Five Came Back
| Five Came Back | |
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| Directed by | John Farrow |
| Produced by | Robert Sisk |
| Written by | Richard Carroll (story) Jerry Cady Dalton Trumbo Nathanael West |
| Starring |
Chester Morris Lucille Ball |
| Music by | Roy Webb |
| Cinematography | Nicholas Musuraca |
| Edited by | Harry Marker |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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73 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $225,000 |
| Box office | $721,000 |
Five Came Back is a 1939 American black-and-white melodrama from RKO Radio Pictures, produced by Robert Sisk, directed by John Farrow, that stars Chester Morris and Lucille Ball. The film was photographed by renowned film noir cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, and written by Jerry Cady, Dalton Trumbo, and Nathanael West. Although considered a B movie, the positive notices received by Ball helped launch her as an A-list actress.Five Came Back is considered a precursor of the disaster film genre.
In 1948 Five Came Back was remade (differing only in minor details) as the Mexican film Los que volvieron and again in 1956 by producer-director Farrow as Back from Eternity, starring Robert Ryan and Anita Ekberg.
Nine passengers board a commercial flight from Los Angeles to Panama City: wealthy Judson Ellis (Patric Knowles) and Alice Melhorne (Wendy Barrie), eloping because their parents disapprove; an elderly couple, Professor Henry Spengler (C. Aubrey Smith) and his wife Martha (Elisabeth Risdon); Tommy Mulvaney (Casey Johnson), the young son of a gangster, and his escort, gunman Pete (Allen Jenkins); Peggy Nolan (Lucille Ball), a woman with a shady past; and Vasquez (Joseph Calleia), an anarchist being extradited and facing a death sentence for killing a high-ranking politician, and his guard, Crimp (John Carradine), who expects a $5,000 ($86,100 today) reward for delivering him. Pilot Bill (Chester Morris), co-pilot Joe Brooks (Kent Taylor), and steward Larry (Dick Hogan) comprise the crew.
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