FOXHOLE IN CAIRO (1960)

In 1942, the British are in retreat in Africa, and Rommel sends two spies to Cairo, on a mission dubbed Operation Condor, to get information on where the Brits will counter-attack. John (Adrian Hoven) has spent time in Cairo and is known as something of a playboy. He's accompanied by Sandy (Neil McCallum), a radio operator who has a short-wave device hidden in a portable phonograph. They cross vast amounts of desert in captured British trucks to get to Cairo unseen, but British spy chief Robertson (John Robertson Justice) is suspicious of reports of the British trucks on the move and is prepared to have his men hunt for the spies. John and Sandy arrive in Cairo and we meet a motley group of people who get involved in this game of espionage, including Amina, a belly dancer who knows John and is much desired by British intelligence officer Wilson; Radek and Yvette, two members of a Jewish underground organization who are willing to help the British; Weber and Aberle, two German radiomen who are hiding in the desert outside of Cairo to pick up Sandy's messages (using a code tied to a copy of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca, which the two spies read out loud to pass the time between radio messages). We also check in periodically with Rommel, anxious to get the info that John is trying to get his hands on. Will Robertson's suspicions pay off, or will John and Sandy manage to outwit the rather hapless Wilson, who winds up in possession of the British plans?

I'd never heard of this until it came up as a YouTube suggestion for me. For a wartime spy story, it's not terribly exciting, but it kept my interest as the various characters performed their little dances of deception around and with each other. At times, it has the look and feel of a TV drama, but the sets occasionally conjure up the spirit of CASABLANCA. The acting is spotty, not helped by some weak writing. The burly John Robertson Justice is rather bland and one-note, but that is partly because his character, though at the center of the story, isn't terribly active. Given better chances to shine are Adrian Hoven as John, who probably has the most screen time of anyone here, Robert Urquhart as the weak-willed Wilson, and Fenella Fielding as Yvette. Gloria Mestre (Amina) gets a couple of rather extraneous belly-dancing scenes. For some, this movie will be of interest because it features a young Michael Caine as Weber, one of the radio men, several years before his big break in ALFIE. Pictured are Hoven and McCallum. [YouTube]