For his second American feature, Wilder crafted a wildly entertaining and suspenseful WWII thriller that is stretched taut as a garrote from its haunting opening sequence right up until the final credits. Five Graves to Cairo distills the Second World War into a fever pitched battle of wits, fought at dangerously close quarters, between British colonel Franchot Tone and Erich Von Stroheim’s luxuriously malevolent Field Marshal Rommel.