Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 7:30 p.m., Dryden Theatre
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Five Fingers (1952)
(Joseph L. Mankiewicz, US 1952, 108 min., 35mm)
Mankiewicz’s last film under his Fox contract is this dramatization of real-life events in World War II. A valet at the British embassy in neutral Turkey (James Mason) has ambitions to move beyond his station and becomes a spy for the German government, photographing sensitive military documents and selling them. At the same time, an impoverished former Polish countess (Danielle Darrieux) recognizes the man as her husband’s former employee and confronts him with the knowledge. Together, they represent a serious threat to Allied intelligence, but greed and ambition may prove too much for the couple.