Rommel calls Cairo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Rommel calls Cairo |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolfgang Schleif |
| script |
Heinz Oskar Wuttig K. H. Turner based on the "factual novel" of the same name by John Eppler |
| production | Günter Eulau |
| music | Wolfram Röhrig |
| camera | Kurt Grigoleit |
| cut | Hermann Ludwig |
| occupation | |
| |
Rommel calls Kairo is a German feature film by Wolfgang Schleif, made in Egypt in 1958 (exterior shots), about the secret military operation Kondor against the British enemy in North Africa in 1942. Peter van Eyck , Adrian Hoven , Elisabeth Müller and Paul Klinger as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel play the main roles .
action
North Africa during World War II .
In order to bring the British to their knees militarily and to be able to conquer the northern Libyan fortress of Tobruk , which was held by the British, Abwehr chief Canaris sent two men to Colonel General Rommel , head of the Africa Corps, in April 1942 . These are the Hungarian captain Count Almásy and the German captain Eppler . Both are supposed to carry out a daring plan that will bring them through the middle of the Egyptian desert. In this way, Rommel wants to receive detailed information about the troop strength and the bases of the British in Tobruk and in the Egyptian hinterland and therefore instructs the two officers to get behind the enemy lines to Asyut on the Nile with some helpers .
With five vehicles, a few radio operators and technical support staff, Almásy and Eppler set off on their daring trip across the Libyan-Egyptian desert. The British military administration stationed in Cairo's Semiramis Hotel under Colonel Robertson has meanwhile been made aware of the five German vehicles thanks to recordings from a British reconnaissance aircraft. Together with his subordinate Lieutenant Kay Morrison, he ponders what these strange five points in the desert are all about. When Robertson found out that Count Almásy, who was known to him and who was located in Rommel's headquarters, had been missing for several days, he pricked up his ears, but neither he nor his adjutant, Americans, could figure out why the Germans had a convoy without tanks or other military forces To send vehicles towards southern Egypt. Meanwhile, the desert trippers have their first difficulties. During a road blast, the water tank in one of the five vehicles was hit by flying boulders and badly damaged. One of the thirsty men then begins to go crazy in a desert storm and waves the revolver in panic. Meanwhile, Robertson and Kay sip one drink after the other in the desert in front of the pyramids of Giza.
After the desert storm, the Germans drive on with four vehicles, one car broke down with a piston seizure. To make matters worse, the waterhole that Almásy opened up twelve years ago as a member of the expedition has now dried up. The situation for Rommel's men is becoming increasingly hopeless. In order to get the urgently needed water, Count Almásy decides to take a detour and drive into the mountains. In fact, the Hungarian can find the water supplies created by the British there. The men split up in an oasis. Almásy returns to Rommel. Captain Eppler, who has been given a French identity, and his radio operator Sandy, who is traveling with an American identity, end up in a British training camp, whose unsuspecting boss lets the two of them drive to Asyut. Meanwhile, Robertson suspects that the Germans probably want to drop an agent in the southern Nile Valley who is supposed to go to Cairo. The Colonel thereupon orders strict surveillance of all trains to the capital with immediate effect. With the help of their young assistant Achmed, a local, Eppler and Sandy reach Cairo unscathed and are able to send their first radio message to Rommel from their hiding place in the Pensione Roma.
Eppler uses his stay on the Nile to renew his previous relationship with his lover, the Egyptian dancer Amina, who knows him as Hussein. Both spend a night of love on their houseboat . The following day, Eppler made contact with a spiritual leader of the anti-British Egyptians and asked him that the Egyptians should finally rise up against the British occupiers. The latter promises him if Rommel should conquer Tobruk. Eppler then goes to the men's tailor Sharaoui to have him make a tailor-made British uniform. In this, the German strutted unnoticed into the headquarters of the British. There he found out about the holiday ban for New Zealand soldiers and the entry of Australian troops from Sudan - all important information for Colonel General Rommel. Colonel Robertson, however, did not remain idle, he and his people listened to the radio code of the previously unknown secret transmitter and began to encircle Eppler and Sandy's hiding place. The subsequent raid only leads to the arrest of a completely innocent Italian observed by Eppler ...
Through his houseboat neighbor, the British Major Smith, Eppler, who has completely transformed himself into the role of an Egyptian named Gaffa Bey, makes contact with defender Robertson and his subordinate Kay Morrison, who quickly succumbs to his charm. Both take a romantic trip to the pyramids . Meanwhile, Count Almásy has returned to Rommel and, given the success of Operation Condor, he is promoted to major. Rommel makes it clear to Almásy that he absolutely needs details about the Tobruk fortifications in order to be able to take the city. Thereupon Eppler is instructed again in Cairo to penetrate the holy of holies of the British. As Major MacDougall, who has just arrived from London, Eppler succeeds in entering the card room at headquarters. There he can photograph the desired plans and forward them to Rommel. Rommel then attacks Tobruk and takes the city.
