5 Fingers

An account of a real espionage case in Ankara during the Second World War. Diello is valet to the British ambassador in Ankara. He has access to the ambassador's safe and begins photographing documents and selling them to the Germans. His codename is Cicero. Among what he sells is information about Allied landing plans. What is interesting is the reason for the spying. Diello is not ideological; he wants money, and his aim is to go to South America and live like a gentleman. The Germans, meanwhile, cannot bring themselves to believe the material they are getting is genuine. It really happened. The valet in Ankara was called Elyesa Bazna, and the Germans paid him in counterfeit sterling; in the end he gained nothing. Part of the story takes place in Turkey, in the neutral Ankara of the period, and the city is shown as a place where both sides of the war move through the same rooms. James Mason plays Diello. Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed. The film includes location work in Ankara and Istanbul. A classic of its kind for anyone who likes espionage films and narratives drawn from record. For a viewer wanting action, the tension comes entirely from information changing hands and the possibility of being caught.