Il coltello nella piaga

I hadn't bothered watching this before because of the negative reviews it always seems to get, but I love Sophia and she made so few decent movies in the genre's I like to watch, that I finally gave it a go, and I was pleasantly surprised I found this to be a very enjoyable sub Hitchcock vehicle Anthony Perkins is very effective as the wheedling, manipulative man child that is his trademark and Gig Young is effectively ambiguous as the smarmy, stranger, who may turn out be an ally or an enemy The movie teases you with possibilities for violence or revelation that come to nothing, so that when something does happen it is all the more of a surprise (Which is considered slow and old fashioned these days, but was par for the course back then) Black and white suits the ambiance that they producers are aiming for, the veneer of French avant guard for a film that aspires to be more than it is, however what it is, is still fine by me PS; - Those who strangely expected Sophia to take her clothes off at some point obviously don't know her very well, as apart from, and perhaps because of, her experiences in her very early days in the movie business, she never does more than undo a couple of top buttons, as she does here

Weirdest cast ever. Sophia Loren, Gig Young, Tony Perkins. After an airplance accident, the husband who survived the crash (Perkins) stays out of sight, and wants to collect the life insurance policy, with the help of his wife (Loren). They both think it's the perfect crime, but there are still some surprises to come. And the wife's new boyfriend (Young) begins to suspect that something strange is going on. Can everyone hold it together until they collect the cash? And what happens after that?? Directed by Anatole Litvak; he had already been nominated for two oscars. Story by André Versini. Moves a little slow by modern standards, but the story is pretty solid.

You would think that any thriller beginning with Sophia Loren doing the Twist in a Paris nightclub couldn't be all bad! Unfortunately, the plot mechanisms (and red herrings) of "Five Miles to Midnight" nearly defeat Loren, very good as the put-upon wife of a neurotic who has sneakily walked away from a plane crash, hoping to collect on his flight insurance worth $120,000. Anthony Perkins, more nervous and fey than ever, continually bites his fingernail, his face twitching in possessive jealousy, while we in the audience wait in agony for Loren to come to her senses and put him out of his misery. It's hard to determine which element of the picture is more inappropriate: Perkins' icky Norman Bates-isms, Gig Young's leering, Cheshire Cat-like performance as an ex-detective-turned-newspaper man, or Mikis Theodorakis' insanely 'Parisienne' background music. ** from ****

The evocative opening scene of Five Miles Before Midnight held promise. I anticipated a moody piece of film noir with an intriguing female lead rather than the usual male. I was also hoping for more of Jean Pierre Aumont, who distinguishes any film he's in, but his role was little more than a cameo. However Sophia Loren, though lovely to look at, does not yet have the dramatic punch to carry off this role, or perhaps she only required better direction. There was ambiguity suggested about how faithful she was to husband Tony Perkins and this could have been put over nicely with a more well seasoned performance. Perhaps it was simply their pairing together--I didn't think they possessed any chemistry. It's hard to believe she ever found anything attractive about Perkins well established immaturity. What woman would? In any case, she doesn't breathe enough life into her character of put-upon housewife and near the film's conclusion, she goes overboard in a frankly unbelievable personality transformation. Also, the "surprise" ending was no surprise to this reviewer, who wonders why she didn't see the obvious way out of her troubles much earlier. It is however, an entirely watchable film and one of those that you kind of like to poke fun at. Certainly there are worse films out there!

FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT seems to leave other reviewers on here bored and cold. Maybe my positive reaction is due to my expectations being next to dinosaur bones, but I enjoyed myself a lot. Loren and Perkins are playing a mismatched married couple, so the lack of romantic spark between them WORKS. The two are each manipulative in their own way-- Perkins narcissistic and immature, Loren vulnerable and looking for a safety net-- so I enjoyed watching the cat and mouse games between them.

If the film has any flaws, it's a lack of punch in the suspense scenes. I feel like the director never milked these moments enough, certainly not the way a master like Hitchcock would have. Still, the characters are great and I liked the fatalistic noir vibe of the whole story.