It takes some time before the action gets going in this film, but when it starts it never ceases to accelerate in intrigue, suspension and drama. Annemarie Duringer is prominetly leading the film by her very suave and susceptible character, most amiable but with an abyss of hidden agenda. Nigel Patrick is perfect as usual, almost too perfect, while Jeffrey Hunter is a bit of an outsider in this game, can't really handle his business nor himself, and he has to pay for it. It's very dark and almost claustrophobic in the insistency on scenes in labyrinthine insides, and only rarely you go out into dark streets för some following or spying or bullets. The title "Count Five and Die" gives away the whole drama - as a spy sent out on a mission you are given a cyanide capsule in case you get caught, and when you swallow it you count to five and die. It's very easy but not really and actually rather complicated, as you don't always reach that capsule in time...It reminds very much of Anthony Asquith's "Orders to Kill" a few years earlier, it's the same kind of problems of innocence and the wrong people getting caught up in the wrong game, and above all the doom of destiny is there hanging around more people than anyone bargained for.

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.

Major Nigel Patrick, a British intelligence officer, is head of a small team of operatives in 1944 London who are trying to let slip the fake information that the Allied landings will be in Holland rather than Normandy.Jeffrey Hunter is a CIA agent, when it was still called the OSS, who is second in command. Patrick is stern and secretive and wound up like a spring. Hunter is easier going and gets involved with a Dutch woman, Annemarie Düringer. The two of them stumble into two German spies who are ransacking the office. Düringer shoots one of them and later breaks down, telling Hunter that she can't get the man's face out of her mind. "Just forget about it," he advises her.That's the kind of advice that's commonly given to the guilt ridden, both in the movies and in real life. "Don't think about it." "Put it out of your mind." I've often wondered how you DO that. Can you WILL your mind not to think of something? If so, what agent is doing the willing? Is there another mind BEHIND the mind we know about and are conscious of? Where are Descartes and Freud when we need them? I usually discount all British films without scores written by Malcolm Arnold or Maurice Jarre and conducted by Muir Mathieson. John Wooldridge's score for "Count Five and Die" provides a good example of the reasons why. When Jeffrey Hunter creeps through a darkened office, pistol in hand, we hear the tingling of tremolo violins. No surprises anywhere. Zzzz.In the course of the film, Düringer begins to look an awful lot like a German mole. We find this out rather earlier than Hunter does, when, just before she shoots the office burglar, the burglar tells her in German that he's working for "Mulder" and asks her to help him, presumably by finishing him off before he can be interrogated. It's a nice touch because it alerts the audience that there's a bigwig named Mulder behind all this counter-espionage. But who is Mulder? I mean, besides David Duchovny? He turns out to be one of those typical, unsmiling, ruthless dentists. I kept waiting for him to say, "Turn this way a little." Anyway, the uncovering of Durginger's real identity puts the team in a bind. Having already seduced her -- or the other way round -- Hunter must now go on dating her, even though Patrick has brought him up to date. How would you like to try making love to someone you know to be an enemy? Of course, this isn't the place for an essay on marriage. Hunter finds he can't do it. He's cold towards her. And Duringer shows what a proper actress can do. Hunter abruptly leaves her apartment after rejecting her advances. Alone, she mopes, her expression sad. Then her eyes widen as she realizes that Hunter and the rest of the team must be on to her. It's a slight physical change but it alters her entire expression.Otherwise it's a rather routine movie, hampered probably by a low budget. There are no period airplanes. The wardrobe and grooming are 1960-ish. The director has shot a few street scenes with innocent spectators standing in the background and staring at the camera. The Morse code is gibberish. There is a neat twist at the end, and one or two striking noir-like shots. The dialog is functional but has an occasional twinkle.

I don't believe that this film is based on real events, as there is no evidence of it. However, it is made to make us think that's the case. British filmmakers were always so good with this type of movie.Regardless, it's a well-made, believable tale, with good acting, writing, and direction.My only complaint is that the ending leaves us wondering what happened to Jeffrey Hunter's character. Does he survive being shot? Does he get an award for his actions? Inquiring minds need to know. Endings like this one are so frustrating.Would love to see a widescreen DVD release of this film one day. It deserves a release.