A film way ahead of its time and criminally overlooked these days, Five was written, directed, and produced by the legendary Arch Oboler and takes place following a nuclear war.
Following a global conflict that results in the wiping out of most human life, five people have survived. We have pregnant Roseanne (Susan Douglas Rubes), who was in a hospital X-ray room when the bombs went off; Michael (William Phipps), who was in an elevator of the Empire State Building; Mr Barnstaple (Earl Lee), who is obviously suffering from shock and is convinced he’s just on vacation, and Charles (Charles Lampkin) were in the vault of the bank at which they worked; latecomer to the group is European Eric (James Anderson), who says he was on top of Mount Everest at the time everything ended. It’s Eric’s arrival that provides the main conflict between the survivors, since he’s a bigot who takes exception with having to stay with Charles, a black man.
Presented in stark monochrome, Five is a stunningly filmed drama. We see deserted, litter-filled streets, the only remains of civilisation being the skeletons hanging out of cars and slumped over once-busy work desks. On the production design alone, the film is a winner.
Director Oboler made his name producing the anthology radio show Lights Out, and Five could easily fit in as an extended edition of the TV version of that show, and it’s certainly something that wouldn’t be out of place on The Twilight Zone. Long, pensive shots and meaningful, pious dialogue raise the seriousness of the production above what we’d later get in post-atomic movies. There are no giant bugs or mutated fiends here. The monsters here are man, and there’s no getting away from it.
Australian label Imprint’s Blu-ray sees the film’s debut in the format, and it looks striking. A fact-filled commentary by historians Glenn Erickson and Matthew Rovner fills the background and provides lots of information on the movie and Oboler, plus the always-entertaining Kim Newman also talks about the director and the film.
It might not be the cheeriest of films, and modern audiences might find it a little slow and ponderous, but Five is an important movie and deserves to be seen.
