- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,272
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
John Farrow's 1939 (there's that year again) aircraft in jeopardy film, Five Came Back, shows what a quality script, and a select group of actors, can do with 75 minutes.
Of the credited screenwriters, one stands out - Dalton Trumbo - the blacklisted writer of Bill of Divorcement, Kitty Foyle, A Guy Named Joe, Gun Crazy, Roman Holiday, Spartacus and others. Nathaniel West, another writer on the project, is responsible for the novel of Day of the Locust.
On the actor side of the camera:
Chester Morris, the pilot, who had been around since the late teens, with numerous films to his credit;
Lucille Ball, in film from the early '30s, mostly in uncredited roles and shorts,
finally got something she could work with a the nice, bad girl. She worked in film as late as 1974, as Mame, but also has some TV credits.
John Carradine, as an alcoholic transporter of...
Joseph Calleia, the bad guy who shows his humanity. He played Juan Sequin, in a 1960 production about to no longer exist in large format;
C. Aubrey Smith, the quintessential Englishman, whose career dates back to 1915;
Kent Smith, probably best known for playing Boston Blackie on TV in the early '50s. Interesting that Mr. Morris played the same character in theatricals in the '40s;
We'll throw in Patrick Knowles and Elizabeth Risdon, and one has a pretty full airliner.
The Warner Archive transfer is from a quality 35mm element, with clean audio.
While I'd heard about Five Came Back, somehow I'd never caught up with it. Now that it's available via Warner Archive, you can also. It's one of the grandaddies of "meet the passengers and crew before problems ensue" cinema.
Recommended
RAH