On ne joue pas avec le crime

5 Against the House (1955)

Let's try to give this the best angle: the last half hour is terrific.

Before that is a lot of off and on development. The four hapless, likable college chaps are a kind of wobbly precursor to the "Ocean's Eleven," the 1960 casino classic (also a bit wobbly, actually, if you watch it again, but still a classic). The casino where this one begins is a vintage gem, an old style, small town joint (Reno, in 1955, was a small city), with guns on the wall and general lack of swank. It's great. And there's Kim Novak, not for her appearance or her singing (both were soon to be talked about), but simply for her screen presence, her higher level of professionalism. And she sings to some smooth easy band music. Novak was almost unknown--she had appeared in a sleeper noir called "Pushover" the previous year, but it was later in 1955 she starred in her breakout films, "Pal Joey" and "The Man with the Golden Arm". Finally, among the four lead males, Brian Keith, mostly known for decades of television work, is a surprisingly powerful figure, making the most of what he has to work with.

That's the extent of it, and Novak can't hold up the whole movie (especially all the parts she's not in--her role is relatively small). The chummy joking between the boys is weak stuff, including the college scenes, but these are meant to tap into the growing collegiate population (a full decade after WWII, college was becoming a far more normal step after high school). The initial crime incident with its interaction with the cops is patently unconvincing. And then there is the way the movie is patched together in separate segments. The first, fun road trip suddenly turns into a series of unexplained romances, which leads to the main plot again.

Why is this considered a film noir? Well, it actually has one key element, the soldier returned from war trying to cope with American mainstream life, only now the war is the Korean War, which changes both the romance and depth of the situation, at least historically. And there is, eventually, a full blown criminal aspect. In fact, the last half hour is tightly made, and if the gimmick is a bit of a stretch, it's all well done, and even if you don't like the movie overall, you'll really find the ending has a great feel to it, with lots of great night stuff. Reno back then was a neon wonderland, very cool!

Uneven heist film. Making 30-somethings Madison and Keith into college students is a bit of a stretch. But I guess pairing them with the youthful Moore and Mathews presented a problem that a college dorm room could solve. Screenplay is by the celebrated TV writer Stirling Silliphant who, nonetheless, can't seem to script a line without a wise-guy quip. It's clever, but does get tiresome.

The movie has two things going for it. First is an absolutely superb performance by Brian Keith. Few actors could get more mileage out of a squint and a cigarette than this low-key tough guy. His final descent into battle-shock madness is both persuasive and oddly touching. The entire movie turns on an ability to convey the required changes and he brings them off beautifully. The other plus is the location photography in Reno. It's entertaining to watch the crowds milling around the casinos, circa 1955. How the production crew got the crowds to act so natural, without acknowledging the camera, amounts to a real feat. Also, the parking garage makes for good staging, but apparently is a commercial novelty that never caught on.

At the time, Columbia's head Harry Cohn was promoting Novak into the studio's newest sex goddess. Novak is okay in the role, but unfortunately her scenes with Madison slow down the pacing. Her role here looks like a rather awkward add-on to the main plot. In fact the heart of the film is neither the casino heist nor the Madison-Novak romance. Rather, the emotional center is the solid bond between the two Korean war vets. The chemistry between the two older men strongly portrays the kind of special kinship forged only in combat

Certainly director Phil Karlson knows his way around action movies as proved by his gripping Phenix City Story. I suspect that had he a freer hand here, a leaner, sharper, more coherent movie would have resulted. As it is, the 90 minutes is entertaining, but not front rank. As a heist movie, it's so-so; as a buddy film, it's first rate. (In passing-- Looks like the producers of Oceans 11 {1960} sat through this film more than once.)

This movie is included in one of the Columbia "Noir" DVD sets released in the early '00s. It is a rather fascinating movie but not a noir. In fact if anything it's a strange hybrid of musical and precursor to the "Ocean's" flicks (both the original Rat Pack version and the later movies with George Clooney and friends).

