Product Details

• Actors: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Allen Jenkins
• Format: NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00007K07J
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,971 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LUCY FANS WILL APPRECIATE IT., January 8, 2003

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Came Back [VHS] (VHS Tape)

First of all, this minor cult classic was made in 1939: if it was made in any other year, it would have garnered more attention rather than to have gotten lost in obscurity. In LA, nine passengers board the SILVER QUEEN, a plane piloted by Bill Brooks bound for Panama City. On board, passengers include Peggy Nolan (Lucyball) a lady of the pavements (!), Crimp (John Carradine) a ruthless detective determined to bring back his prisoner, the anarchist Vasquez (Joseph Calleia) for a $5,OOO reward - among other assorted colourful characters. The plane is force landed during a nasty storm in a dense jungle - and there are native drums threatening attack....when the plane is fixed - at long last - it can only take back 5 passengers. Directed by John Farrow, father of Mia and husband to Maureen O'Sullivan, this taut little "B" thriller from RKO is still quite enjoyable. Dated, to be sure, it nevertheless entertains with its GRAND HOTEL - like storyline both on a plane & in the jungle. The supporting cast is excellent: Wendy Barrie, C. Aubrey Smith, Patric Knowles & Alan Jenkins. Lucy's leading man is Chester Morris - as Bill.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5 Came Back: The Best of the B's, July 12, 2004

By 

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Five Came Back [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Hollywood occasionally tells the tale of a group of travellers stuck within an enclosed arena against which they must contend with opposition externally and internally. In 5 CAME BACK, director John Farrow places some surprisingly well-known actors (Lucille Ball, John Carradine, Chester Morris, and C. Aubrey Smith)in an airplane that is caught in a storm and crash lands in the head-hunter jungles of Brazil. What makes this film click is the unexpectedly successful melding of fine acting with a gloomy and dense jungle backdrop that serves to bring out the best and the worst of the passengers. Lucille Ball is a floozy that nevertheless can rise to the challenge of surviving in a forest and still look good enough to find romance with the co-pilot. John Carradine plays Crimp the bounty-hunter who determines to bring in his prisoner for the reward. But the one who steals the show is veteran character actor C. Aubrey Smith, who has made a career of playing the distinguished English upper crust gentleman who knows how to die with the same style as how to live. This is no film of special effects; in fact one can even see the blatant rubber undersides of the planted "trees" against which the head-hunters appear from the ankles down. 5 CAME BACK is however the ancestor of such future films as STAGECOACH and THE BREAKFAST CLUB. What makes movies like this resonate even with the cheesiness of the production values is the odd way that locked in strangers must confront their inner demons even as they must face their outer ones. 5 CAME BACK is a fine example of this genre.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great classic film find!, July 9, 2004

By 

Daniel S. Russell "syzygy121" (Blacksburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Five Came Back [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I'll admit I started watching this film because I'm a big Lucy fan, but before long I found myself engrossed. I couldn't wait to see who came back.

The film is not as predictable as you might think. Spoilers follow...

What a powerful ending!

Who could have seen the twist coming when Vasquez alone picks those who live and those who die. I watched the film assuming it would turn out to be a "lifeboat" situation, full of justifications and categorizations. Instead, Vasquez chooses based on logic and morality. This would be a wonderful conversation starter!

And the surprises just kept coming -- I audibly gasped when we see only two bullets in the gun. I suppose there is a concept, then, that justice is finally served as Vasquez alone is left to the hands of the natives.

Frankly I didn't think Peggy (Lucy) had a chance of surviving as the woman with a questionable reputation, and yet she redeems herself when she becomes Tommy's mother.

My only gripe with the film is that it ends prematurely, literally with their fate up in the air. We have to assume they all make it back safely, but even a quick sequence of the plane landing or even seeing safety ahead would have sufficed. Perhaps the director and writers were telling us that the real drama was not on the plane at the end but on the ground. Is Vasquez the central character then? I'll have to watch it again and think about it some more.

Full of complex characters and wonderful performances, "Five Came Back" is a classic worth watching again!