A lot of times I record old movies off of TCM without knowing much beyond the synopsis. Such was the case when I saw the new-to-me movie Cairo show up on TCM some months back.
The movie starts off with a pre-credits scene of a plane landing in Cairo, with a Maj. Pickering (George Sanders) getting off the plane. In his conversation with the customs officials, he says he does "design" and that he's come to Egypt to do "research" on Egyptian antiquities, presumably to get ideas for his "design". He then goes to one of the museums, and while a lady is leading a guided tour, the Major makes eye contact with anothr man. Clearly the Major has other ideas.
After the credits, which serve in part as an opportunity to show some scenery of Cairo that would be nicer if it were in widescreen and in color, the Major meets Willy, who unbeknownst to the Major now has a wife and a young child. The Major has an offer for Willy that could make Willy $25,000, but of course that can't possibly be a legitimate offer. Indeed, as part of the conversation, the Major reveals that he was in prison in Germany and his cellmate was a master forger of passports. Willy's wife hasn't heard the conversation, but she's no dummy, realizing that the Major is bad news.
The Major is also looking for a man named Nicodemos (Eric Pohlmann), who is the cousin of the Major's old cellmate back in Germany although he's never met the Major until now. Nicodemos knew from his cousin that the Major had some sort of plan that was big, but figured that, not having heard from the Major, the plan was off. But now the Major has shown up, and is trying to get together a bunch of people to help him carry out his plan, which could net them a cool $250,000.
That plan involves stealing a bunch of antiquities and then smuggling them out of the country. The Major obviously needs money to get everything together, but he also needs expert people. One is an import-export man; Nicodemos is the money man; there's also Ali (Richard Johnson) as the gunman should anything go wrong. Ali decides to take the deal in part because he had a small farm somehwere up the Nile that he'd like to get back. If that sounds familiar, think Sterling Hayden and the horse farm in The Asphalt Jungle.
Indeed, you'd be right. Of course, if you had watched the opening credits closely you would also have noticed that the movie is "based on a novel by W.R. Burnett". So it's not too difficult to figure out where the movie is going to go. The heist isn't quite going to go to plan, and then, to make matters worse, there's going to be a double cross. Never mind the Hollywood Production Code; the Egyptian authorities would never have condoned a movie in which the characters successfull steal antiquities, led by a westerner.
Unsurprisingly, this is a fairly weak imitation of The Asphalt Jungle, since George Sanders is the only star power here and the script is rather weaker. Having Egyptian settings can't save the movie either, especially since they're in black and white. When TCM ran Cairo, they put it in a slot long enough to have time left over to run one of James FitzPatrick's Traveltalks shorts where he visits Egypt. That is in color, and more spectacular despite being 25 years older.
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