Five
Entry updated 24 August 2020. Tagged: Film.
Film (1951). Columbia. Produced, written and directed by Arch Oboler. Cast includes James Anderson, Susan Douglas, Charles Lampkin, Earl Lee and William Phipps. 93 minutes, cut to 89 minutes (UK). Black and white.
The first "after the bomb" Post-Holocaust film, Five concerns five US survivors: a mountaineer, a pregnant girl, a token Black, a cashier and an adventurer. This is a gloomy art film with low-budget, grainy photography, a scientifically bogus explanation for the five's survival, much talking, a racial murder and two deaths from radiation, but the theme itself retains some power. Oboler had worked extensively in radio before entering the film industry in 1945 with Strange Holiday and Bewitched, both based on his own radio plays. Five is basically a sermon against the prejudices and insanities that may lead to atomic World War Three. [JB/PN]
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