''Count Five and Die'' is a 1957 British

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Victor Vicas Victor Vicas (25 March 1918 – 9 December 1985) was a French film director and screenwriter. His film ''The Wayward Bus (film), The Wayward Bus'' was entered into the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. Between 1974 and 1983 he directed ...

and starring

Jeffrey Hunter Jeffrey Hunter (born Henry Herman McKinnies Jr.; November 25, 1926 – May 27, 1969) was an American film and television actor and producer known for his roles in films such as ''The Searchers'' and ''King of Kings (1961 film), King of Ki ...

Nigel Patrick Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman (2 May 1912 – 21 September 1981) was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he became known as a debonair leading man in British films, though he ...

and Annemarie Düringer. It was made by Zonic Productions and released in Britain and the US by

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

. It was produced by Ernest Gartside with the screenplay by Jack Seddon and David Pursall, based on the non-fiction book of the same title by Barry Wynne.

Plot

In 1944

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Major Julien Howard, a British

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

intelligence agent, meets Captain Bill Ranson, his new American security officer. As Howard was previously picked up by German

Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...

counter-intelligence, Ranson soon realizes that their assignment is to feed

misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable terms: misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, whereas disinformation is distinct in that the information ...

to the Germans about the location of the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

landings; they are to make it look like it will be in the occupied

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Howard tells him the rest of the unit must not know the truth. One night, while on a date with Rolande Hertog, the unit's radio operator, Ranson becomes concerned and returns to the offices. He is shot at and wounds an intruder. He leaves the unconscious man with Hertog to search further but the man's accomplice gets away. Hertog kills the captive, claiming he tried to grab her gun. A romance quickly develops between Ranson and Hertog the same night. When Ranson gets back to the office, Howard criticises his actions;

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

had tipped him off that the Germans were planning to search his offices, so he made it easy for them to get the planted misinformation, until Ranson intervened. Further, he suspects that Hertog is a German agent; Jan Guldt, their liaison with the Dutch underground, had been sent back to The Netherlands, only to be captured immediately. Ranson does not believe it. Howard sends Piet van Wijt to The Netherlands, supposedly to evaluate the effects of a bombing raid, but actually to test Hertog. They do not hear from van Wijt again. Meanwhile, Howard receives news that the Germans are redeploying troops into the country. Howard orders Ranson to keep seeing Hertog so she will not become suspicious but Ranson is an unconvincing actor. Now suspicious, Hertog goes to her sector commander, Hauptman Hans Faber, who is posing as a dentist. Faber is not fully convinced by her claim that it is all a fraud but needs to make sure. He arranges for the young son of Dr Mulder, Howard's

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

expert, to be kidnapped. Mulder is forced to reveal the supposed invasion location to save his boy's life. However, he later confides to Hertog that he does not believe that the Netherlands is the place. The two men who were sent behind enemy lines were not given poisonous cyanide capsules to avoid capture. If they had, they could have taken them; then they could "count five and die". She tells Muller to go home, that she will alert Ranson. Instead, she tries once more to persuade Faber to change his mind but without success. Howard and Ranson speak to Mulder and realise the situation. They manage to capture Faber and free Mulder's son although Martins gets away and Faber bites his cyanide capsule. Meanwhile, Ranson tracks down Hertog but not before she sends a radio message unmasking the deception. Ranson takes a big gamble, telling her that she did exactly what they wanted her to do and that it was all a "double bluff", then lets her grab a pistol and forces her to shoot him by advancing on her. She transmits a second message, then leaves, believing Ranson to be dead. He is still alive, however. Martins then shoots Hertog. The

epilogue An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the ...

states that on

, "ten German divisions were not in the line. They were north in Holland, waiting for an invasion that never came."

Cast

as Captain Bill Ranson *

as Major Julien Howard * Annemarie Düringer as Rolande Hertog *

David Kossoff David Kossoff (24 November 1919 – 23 March 2005) was a British actor. In 1954 he won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for his appearance as Geza Szobek in '' The Young Lovers''. He played Alf Larkin in TV sit ...

as Dr. Mulder *Rolf Lefebvre as Hans Faber *Larry Burns as Martins, the building porter and German spy * Philip Bond as Piet van Wijt, in charge of radio operations *Arthur Gross as Jan Guldt * Robert Raglan as Lieutenant Miller, a member of Howard's unit *Peter Prouse as Sergeant Bill Parrish, a member of Howard's unit *Otto Diamant as Mr. Hendrijk, who prints what his wife writes * Wolf Frees as Brauner, the spy killed by Hertog *Anthony Ostrer *

Marianne Walla Marianne Walla was an Austrian film and theater actress. After Hitler's Anschluss of Austria she was forced to emigrate to Great Britain. Career Little is known about the life and work of Marianne Walla. She performed the role ''Good Works'' in ' ...

as Mrs. Hendrijk, a writer on Howard's staff * Philip Ray * Beth Rogan as Mary Ann Lennig, Howard's curvaceous decoder

Production

Jeffrey Hunter was under contract to Fox at the time.

References

Bibliography

* Clinton, Franz Anthony. ''British Thrillers, 1950-1979: 845 Films of Suspense, Mystery, Murder and Espionage''. McFarland, 2020.

External links

* *{{TCMDb title, 71561 1957 films 1950s war drama films 1950s spy drama films British spy drama films British war drama films Films directed by Victor Vicas Films set in 1944 Films set in London Operation Overlord films World War II spy films 1957 drama films Films about MI6 British World War II films Films shot at New Elstree Studios 1950s English-language films 1950s British films 20th Century Fox films 1950s thriller films British thriller films Films scored by John Wooldridge English-language war drama films English-language thriller films British black-and-white films