5 Fingers is a terrible title for such a sophisticated work/story. The accurate title is "OPERATION CICERO', or "THE CICERO AFFAIR"!! Both the fine actor James Mason, & the very real WW2 spy venture deserve much better!! If they wanted a more "flashy" title, they could have chosen "THE INSIDE SPY"!! "5 FINGERS" sounds cheap!!!
shareagreedWhen there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
If you saw the beginning, the book it's based on has 5 fingers in the title....
Triple Irons-"I could have easily have beaten you, if I had three swords"
The book the movie was based on is called "Operation Cicero", first published in 1950 in German as "Der Fall Cicero". It was written by Cicero's handler in Ankara by the name of L. C. Moyzisch (played by Oskar Karlweis in the movie).
The book they show in the beginning of the movie has a fake title on its cover to match the name of the movie, but if you pay close attention you will see that the subtitle is "Operation Cicero" which was the actual title of the book by Moyzisch.
What does the title even have to do with the movie's plot? I don't get it.
shareI always thought 5 Fingers referred to a hand stealthily stealing a secret document. But that's only an image I got, not necessarily a fact.
Everyone here may hate the title -- but you remember it! Which is, after all, what people who make movies want.
My perception of the title has to do with "5 finger discount" meaning something that is stolen. Anyhow, great movie whatever the title and I just noticed that it received a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, something I've never seen before.
shareNo worse than "Sticky Fingers"!!!! Now, go wash your hands.
shareIn many languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc) the title was indeed 'Operation Cicero' or its equivalent. Take a look at the Greek title: Ypothesis Kikeron, the Polish title: Kryptonim Cicero, or the more relatively surprising Turkish title: Ankara casusu (!)
In his eagerness to save you, your God has also saved the Roman fleet.
I'm not sure what Five Fingers means. Before I saw it, I thought it might be about a pianist. I think they changed the title, removing "Cicero" so audiences wouldn't think it was a Roman toga epic.
shareI think they changed the title, removing "Cicero" so audiences wouldn't think it was a Roman toga epic.
That makes sense. Also, you use one hand to open a safe.
shareYes, and I seem to remember he used his right hand.
There is an interesting goof about Diello's opening the German safe, to Moyzisch's astonishment,
When the Britsh ambassador's valet Diello (Brit James Mason) suggests that his new German spymaster change the combination on the latter's safe, he gives the existing combination 1-30-33 as based on the date of Hitler's rise to power, suggesting instead 6-18-15, the date of the Battle of Waterloo. One would expect an employee of the Britsh Embassy (particularly one born in the UK) to have used "European" notation (date/month/year) instead of US notation (month/day/year), particularly when speaking with a German.
Interesting. Amazon is selling a cheap DVD of the movie. The cover art shows a white hand and each finger has a label:
Lust
Greed
Passion
Desire
Sin
Great!!
LGPDS...
I Googled it and I found this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7y5tzP5r5U
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Agreed. Pretty good movie though - 7.5
"She let me go."
~White Oleander