Les échappés du néant

There were two problems with Back From Eternity which is not the fault of the people who actually made this film. RKO Studios was going out of business as Howard Hughes was busy folding it up. The film was released and then very quickly was on television as the entire RKO film library was. The second is unfortunately the film came out in the wake of The High and the Mighty. Most airplane pictures suffer in comparison to that one.

Not mind you that it could have been given better productions values. Color for the jungle scenes and maybe some location shooting instead of dusting off the same sets used for Five Came Back, for that matter for King Kong.

Remember RKO was owned by one of aviation's biggest boosters in Howard Hughes. Not that he couldn't have afforded some better productions values. But then again he was getting out of the film business at this time. Then again had he put some money into it, we also would have had more Hughes control and the results might have been interesting. Not necessarily good, but interesting.

That being said the cast does a fine job for director John Farrow. Like John Wayne in The High and the Mighty, Robert Ryan is fine as the able veteran airline pilot in charge of getting his passengers and crew back to safety after they've force landed in the South American jungle. Of course with the pulchritudinous Anita Ekberg on board and interested that's enough to give anyone a morale booster.

Rod Steiger plays the criminal on the way to his execution, a part done by Joseph Calleia in the original. Both are fine and are an interesting contrast in acting styles.

John Farrow added a few things here that were not in the original. One of the dumber things added was a chick fight between Phyllis Kirk and Anita Ekberg while they are stranded in the jungle. I mean was that really necessary John? Added nothing to the plot and kind of stupid when you come to think about it.

Still, chick fight and all, Back from Eternity is a good solid piece of entertainment that also asks some important questions about the quality of life collectively and the quality of how one spends his allotted time on earth.

This might be considered a B movie, but it is in a word very entertaining. The cast of different characters and portrayals of those roles are very well done. The movie sets you up for what is about to happen and then plunges you full throttle into the story. It is every bit as entertaining and full of drama as the later Airport movies of the 1970's. In fact, in many ways this is much better. It is very fun to see Jesse White in a role other than the Maytag repair man. The same can be said for actors Fred Clark, Jon Provost, Gene Barry and the rest who were more famous for other roles. You have to love Rod Steiger's character. He is definitely the most interesting in the movie. It is a nice little movie in character studies and how they deal with a forced landing in a jungle clearing with a cannibal tribe nearby. This movie stacks up to the airport and other flight disaster movies quite well. I first saw this as a teenager and I never forgot it, especially when the decision had to be made to see who stayed behind and especially who made the decision. For this being a B movie it is still very first rate and gets an A in viewing pleasure.

Director John Farrow re-makes FIVE CAME BACK(1939), which he also directed. The crew and passengers of a crippled plane try to survive in a South American jungle. Pretty bland, but worth watching due to the acting of Rod Steiger. Destined to face a firing squad, Steiger's character is pivotal to the films anxious finale. Other cast members of note are: Robert Ryan, Gene Barry, Phyllis Kirk, Anita Ekberg and a young Jon Provost. If you are like me and enjoy watching the old black & white movies...this really isn't so bad.

After having just seen BACK FROM ETERNITY for the first time in about a "hundred" years, I really have to weigh in with my opinion on this. It is one of the few times when the remake is an improvement on the original, exceptionally so.

I saw the original (FIVE CAME BACK) some time ago and, from what I can tell, the only thing which could possibly raise it even slightly above the superior remake is the curiosity factor of having Lucille Ball in the cast. Other than that, the acting and the production were very wooden and dated, and the overall cast pales in comparison to that which was assembled for ETERNITY.

For anyone not familiar with the story, a plane crashes in the midst of a remote South American jungle. Besides the pilot and co-pilot, there are nine passengers: a so-called "fallen woman", an engaged couple, an elderly professor and his wife, a small boy and his guardian, and a cop with a prisoner in tow. They must stay alive until the plane is repaired, a task complicated by the realization that they are surrounded by a hostile tribe of headhunters.

Here you have Robert Ryan instead of Chester Morris, Rod Steiger instead of Joseph Calleia, and Gene Barry instead of Patric Knowles. Ryan and Steiger especially, in the main roles, display more screen presence and acting talent in this one film than their predecessors were able to conjure up in their entire careers.

Ryan plays the world-weary pilot, another of his sturdy and dependable performances which are often overlooked and not fully appreciated because he made it seem so effortless. Steiger has the more colorful role as the anarchist, with only imprisonment and execution waiting for him if and when they make it back to civilization. The same talent, which would gain an Oscar for the actor some ten years later, is clearly evident here.

The underrated Keith Andes (as the co-pilot, instead of forgettable Kent Taylor) gives a hint of the star he could have become, and the equally underrated Phyllis Kirk is far more effective in her role than whoever played it in the original. Barry, usually cast as a good guy, gives a good account of himself, playing Kirk's fiancée. Whereas most of the other passengers rise to the occasion, his character becomes increasingly desperate, grasping, and unstable.

Anita Ekberg, frequently dismissed as an actress, may not have been as talented as Lucille Ball (who played the part in the original), but at least proved that she could indeed act, and is certainly more convincing in this type of role than Lucy was.

Of note is a pre-Lassie Jon Provost as the little boy. Jesse White, better known for his work in comedic films, does a fine job as the boy's roughhewn guardian, and Fred Clark is good at giving a distasteful stamp to the rather seedy cop. Above all, Cameron Prudhomme and Beulah Bondi, as the old professor and his mrs., give two very moving, heartfelt performances.

The story concerns the characters' survival, how each holds up under the pressure and are changed by the situation. Steiger begins to rediscover some of the values of his youth, but then finally takes it upon himself to decide who will live and who will die, when it is learned that some must stay behind. The conclusion builds to a shattering climax that will stay with you long after the film ends. This is the remake to see and it is definitely worth seeing.

Back from Eternity (1956)

A surprisingly well made movie. The plot is a big contrivance in a way, a calculated drama of conflicting character types in a survival situation. But the acting is excellent, the script tight, and the direction and pacing really strong.

Robert Ryan leads the group, literally as the pilot of the doomed plane, and he's in great, restrained form. Eventually he is matched, as an actor, but the nuanced, quirky Rod Steiger, who plays a criminal of sorts. The two leading women are Anita Ekberg, who is here as an ornament as usual, but ends up being a decent character after all, and Phyllis Kirk, and dependable secondary actress.

It's probably coincidence, but here is a movie about an airplane by the studio (RKO) run by Howard Hughes, and aircraft industrialist. And it was one of RKO's last films, being ruined (along with all the studios) by the collapse of Old Hollywood. While not a big budget movie, the sets are contrived to work within their limitations, being stuck, as it were, in the jungle.

The weirdest thing here might be that the director (and producer), John Farrow, made the same movie in 1939. The first one is supposed to be better, but I haven't seen it, and this one holds its own. Partly it's just the searing acting of Steiger, and of Ryan. If the plot were not quite so improbable, and the inevitable weeding out of the survivors from the victims, the movie might be considered really excellent. It never wavers (except maybe the girl fight in the pool, which is stupidity), and it has lots of nuances and romantic touches.