with a shrug. Mason's Diallo is a complete mercenary, so amused by life that he becomes a captivating villain. Danielle Darrieux almost matches him in the Countess' determination to reach her former social position. They make a fine, selfish, wary couple.

Joseph Mankiewicz directed the movie. The screenplay is credited to Michael Wilson, although IMDb lists Mankiewicz as an uncredited screenwriter. The dialogue is full of Mankiewicz-style amused cynicism. The movie is available in VHS as well as a Region 2 DVD. The DVD looks just fine. There are no extras. The time is long overdue for this movie to appear in a Region 1 DVD.


Slick and well acted   May 29, 2000
charles pope (cpope2@prodigy.net)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

James Mason at it again? Has anyone ever seen Mr. Mason give even a mediocre performance? I have not!

Here he plays to the hilt an agent selling secrets from embassy safes. Mason cooly imbibes his character and is really superb in this kind of part.

Michael Rennie trys to track him down and Danielle Darreaux lures him into trap of her own designs. Wether playing Rommel( The Desert Fox) and Irish rebel ( Odd Man Out) or even the very difficult to find ( The Man Between) Mason is always good to watch.