For the first time, the British felt a slight panic, and Robertson began to burn several secret papers. Meanwhile, the dancer Amina is jealous because she saw Eppler and Kay Morrison in great intimacy. Robertson has meanwhile caught two of the German Cairo agents and stole the code book that was integrated into the novel " Rebecca ". Almásy then advises Rommel to break off radio contact with Eppler in order not to endanger him on site. When Amina organized even more important plans from Major Smith's property for her lover, Eppler could no longer transfer them to Rommel's headquarters because contact with him had meanwhile been cut off for security reasons. Smith, suspecting that Amina has made him a traitor to his own country, grabs a jeep and drives it with suicidal intent into the desert, where minefields have been created in abundance. There it tears him apart. A little later, Kay Eppler, alias Gaffa Bey, visits to say goodbye to him. She is being transferred to Baghdad as part of the first evacuation measures. At Eppler's, she sees the novel Rebecca lying. Now she suspects the connections and knows that Hussein must be the long-sought German spy. Kay tries desperately to phone her supervisor Robertson to inform her of her suspicion, but he is out of reach because he is on the road.
Now things are coming to a head. Rommel's deputy, Lüdinghausen, gives instructions to finally end the “walling in” of Eppler so that radio traffic to Cairo is possible again. Radio operator Sandy uses this opportunity to immediately pass on Eppler's sensitive information from Major Smith's briefcase. Neither man suspects, however, that the British defense chief Robertson has long been driving a tracking vehicle and his specialists all over Cairo to track down the two spies. As soon as the radio ended, British soldiers surrounded the houseboat with Eppler and Sandy on board. Sandy shoots himself while Eppler lets himself be captured. Colonel Robertson tells him that the British plans sent by Sandy have long since been changed and that Robertson therefore waited until Sandy had sent the worthless information to Rommel's headquarters. When Robertson returns to his headquarters, Kay Morrison is already waiting for him there. She explains to him that Rebecca is the Germans' code book and that she has deciphered it in the meantime. She offers her boss a deal: her findings against the life of Gaffa Bey alias Hussein alias Hauptmann Eppler. Robertson promises to talk to Prime Minister Churchill about it. In the hall of the headquarters there is a last (silent) encounter between Eppler and Kay.
Production notes
Rommel calls Kairo was created in the spring of 1958 on location in Egypt (Cairo, Sahara desert) and had its world premiere on February 19, 1959 in the Universum Cinema in Stuttgart. The film also opened in Austria on March 6, 1959. The film is based on real events from 1942.
Ludwig Reiber designed the film structures that Hans Strobel carried out. Manfred Ensinger was a simple cameraman under Kurt Grigoleit's chief camera. Auguste Barth was in charge of production. The military advisors were given by Lieutenant General Fritz Bayerlein , who had taken part in the meetings with Rommel in April 1942. The shooting was supported by the Egyptian government.
Cinematographer Grigoleit and leading actress Elisabeth Müller met while filming and married four years later. For the Swiss, this film was already the second trip to Egypt: the year before (1957) she was in front of the camera at the side of OW Fischer in El Hakim .
A British version of this film was then produced in 1959 under the title Foxhole in Cairo , which, however, strongly heroized the British opposing side and their counter-espionage skills. This strip started in England in 1960 (but never in Germany). While van Eyck and Hoven repeated their original roles in this film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey , Albert Lieven played Rommel there. The other parts have also been re-cast, Elisabeth Müller's role as Kay Morrison no longer appears here.
Reviews
“The moderately exciting spy piece from the Africa campaign could be seen as a slightly disheveled advertising film for the Bonn Bundeswehr. The tenacity, audacity and humor of the Rommel warriors can be admired without a shadow of the political situation tarnishing the glamor of the demanding men's sport. Since the British and Germans are equally honorable, NATO flags are already waving, invisibly, over the film Cairo opened up by the director and Defa refugee Wolfgang Schleif. "
"Cliché-laden war and espionage adventure on a modest level."
Paimann's film lists summed up: "Mainly dealing with the espionage case, benefiting from more adventures than war reports (only a few battle scenes) and besides ... skillful actor guidance from the atmosphere condensed by outdoor shots."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Spiegel , No. 13, of March 25, 1959
- ^ Rommel calls Cairo in the Lexicon of International Film
- ^ Rommel calls Cairo in Paimann's film lists
Web links
- Rommel ruft Kairo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Rommel calls Cairo at filmportal.de