Five
Theatrical release poster
Directed byArch Oboler
Screenplay byArch Oboler
Story byArch Oboler
Produced byArch Oboler
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by
Music byHenry Russell
Production
company
Arch Oboler Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • April 25, 1951 (1951-04-25)
[1]
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000[2]

Five is a 1951 American independent[3] horror science fiction film that was produced, written, and directed by Arch Oboler. The film stars William Phipps, Susan Douglas Rubeš, James Anderson, Charles Lampkin, and Earl Lee. Five was distributed by Columbia Pictures.

The film's storyline involves five survivors, one woman and four men, of an atomic bomb disaster. It appears to have wiped out the rest of the human race while leaving all infrastructure intact. The five come together at a remote, isolated hillside house, where they try to figure out how to survive and come to terms with the loss of their own personal worlds.[4]

Plot

Roseanne Rogers trudges from place to place, searching for another living human being. A newspaper headline reports a scientist's warning that detonating a new type of atomic bomb could cause the extinction of humanity.

Roseanne eventually makes her way to her aunt's isolated hillside house and faints when she finds Michael already living there. At first, she is too numb to speak and slow to recover. She later resists Michael's attempted sexual assault, and also reveals that she is married and pregnant.

Two more survivors arrive in a car, attracted by the smoke from the house's chimney. Oliver P. Barnstaple is an elderly bank clerk who is in denial; he believes that he is simply on vacation. Since the atomic disaster, he has been taken care of by Charles, a thoughtful and affable African American. Both survived because they were accidentally locked in a bank vault when the disaster happened. Roseanne was in a hospital's lead-lined X-ray room, while Michael was in an elevator in New York City's Empire State Building.

Barnstaple sickens and Michael suspects it is the symptoms of radiation poisoning, but Barnstaple later appears to recover and insists on seeing the nearby ocean. There, they drag a man named Eric out of the ocean. A mountain climber, he was stranded on Mount Everest by a blizzard during the disaster. He tells how he made it down to Base-Camp only to find everyone dead, then walked through Asia and Europe finding the same. He reached the sea and sailed to Hawaii, but there were only more bodies. He found a plane and flew to the United States, the running out of fuel just short of land. Meanwhile, Barnstaple dies peacefully on the beach.

The next day, Charles helps Michael with his construction project. Michael sees Roseanne bringing food to the injured Eric and remarks that he thinks Eric is exaggerating his condition and that Roseanne should not be running about for him. Eric proves to be divisive and quickly sows discord among the group. He theorizes that they are somehow immune to the radiation and wants to find and gather together other survivors. Michael, however, is sceptical and warns that radiation will be the most concentrated in the cities Eric wants to search.

The newcomer later reveals himself as a racist; he can barely stand living with Charles. When Charles objects, he and Eric fight, stopping only when Roseanne goes into labor; she gives birth to a boy, delivered by Michael. Afterwards, while the others work to make a better life, Eric goes off by himself. Maliciously, he drives their jeep through the group's cultivated field, destroying part of their crops. Michael orders Eric to leave, but Eric produces a pistol and announces that he will leave only when he is ready.

Later one night, Eric tells Roseanne that he is going to the city (Oak Ridge). Wanting to discover her husband's fate, Roseanne agrees to go with him, as he had hoped; he insists that she not tell Michael. After stealing supplies, Eric is stopped by a suspicious Charles; in the ensuing struggle, he stabs Charles in the back, killing him.

Once they reach the city, Eric begins looting, while Roseanne goes to her husband's office and then to a nearby hospital's waiting room; there she discovers her husband's remains. She wants to return to Michael, but Eric refuses to let her go. When they struggle, his shirt is torn open, revealing signs of advanced radiation poisoning. In despair, he runs away.

Roseanne begins the long walk back to the house, but along the way, her baby dies. Michael, who has been searching for her, eventually finds her. After burying her son, they return to the house. Michael silently resumes cultivating the soil, and Roseanne joins him.

Cast

Production

According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, the film is the first to depict the aftermath of an Earthly atomic bomb catastrophe.

The unusual house that is the setting for most of the film was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was the separate guesthouse of the ranch of producer/director/writer Arch Oboler,[5] located at 32436 Mulholland Highway in Malibu, California.[6] The house burned to the ground, with only the foundations remaining, in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which swept through the area.

Actor Charles Lampkin came to Oboler's notice when reading the prose poem "The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson on a Los Angeles TV program.[7][5] and convinced him to include excerpts of it in the final script of Five. It would become Lampkin's soliloquy for his character Charles; this may be the first time that audiences in the USA, Latin America, and Europe were exposed to African-American poetry, albeit not identified as such in the film.[8][6]

Oboler shot this very low budget feature for $75,000, using as his crew a small group of recent graduates from the University of Southern California film school and starring five (then) unknown actors. Upon its completion, Oboler sold the film to Columbia Pictures for a large profit.[5]

Reception

Film reviewer Bosley Crowther in his review for The New York Times, noted the characters handicapped the film as much as the tepid plot line created by Arch Oboler, "the five people whom he has selected to forward the race of man are so cheerless, banal and generally static that they stir little interest in their fate. Furthermore, Mr. Oboler has imagined so little of significance for them to do in their fearfully unique situation that there is nothing to be learned from watching them. Mr. Oboler might as well be presenting five castaways on a desert isle".[9]

In a recent review film critic Sean Axmaker lauded the film, writing, "For all of his budgetary limitations, it's a strikingly atmospheric and handsome film, and Oboler creates an eerie sense of isolation with simple techniques".[10]

In other films

During the film Great Balls of Fire!, the characters Jerry Lee Lewis and his future wife Myra Gale Brown can be seen watching Five in a scene.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "New Holiday Theater to Present 'Five' Wed". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. April 23, 1951. p. 7.
  2. ↑ Terry, Clifford. "Armageddon at the box office: Past looks at future peril." Chicago Tribune, November 16, 1983, p. S1.
  3. ↑ Trailers From Hell
  4. ↑ Stephens 2004, pp. 114–131.
  5. 1 2 3 Warren, Bill (1997). "Five - 1951". Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, Volume 1. McFarland Classics. pp. 709–714. ISBN 978-0-7864-0479-7.
  6. 1 2 Sanz, Daniel Bruno (November 17, 2011) [September 5, 2009]. "Bad Dreams From My Grandfather". The Blog. HuffPost. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  7. ↑ Torrens, S.J., James (Summer 1991). "Biography: Obituary of Charles Lampkin". Santa Clara Magazine. Charles Lampkin Foundation. Retrieved November 19, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Bruno, Daniel (grandson of ). "5ive". Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  9. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. "'Five,' Arch Oboler Production Dealing With Survivors of Atom Bomb." The New York Times, April 26, 1951.
  10. ↑ Axmaker, Sean. "Movie News, film review: Five." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: January 9, 2015.

Bibliography

  • Stephens, Bob. "D is for doomsday: Five." in Rickman, Gregg. The Science Fiction Film Reader. New York: Limelight Editions, 2004. ISBN 0-87910-994-7.
  • Strick, Philip. Science Fiction Movies. 1976. London: Octopus Books Limited. ISBN 0-7064-0470-X.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition (an edited and expanded 3rd printing in a single volume). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
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