During the 1942 North African campaign, a British straggler manages to pass himself off as a waiter at the hotel commandeered as Rommel's headquarters. He has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.
June, 1942. The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border--Corporal John Bramble, who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel...soon to be German HQ. To survive, Bramble assumes an identity which proves perilous. The new guest of honor is none other than Rommel, hinting of his secret strategy, code-named 'five graves.' And the fate of the British in Egypt depends on whether a humble corporal can penetrate the secret...—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>
June 1942, Egypt. In the British Army's headlong retreat from Libya, a British straggler, Corporal John Bramble, stumbles into a small town and finds shelter in the town's (guestless) hotel. He has hardly arrived when the German Afrika Corps pours into the town and commandeers the hotel as the headquarters of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Bramble manages to pass himself off as a waiter who was a German spy. With the Germans' confidence gained he has thoughts of assassinating Rommel but his cover may have an even better use.—grantss
June, 1942. With its members scattered throughout the desert, the Eighth British Army in North Africa has largely been defeated by the Germans, who, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, are pushing them back further and further east to Cairo. Alone in the desert, dehydrated and hallucinating, Cpl. John Bramble is able to make his way to a refuge in the middle of the desert, the Empress of Britain Hotel (British in name only), its Egyptian owner/proprietor Farid who would rather he not stay there due to what the Germans would do if Bramble is discovered there. Farid's nightmare comes true when the Germans, including Rommel himself, commandeer the hotel to use as a temporary desert headquarters. Largely recovered by that time, Bramble decides to assume the identity of the hotel's Alsatian waiter, Paul Davos, who was killed when part of the hotel collapsed in a recent German bombing, he still buried under the rubble in the bombed out section of the hotel. It is the way the German officers treat him as Davos and by discovery of some of Davos' papers that Bramble learns that Davos was really a German spy. Bramble's first inclination is to kill Rommel while he has the chance, however he figures that he may be able to do more good in his position being so close to the upper echelon of the German military, his key mission to discover the code "five graves" which seems to be key to the Germans' success in North Africa, and to get the information back to British headquarters in Cairo. Beyond the Germans, another obstacle Bramble has is the only other remaining staff member left at the hotel, the pretty French maid Mouche who has her own very personal mission in having stayed at the hotel in knowing the Germans' ultimate arrival.—Huggo
It's World War II, and British soldier John Bramble (Franchot Tone) is the lone survivor of a brutal battle in Egypt. After wandering through the desert, Bramble finds a remote hotel. There, in order to stay alive, he assumes a false identity. When the famed German general Rommel (Erich von Stroheim), aka the Desert Fox, arrives at the hotel, Bramble realizes he's being taken for a German spy. Can this lowly British soldier turn the tide in the war and foil Germany's plans in North Africa?—FilmsNow
June 1942. Corporal John J. Bramble (Franchot Tone) is the sole survivor of a British tank crew after a major battle with Erwin Rommel's victorious Afrika Korps at the Battle of Gazala. Delirious, he stumbles across the North African desert into the ruins of the town of Sidi Halfaya, and into the Empress of Britain, a small, isolated hotel owned by Farid (Akim Tamiroff). The staff consists of just one Frenchwoman nicknamed Mouche (Anne Baxter), as the cook has fled and the waiter Davos was killed the night before by a German bombing raid.
Before Farid and Mouche can decide what to do with the newcomer, the swiftly advancing Germans take over the hotel to use as headquarters for Field Marshal Rommel (Erich von Stroheim) and his staff. Bramble assumes the identity of Davos to save himself. When Rommel summons him to a private chat, Bramble is stunned to discover that Davos was a valued German spy, but manages to play along. He learns that he is to be sent to Cairo next.
Later, Bramble steals a pistol from genial, music-loving Italian General Sebastiano (Fortunio Bonanova), planning to serve the field marshal a bullet rather than coffee the next morning. Not wanting trouble, Mouche steals the pistol and waits on Rommel herself. When some captured British officers are brought to the hotel for a luncheon with Rommel, one of them (a past guest) realizes that Davos has been replaced. Bramble privately explains who he is and what he plans to do. The officer orders him to use his position of trust to instead gather military intelligence.
At the luncheon, Rommel teases his "guests", allowing them to ask him twenty questions about his future plans. Bramble listens with interest. From the conversation and later remarks by Rommel, he eventually deduces that the field marshal, disguised as an archaeologist before the war, had secretly prepared five hidden supply dumps, the "Five Graves to Cairo", for the conquest of Egypt. The final piece of the puzzle (their locations) falls into place when Bramble realizes that Rommel's cryptic references to points Y, P, and T refer to the letters of the word "Egypt" printed on his map.
Meanwhile, Bramble and Mouche clash. She despises the British for abandoning the French at Dunkirk. He in turn is disgusted at how she is playing up to the Germans. As it turns out, Mouche's motives are not mercenary; she pleads with Rommel to release her wounded soldier brother from a concentration camp. He is unmoved, but his aide, Lieutenant Schwegler (Peter van Eyck), is more appreciative of her charms. He pretends to help her, showing her fake telegrams to and from Germany.
That night however, when everyone takes shelter in the cellar during an Allied air raid, Schwegler discovers the body of the real Davos (easily identifiable by his clubfoot), uncovered by the bombing. In the noise and confusion of the raid, Bramble and Schwegler play a deadly game of hide and seek in the darkened hotel before Bramble kills his foe. He hides the body in Mouche's part of the servants' room. When Mouche finds out, she threatens to unmask him, despite his appeal to her patriotism.
However, she has a change of heart. Schwegler's body is soon found, and Rommel accuses her of killing his aide when she discovered he was lying about his assistance. Mouche does not deny it. Bramble leaves for Cairo, but arranges for Farid to present faked evidence the next day that Bramble committed the crime.
A series of on-screen text reveal that Bramble's information allows the British to blow up the last two of the supply dumps and thus thwart Rommel's plans. By July 1, Rommel's army is stopped. The stalemate culminates in the Second Battle of El Alamein on October 23 where the British Eighth Army counter-attacks and drives the Axis German-Italian armies out of Egypt.
On November 12, when Bramble returns in triumph with his unit to the hotel at Sidi Halfaya, he is devastated to learn from Farid that the Germans had executed Mouche, not for murder, but because she would not stop saying that the British would be back. In the final shot, Bramble takes the parasol he had bought for her in Cairo, something she had always wanted, and uses it to provide shade for her grave before hurrying off to re-join his unit.
