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A Few Words About A few words about...™ Five Came Back -- DVD (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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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

 

Dave B Ferris

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If Back From Eternity is also available from Warner Archive, they should bundle both films as a (discounted) package!
 

borisfw

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Received Five Came Back in the mail from Amazon today . Love this film . Will be watching it tonight . I really like Back From Eternity with Robert Ryan . But i like Five Came back just a little bit more .
 

JoeDoakes

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Of course, perhaps the greatest contribution Five Came Back made to Western Civilization was that it was cited by Sherwood Schwartz for his classic, Gilligan's Island.
 

Robert Harris

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JoeDoakes said:
Of course, perhaps the greatest contribution Five Came Back made to Western Civilization was that it was cited by Sherwood Schwartz for his classic, Gilligan's Island.

Am aware of, but never saw, Gilligan. Presume from family viewing it's MOHH.
 

Robert Harris

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Apparently there are element problems with this film, but you'd never know from tHE new Warner Archive release.

The track has been restored from multiple prints. As to the image, the OCN survives with what appears to be a couple of frames missing at one point, which is not a problem.

RAH
 

Reed Grele

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I've seen this film several times on TV over the years. It's one of those films that really pulls you in and doesn't let go. Great acting. Maybe it's just me, but I find several scenes difficult to watch (especially the elderly couple's fate). You don't need an explosion or a car chase every 2 minutes with indecipherable fast cut editing to make an entertaining, suspenseful, and engrossing film.
 

Robert Crawford

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borisfw said:
Received Five Came Back in the mail from Amazon today . Love this film . Will be watching it tonight . I really like Back From Eternity with Robert Ryan . But i like Five Came back just a little bit more .
I've seen both films, but I prefer Back From Eternity. However, since I'm in the state of retirement :D, I'm going to order Five Came Back DVD and have a double feature viewing of both WA DVDs in the near future.
 

skylark68

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This is a very good one, glad to see it's being released on DVD. Caught it on TCM a year or so ago for the first time.
 

Conrad_SSS

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skylark68 said:
This is a very good one, glad to see it's being released on DVD. Caught it on TCM a year or so ago for the first time.
Then you really will be happy with the DVD......Watched mine this weekend and it is excellent quality. What TCM has been showing was all I had ever seen, but clearly from 16mm (and looked it!), so this new DVD was like watching the film for the first time. A truly under-appreciated gem. Great disc, nice artwork, plentiful chapters, and even the original trailer (rare on RKO pictures).
 

lionel59

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It's one of the best-looking prints from this era that I have seen. I'm guessing Warner did some restoration work on it. The (lesser) RKO remake, BACK FROM ETERNITY, is also available from Warner Archive (in 1.85:1 Wide Screen).
Interestingly, my friends who enjoyed it with me last night felt that it was a kind of '30's mixture of SURVIVOR and GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. I didn't know that it had inspired Schwartz re the sitcom. Of course, it is much superior to both of those shows, especially SURVIVOR (which is less realistic, like all "reality shows")
 

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