Five Graves to Cairo (1943 Billy Wilder)

If Billy had remained a scriptwriter he could well have contributed to our previous film - in fact it's down to Mitchell Leisen's lack of respect for his scripts that he began directing at all.

Ingenious, crafty film opens with a driverless tank and closes on a parasol. Franchot Tone is the British soldier who finds himself undercover at the Empress of Britain Hotel, Egypt, run by the wonderful Akim Tamiroff and French maid Anne Baxter, which becomes overrun with Nazis including Eric von Stroheim and Peter van Eyck.

Prime collaborators are Miklós Rózsa and John Seitz, with Charles Brackett co-writing and producing and Doane Harrison editing.

Tamiroff's face at the end is a heartbreaker.