Five Came Back

Due to the good reviews I watched this movie the other morning and was pleasantly surprised. It was a black and white movie made 62 years ago and I found it better than lots of new movies. My wife hates old b/w movies but when I read her the storyline she agreed to watch it with me and surprisingly she liked it. It shows what people are really like when you have to live with them rather than just a casual aquaintance. How many people noticed that the airline pilot and co-pilot had been the movie Boston Blackie and the tv Boston Blackie?

Years ago in New York City I saw the re-make of this film Back from Eternity which was broadcast on WOR TV's Million Dollar movie program. For most of you too young to remember WOR was an RKO station and had access at the time to the entire RKO film library. Films would be run as much as five times a day for a week, like a movie theater.

Back from Eternity was fine, but Five Came Back was really something special. Fortunately RKO had those old King Kong jungle sets and used them for this film. Cut down the cost considerably.

No big names in the cast either. Lucille Ball was not a big name at the time she made it and she's light years from Lucy Ricardo in this. She's a cynical good time gal who's been hurt by one man too many. Chester Morris started the sound era in some A product at MGM, but now was at the B picture level. But they and the rest of the cast nicely fill their roles.

The plot is simple. Morris and co-pilot Kent Taylor are flying a small passenger airline over South America and are forced down in the middle of a rain forest. Some patch work repairs are done. But the plane won't get off the ground with a full load. Some choices have to be made.

But because Joseph Calleia gets a hold of a gun he winds up making the choices. He's a political prisoner being taken to his execution, escorted by policeman John Carradine. With native headhunters all around and them having killed a couple of the passengers already, time is critical.

It's a good film, but if you see either this one or the remake it will be spoiled should you have an opportunity to see the other later.

I rated this film as a very good B picture when I first saw it 50 years ago - but having seen the remake "Flight to Eternity" (which was not too bad!), the original has gone higher in my estimation. The cast was much better and the effects were just as good as the remake, which is saying a lot when one considers the years in between. The good old stand -by actors like John Carradine, C. Aubrey Smith and Elizabeth Risdon gave it a bit of class, while Chester Morris had his best role, Lucille Ball and Wendy Barrie were surprisingly good, and Joseph Calleia made a good bad guy. This is one of the very few B pictures made so many years ago that has really stood up well, and if you get the chance to see it on Video or on TV, do not miss it - it is most entertaining.

A well mounted 1939 adventure yarn which would be the blueprint for future disaster films to come like the Airport series or even The Poseidon Adventure. A cross section of character actors are on a flight from the States to South America when during an engine outage, the plane goes down in the Aztec region prompting the survivors to work together to repair the plane, learn something about themselves & hopefully pull all the disparate strings together before an unseen tribe of natives knock them off one by one. Featuring Lucille Ball (?) & John Carradine, this movie is a delight just from an film aficionado's standpoint since we get to see where a lot of the later stories got their DNA from.

The Quick Pitch: Twelve people board a plane that crashes in the South American jungle. While they work to fix the plane and with angry natives closing in, the group realise the plane will generate enough thrust for only five passengers. Who will live and who will die?

What a nice, little B-film! Five Came Back was quite a nice watch. Director John Farrow should get a lot of the credit. He crafted a tight film with a very small budget and was able to inject well placed tension and atmosphere. There are few wasted moments in the 75 minute runtime. Every scene matters. I also like the way he and the writers turned societal norms on their head. The passengers you would expect to do well in the jungle, don't. Those who may have had problems in polite society end up being the heroes. It's a very interesting look at how adverse conditions can change people. The ending is very satisfying. The decisions about who will and who will not be on the plane lead to some very interesting drama.

Five Came Back is helped by having an outstanding cast. The most immediately recognizable name is Lucille Ball. This was long before she became Lucy. Here, she's the tough-talking sexpot. Allen Jenkins, Joseph Calleia, and Chester Morris are also standouts. Finally, has there ever been a more British looking actor than C. Aubrey Smith? One look at the man and you can all but hear God Save the Queen playing in the background. Overall, some strong performances.

I'm not sure I had ever heard of Five Came Back before watching it the other night. But it's a solid film that I plan to revisit again in future. My 8/10 is probably about right given the quality of the film and the enjoyment I got out of it.

8/10