Four buddies in their late 20s to early 30s are law school roommates who are in college thanks to the GI Bill and their service during the Korean War. On a weekend trip to Reno, one of the students starts to hatch a plan to rob a casino of a million dollars - as a psychology experiment. He plans to return the money, as he explains to his confused roommates. But one in the group, a short-tempered guy named Brick, thinks the idea has promise, although he doesn't intend on returning the money to the casino.

Brick is played by Brian Keith, next to Kim Novak the best known actor in this movie. Before his stint on TV as the loving Uncle Bill on Family Affair, and then teaming up with Burt Reynolds for a few movies in the '70s and '80s, Keith was a character actor with a knack for playing heavies. In this movie, he's a vet who suffers from PTSD. When he can control it, he's easygoing and joking along with buddies and picking up women. But once the trauma sets in, he can become a monster.

Kim Novak is the best known face in the movie, and she has a rather thankless role as the night club singing girlfriend of one of the guys. She isn't given much to do.

The movie has some admirable things to say about vets suffering from PTSD; despite his illness, Brick prevails in the movie and it has a generally upbeat ending. This is no noir.

The on-location setting of Reno is interesting and events leading up to the caper have noir elements, but the lighting is neutral and as mentioned, the music rather inappropriate. Novak even breaks out into song during a pivotal moment for her character.

The DVD remaster is good and this is probably the most upbeat (in the end) of all of the movies in the set. But don't expect anything really riveting.

Phil Karlson directed a lot of B movies and this one, "Five Against the House" is another one, released in 1955. It's notable for having Kim Novak in it just before she hit real stardom, and she's gorgeous. The other stars are Guy Madison, Brian Keith, Kerwin Mathews, and Alvy Moore. The story concerns Korea War vets in college on the GI bill who become involved in the heist of a Reno casino. It's supposed to be a lark by one of the men, Ronnie (Mathews). just to see if it could be done; he plans on returning the money. Lark or not, Al (Madison) opts out, but travels to Reno with his girlfriend Kay (Novak) and the rest of the guys as he and Kay are planning to be married there. However, the psychologically unstable Brick (Keith) decides to do the heist for real and forces his buddy Al to go along with it. Brick saved Al's life in Korea, and Al doesn't feel he can refuse him, even though the plan now involves Kay.

Though the end of the film had some excitement, the rest of it drags. The acting is adequate. Though the guys had served in Korea and entered college late, as far as I know, the Korean war lasted three years and not ten. With the exception of 29-year-old Mathews, the rest of the actors are in the 33-35 year-old range. Madison's career started out promisingly, but he became best known as Wild Bill Hickok on television and eventually made many Italian westerns; physical ailments kept him from working often past 1975 - his last credit is 8 years before his death in 1996. The other actors worked mainly in television except for the handsome Kerwin Mathews, who found career success in another type of film genre before his retirement circa 1978.

What the film has going for it is a really neat atmosphere. It was filmed on location in Lake Tahoe and Reno, and that part of it really pays off.

Of mild interest.

Kim Novak is of course terrific (she rarely phoned one in), and it's an interesting pre-star turn, meaning before PICNIC and VERTIGO, but the rest of the cast is pretty interesting, and particularly Brian Keith---Keith did a lot of 50's B-picture work that's worth watching, if you can find it. The real reason to see this picture is because it's a Phil Karlson. Karlson is one of those guys like Don Siegel, who came up in the studio system just before television. Early live TV produced people like Frankenheimer and Arthur Penn and Paddy Chayevsky, but there were already guys in the trenches like Siegel and Karlson, who got the chance to direct because they could do it quick and cheap, but make a picture look like it didn't come from Poverty Row. (See, for example, Clint Eastwood's PLAY MISTY FOR ME. Eastwood got his shot by rock-bottom budgeting, a lesson he might have learned from Siegel.) Karlson is due for a re-evaluation, along with, say, Budd Boetticher and Burt Kennedy. Siegel seems to be getting his due, not that he couldn't use an occasional boost. But watch this, and maybe THE PHENIX CITY STORY (not a misspelling), and tell me Karlson can't do it tense.