Overrated and overhyped

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I rated this movie with 6/10 which agreed with the communal IMDb.com rating when I checked.The title refers to how long it takes to die for a person who is caught spying after they have taken a cyanide suicide capsule.So we are in the realm of WW11 in 1944 when the allies had to trick the Germans into thinking the invasion would occur in Holland so that they kept important divisions tied up there.Nigel Patrick plays the British major and Jeffrey Hunter plays the American captain whose task is to sell this fiction to the Germans.In the mix comes AnneMarie Duringer, who being Swiss born had a believable accent and who plays a Dutch agent transported to London.Is she what she seems?I must say that spy movies set in war time in this country (e.g."Night Train to Munich 1940) , seem to show that our country was over populated by Nazi agents.In fact very few German agents could survive for long in the paranoid state we lived under when any one that appeared different would attract suspicion from the public.I found the love scene between Jeffrey Hunter and Annemarie Duringer very contrived and unconvincing.Nigel Patrick was adequate.The reality of deceiving the Germans about when and where the invasion would happen was almost an industry with many more participants from the allies than this film suggested.

"Count Five and Die" is a very good wartime espionage film. However, I'll be honest, it starts off slowly and only gets interesting later in the movie. Fortunately, it ends quite well and is worth seeing.In this film, an American (Jeffery Hunter) and Brit (Nigel Patrick) are in charge of a spy mission in which they are to deliberately misdirect the Germans by convincing them that the upcoming invasion of the continent will be in Holland. It all takes place in London and the key is their feeding the false information to Nazi agents in the city.As I said before, this is a very slow film at the beginning. Fortunately, the picture improves and really becomes quite taut and intelligent towards the end. Not a great film like "The Man Who Never Was" (which covers much of the same material) but well worth your time...and patience.

This movie starts well, with a trip round the offices of a film distribution company that is the spies' "cover", and the shabby bedroom opposite with two chaps filming anyone who comes or goes, with a rifle in case they really have to shoot anybody. Nigel Patrick and Jeffrey Hunter are good actors. I love b/w movies made and set during WWII and just after, but a kind of rot set in. Slightly relaxed censorship meant that Patrick and Hunter constantly make smirking references to the female characters - there are almost wolf whistles on the sound track. I gather that Hunter and Duringer's later affair is no-holds-barred. But this put me off watching any further. I was also turned off by the inability of the designers to even attempt 40s style. I suppose that by the late 50s wartime fashions seemed utterly frumpy, and no actress would have the long hair necessary for the elaborate styles.

a pitifully budgeted - b&w - British film - all the scenes seem shot in as small a set as possible - the few outdoor shots are a reliefaltho based on a true story of a joint British and OSS effort to mislead the Germans regarding the invasion of europe by the allies - the plan was clever - but the movie's plot feels contrived and unconvincingthe actors are better than the script - Jeff Hunter acquits himself well - altho this confirms he was never a potent screen presence - but neither were co-stars Nigel Patrick or swiss actress Annemarie Düringer or anyone else