Foxhole in Cairo

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Foxhole in Cairo
Foxhole in Cairo (1960 film).jpg
Original British quad poster
Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
Screenplay by Leonard Mosley
Donald Taylor
Based onnovel The Cat and the Mice by Leonard Mosley
Produced by Steven Pallos
Donald Taylor
Starring James Robertson Justice
Adrian Hoven
Fenella Fielding
Cinematography Desmond Dickinson
Music by Douglas Gamley
Ken Jones
Production
company
Omnia Films
Distributed by British Lion Film Corporation
Release date
  • 1960 (1960)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Foxhole in Cairo is a 1960 British war film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring James Robertson Justice, Adrian Hoven, Fenella Fielding and Henry Oscar. [1] [2] It was written by Leonard Mosley and Donald Taylor based on Mosley's 1958 novel The Cat and the Mice, based upon the real-life Operation Salaam. [3] Future star Michael Caine makes a brief appearance as a German soldier, in one of his earlier screen roles. [4] [5]

Contents

Synopsis

During the Second World War Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has placed two spies in Cairo, at the headquarters of the British Eighth Army. They are able to monitor every move of the British. It falls to British intelligence to hunt down the spies before they do too much damage to the war effort.

Cast

Reception

Box office

Kine Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960. [6]

Critical

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Allegedly based on fact, few of the incidents in this stale, melodramatic espionage hotch-potch tie up convincingly; the climax seems particularly unbelievable. However, even if the facts were vouchsafed as entirely authentic, the film would still be tepid entertainment. A variable team is headed by James Robertson Justice, who is not happily cast as the Cairo British Intelligence man; Albert Lieven's Rommel is interesting enough but the role is small." [7]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The tale is based on fact, but pedestrian direction, tired scripting and uneven acting reduce its main action to pulp fiction level. Its hokum, presented against colourful, if not entirely convincing, backgrounds and seasoned with sex, should, nevertheless, intrigue and thrill the 'ninepennies.' ... The picture is true in outline but tarting up lessens rather than heightens realism and dramatic impact. James Robertson Justice impresses as the blustering and wily Robertson; Adrian Hoven definitely has his moments as Eppler; and Niall MacGinnis registers as Radek; but Robert Urquhart overdoes it as the weak Wilson; and both Fenella Fielding and Gloria Mestre lack subtlety as Yvette and Amina, There is penultimate suspense and some flaws in the script are papered over with official war 'shots,' but even so the film seldom escapes from an atmosphere of theatrical artificiality." [8]

A 1961 New York Times review described the film as "a routine British-made espionage yarn" calling the plot "slack and predictable", while praising the professional performance of James Robertson Justice. [9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Foxhole in Cairo". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 September 2025.
  2. ↑ "Foxhole in Cairo (1960)". BFI. Archived from the original on 28 March 2018.
  3. ↑ Gifford, Denis (1 April 2016). British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film. Routledge. ISBN   9781317740629 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ "Foxhole in Cairo". 28 October 1960 – via www.imdb.com.
  5. ↑ "Foxhole in Cairo (1960) - John Llewellyn Moxey - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  6. ↑ Billings, Josh (15 December 1960). "It's Britain 1, 2, 3 again in the 1960 box office stakes". Kine Weekly. p. 9.
  7. ↑ "Foxhole in Cairo". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 27 (312): 155. 1 January 1960. ProQuest   1305819327.
  8. ↑ "Foxhole in Cairo". Kine Weekly . 520 (2763): 18. 15 September 1960. ProQuest   2594669412.
  9. ↑ Thompson, Howard (16 February 1961). "Screen: Wartime Spying; Foxhole in Cairo' Is British Import". The New York Times.
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