5 Fingers

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For the 2006 Islamic terrorist film see Five Fingers (2006 film)

5 Fingers

Directed by	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Produced by	Otto Lang Gerd Oswald (associate producer) (uncredited)
Written by	L.C. Moyzisch (book) Michael Wilson (screenplay) Joseph L. Mankiewicz (uncredited)
Starring	James Mason Danielle Darrieux
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography	Norbert Brodine
Editing by	James B. Clark
Distributed by	Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	February 22, 1952
Running time	108 mins
Country	United States
Language	English, German, Portuguese, Turkish
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5 Fingers, known also as Five Fingers, is a 1952 20th Century Fox spy film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Otto Lang. The screenplay by Michael Wilson and Mankiewicz was based on Operation Cicero (Original German: Der Fall Cicero) (1950) by L.C. Moyzisch.

The film tells 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.

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 was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Director for Mankiewicz and Best Screenplay for Wilson. Mankiewicz was also nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures by the Directors Guild of America and Wilson was nominated for Best Written American Drama by the Writers Guild of America. He won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Screenplay.

Five Fingers was also a 1959 16 episode one hour espionage 20th Century Fox Television series starring David Hedison and Luciana Paluzzi.

[edit] References

Bazna published his own account of the events in his book, I was Cicero, in 1962 (Bazna, Elyesa, with Hans Nogly. I Was Cicero. New York: Harper & Row, 1962)