Five Fingers
The real Cicero was Elyesa Bazna, an Albanian. In his book "I Was Cicero" he retells the story, listing his collaborators as a chambermaid and his niece. The character of the countess was a Hollywood fabrication.,When the Britsh ambassador's valet Diello (Brit James Mason) suggests that his new German spymaster change the combination on the latter's safe, he gives the existing combination 1-30-33 as based on the date of Hitler's rise to power, suggesting instead 6-18-15, the date of the Battle of Waterloo. One would expect an employee of the Britsh Embassy (particularly one born in the UK) to have used "European" notation (date/month/year) instead of US notation (month/day/year), particularly when speaking with a German.,Count Franz Von Papen: I've often wondered, Countess - why did you leave Warsaw?
Countess Anna Staviska: Bombs were falling. I felt I was in the way.,Before the movie title: This is a true story. All the exterior scenes in this picture were filmed in the locales associated with the story.,Featured in Bulworth (1998),Ride of the Valkyries
(uncredited)
Composed by Richard Wagner,James Mason does an excellent job as a suave valet to the British Ambassador in "Five Fingers." Desiring the life of a Rio de Janeiro gentleman, he starts selling secrets out of the Ambassador's safe to the Nazis, with the help of the wife of his former employer, Danielle Darrieux. Michael Rennie is brought in to see if he can discover the source of the leak.

Joseph Mankiewicz directed the film, and it's done in partial documentary style with narration. It's based on a true story, though the Darrieux character was invented for the film.

This is a highly entertaining film with some wonderful, suspenseful moments, a neat twist at the end, and the highly atmospheric Turkish scenery. Highly recommended.,