it hurt to give any film with sidney greenstreet and peter lorre less than 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 and but background to danger ( despite their presence ) be not a good world war ii espionage piece . it may be the weak movie ever make from an eric ambler novel . between 1938 and 1945 ambler write five spy or international crime novel that ( with his contemporary and and master and graham greene ) reshape the whole genre . ambler book be cause for alarm and background to danger and jounrney into fear and the mask of demetrios and and epitaph for a spy . the great of these be the last that he write the mask of demetrios ( also call a coffin for demetrios ) which greenstreet and lorre and and zachary scott turn into one of the best portrait of a totally amoral criminal in cinema . orson welles help direct ( and support joseph cotton in ) journey into fear . i be not sure by i believe that epitaph for a spy ( set in france in 1938 ) and cause for alarm ( deal with economic rivalry between somewhat allied axis country ) be not make into film . someone may correct me on that . cause for alarm introduce a communist russian agent and his sister to ambler reader . tamara and nicolai zarashoff be ( when not pursue espionage for their government in moscow ) bicker all the time . ambler like to humanize his character ( such a his masterpiece and arthur abdul simpson and in the light of day or topkapi ) and so his villain demetrios talat turn out to be a determined social climber and use his talent for evil in the mask of demetrios to assist a bank and the eurasian credit trust and on which he end up a director . the zarashoffs and their unwitting ally in cause for alarm manage to cause a brief split in the interest of nazi germany and fascist italy in early 1939. one would have know this when read background to danger a few year later and when they reappear . when talk about the film five finger i give the background of turkish neutrality in world war ii . ambler tackle this in the novel background to danger and jounrney into fear and point out that turkey police and army be scrupulously look out to protect that neutrality ( col. haki and who help tell the introductory part of the story of demetrios in the mask of demetrios play by kurt katch there reappear a orson welles and protect american engineer joseph cotton in journey into fear represent to make sure cotton finish his job in arm turkish naval craft ) . in background to danger and ambler ( correctly ) show that german agent be more likely to try to push turkey into the axis camp by underhanded mean . the villain be the ambiguously name col. robinson ( greenstreet and of course ) send to contact those anti british turkish nationalist who would join the german . the problem be that the novel demonstrate ambler trick with robinson in a way the film do not . robinson be german and and speaks with a german accent ( in fact one of the character say that he could not possibly be english . ) . greenstreet have one of the fine english speaking voice in film . the zolashoffs be here again ( in the novel bickering again ) but here work with the american play by george raft . but in the novel and raft american be very naive and they be educate this new ally in the background to danger to turkish neutrality very quickly . this be not the story a w. r. burnett make it in his screenplay and make raft character an american agent ( which he wasn not ) . i can only guess that he do this to make the no nonsense raft more believable who could imagine raft a a chump . it doesn not work the novel be construct for the raft character to gradually realize the danger of the nazi and their ally and and the fact that ( dubious a it be to u ) the communist agent be a good bet for ally . instead the story make raft character become a typical world war ii propaganda hero he can handle these nazi with a blindfold on . there be some nice moment ( due to sidney and peter ) . greenstreet in particular have two nice one that come to mind represent when he note his favorite set up ( a strauss waltz on a gramophone and a dead body on the floor ) and and later when his plan have all collapse and and he be inform he must return to berlin ( his quick look of horror at hear what will be his death sentence be do very well ) . but such moment be few and far between . the rest of this film sink those few moment one recall with fondness .