Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

jarrodmcdonald-1 Interestingly, the film ends on the non-survivors. The average viewer knows that the women and children had to be saved, and the screenwriters have made sure the much-less valuable characters die off-- the boy's uncle, the playboy, the man facing prosecution, and the elderly couple. So in that regard, it is all morally correct. Plus, don't overlook the fact the writers manage to stay clear of cannibalism. Still, I think there are ways the story could have been improved. We should have seen more with the pilots trying to fix the plane and the frustration of it taking so long to salvage the wrecked aircraft. We should have seen the rescue team attempt to find them. And we should have seen the natives-- after all, wasn't it a bit too convenient that the natives did not become a problem until after the eighteenth day? And why wasn't there any discussion that once the first five returned safely that they might help the rescue team go back to get the other five?

CelluloidDog A pleasant surprise of a film! It has a common theme of surviving a disaster (in this case, a plane crash but other themes might be shipwreck or being stranded in the desert) and trying to survive against all odds. Not everyone can make it out so it's a study in character and sacrifice. The jungles are lush and the natives are a bit stereotyped, however back then I think not due to the producers and directors but to captivate a less sophisticated audience. With Lucille Ball, John Carradine in early roles, it's a curiosity and well-acted. The budget was small and it's called a B movie, but in many ways, it's not. 8 for acting and plot/influence.

Neil Doyle FIVE CAME BACK is a standard RKO B-film, capably directed by John Farrow with a cast headed by a bunch of veterans who were now entering the B-film phase of their careers--CHESTER MORRIS, KENT SMITH, PATRIC KNOWLES, WENDY BARRIE--and some very good character actors like Joseph CALLEIA, SIR C. AUBREY SMITH and JOHN CARRADINE. At that time, even LUCILLE BALL could be called a veteran actress, having adorned many a B-film in less than impressive ingenue roles, usually as a brassy type with a heart of gold--but this is certainly one of her lesser early assignments. It's easy to get the feeling that you've seen this sort of plot before, perhaps in a different setting.She's rather wasted here since most of the footage concentrates on the men who have more to do in this tale of a plane crash in the Amazon jungle that leaves them stranded near some dangerous natives until they can get the plane fixed. The pilots (CHESTER MORRIS, KENT SMITH) then have to give the others the bad news--the plane can only take off if there are five passengers aboard it. As it turns out, it's up to reformed revolutionary Joseph CALLEIA to choose who stays and who goes. PATRIC KNOWLES is the cowardly suitor of WENDY BARRIE who gets his comeuppance at the hands of the reformed man when he attempts to bribe his way to escape.If this sounds familiar, it's because Farrow directed the same story again years later, called BACK FROM ETERNITY.It's absorbing but obviously a low-budget film, rather murkily photographed using some of the old KING KONG jungle sets (unless that's the fault of the print I viewed on TCM), and the script is better than average for this type of story. But if you have the feeling that you've seen this all before, you probably have. The stock characters facing peril will remind you of those STAGECOACH characters, most of whom had to worry about their fate, some brave and heroic, others more like cowards. Still, it works.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Early disaster-like movie that has some dozen or so people stranded in the dangerous head-hunter infested and uncharted South American jungle after their plane crash landed in a violent tropical storm.With only enough food and drinking water to last for about a month the plane passengers try to fix the disabled plane so that they can fly out of the valley that their stuck in before the head-hunters get a lock on them and move in for the kill.The movie "Five came Back" has an unlikely hero in the person of convicted assassin and anarchist Vasques, Joesph Calleia. Vasques is was to be brought back to Panama by bounty hunter Mr. Chimp, John Carradine,to be hung for his crimes against that country's leadership. We get to see Vasquez lose his hostility to humanity and the world at large when he's confronted with the kindness shown to him by the elderly Professor Henry, and his wife Martha, Spengler, C. Aubrey Smith & Elisabeth Risdon. If there were more like you, Vasquez heart-fully tells Prof. Spengler, in the world there would be less like me.Mr. Chimp who's interest in the $5,000.00 reward for turning in Vasquez is superseded by his wanting to save his life from being captured and beheaded by the head-hunters. This fear on Chimp's part has him make a blind and drunken run for it in the dark and unfriendly jungle, only to be killed by a native's poison dart blow gun. The rich and arrogant playboy Judson Ellis, Patrick Knowles,who's eloping with his sweetheart Alice Melbourne, Wendy Barrie,becomes panic-stricken when he realizes that his money can't buy him everything; as Vasquez tells him that he's, together with himself and the Spengler's who volunteered to stay, to be one of those left behind. the rest of the stranded passengers and crew which includes Alice and the planes pilot Bill Brooks, Chester Morris, and co-pilot Joe (Kent Taylor), whom Alice fell in love with. Together with young five-year-old Tommy Mulvaney, Casey Johson, who's dad, Pat O'Malley, was just the victim of a mob rub-out in San Francisco together. There's also a 28 year-old pre-"I Love Lucy" Lucille Ball as the tough-talking dame with the heart of gold Peggy Noland. The now ready to fly plane is to take take off as soon the jungle drums stop beating and the head-hunters slowly move in to finish the survivor's off one by one. Tommy's guardian and his dad's best friend Pete, Allen Jenkins, was also one of those passengers who didn't make it back when he was shot and killed by a poison dart from a head-hunter's blow gun.Vasquez telling Professor Spengler that he has three bullets left in his revolver, to do them and himself in before the head-hunters get a hold of them, really has only two and uses them on the elderly couple. We then see the plane, with the five who came back, fly off over the jungle sky and into the safety of modern 20th century civilization.With Vasquez himself feeling in some strange sort of way a sense of freedom and redemption due to the unique turn of events that he finds himself in. By outliving his captor Mr. Chimp and denying his life to his Panamanian executioners, Vasquez now faces death at the hands of the jungle head-hunters. Whom to them the only crime that he committed was not being a member of their tribe.