Five Came Back

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Audience Member This is very tight, underplayed film. At 79 minutes it is a perfect length. Every performance is excellent, but modern audience may be in for surprise seeing Lucille Ball in a dramatic part. This performance moved her from ‘B' films to ‘A' levels and deservingly so. The film was photographed by cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, and written by Jerry Cady, Dalton Trumbo, and Nathanael West. Viewers have to understand that this film was made only 5 or 6 years after the start of commercial air travel. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Five Came Back was a highly successful B-grade film that helped launch Lucille Ball's career. The title describes the plot and you can pretty much guess who is coming back long before the actual decision is made. Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay and some of it does seem political, but it's a politics that is strangely quaint by today's standards. The film is worth seeing on a rainy day, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get a copy. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Five Came Back was a low-budget black-and-white disaster film that was snappily paced and the narrative by Dalto Trumbo, Jerome Cady and Nathanael West was tight. It's based on a story by Richard Carroll. The public richly supported it at the box office. The plot has by now become all too familiar about a passenger airplane crash in hostile territory and how the cliché characters handle their misfortune, but back in the day it was still fresh. There's also the beautiful moody noirish photography of the jungle by Nicholas Musuraca that adds to the chilling atmosphere. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member What seem a rather predictable B-flick comes up with some good twists in the final 30 minutes. First impressions aren't always accurate. A joy to see the venerable C. Aubrey sharing the screen with a young & serious Lucy. Solid cast and editing. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Quite good little survival film about a plane crash in the Amazon. The cast of survivors includes Lucille Ball and John Carradine, which certainly helps. The film was also co-written by excellent Dalton Trumbo before he would be blacklisted 8 years later for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the communist witch hunts. The film was likely a very original film at the time, but this story has been copied many times and done just as well or better, so the film hasn't aged well in that respect. Still, it's a well made and exciting film that clearly influenced many future disaster films. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member good actioner from that magical year, 1939 Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Five Came Back

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