Movie review - 5ive (aka Five)

This is a 50's B&W movie "a story about the day after tomorrow" according to the helpful graphic displayed over images of nuclear detonations and it also states "The deadly wind passeth over it and it is gone; And the place thereof shall know it no more" (from Psalm 103:15-16, it seems even our biblical ancestors were obsessed by thoughts of our own self destruction). Famous global landmarks are shown to appear and disappear in clouds with screams echoing in the background to clearly illustrate this was a global conflict effecting ALL nations equally.

Our cameras then zoom in to the figure of a solitary woman staggering exhausted in the wind to discover a skeleton in a car. She continues alone until finding a town where the church bell is tolling discovering it was only the wind, we also see a newspaper report warning of a new bomb that could potentially wipe out all life on Earth.

Coming across a stilted house (designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and owned by the film's director Arch Oboler) she seeks shelter and discovers there is a fire and meets a man, promptly fainting like a typical 50's woman in a badly written role. After coming round he says his name is Michael Rogan and he realises she has some connection to the house as there are photographs of her there.

Rogan describes his end of the world experience in The Empire State Building (clearly the bombs weren't nukes although he mentions radioactive dust so we're clearly dealing with either a lack of knowledge or just plain bad science). She explains she was in an X-ray room in hospital and woke up alone then finally tells us her name is Roseanne (Rogans theory that the walls were lead lined and she survived the radioactivity that way matched my guess) and the house belonged to her Aunt (mothers sister she says).

He takes her on a trip to a local store for food and she freaks out on the way (more evidence of a badly written typically hysterical 50's female role), Rogan also manages to freak her out by showing her a box of "Atomic Suds" washing powder just to reinforce her stereotype a bit further. After pouring out his heart about how he hated New York back at the house he assumes a lot and tries to impose himself on Roseanne leaving her crying hysterically over her dead husband Steven.

Roseanna does start to look visibly pregnant but no mention is made of her condition, Rogan just refers to "it" as though he can't even bring himself to either say baby or pregnant. After telling her the world and everyone in it are dead they both hear a car horn beeping and run to the road to find 2 more men in a jeep who turn out to be Oliver P. Barnstable (thats not how he pronouces it though, who was a former bank cashier) and Charles (who I assumed isn't introduced to the pregnant white lady on account of him being a Negro but was possibly a security guard or commissionaire judging by his unform) who both survived the bombs because they'd been locked in the banks vault.

We don't find out Charles' name until a little later that evening and he politely always refers to Roseanne as Ma'am acting in a very subserviant way reflecting the mood of the time this was made (1951) and no-one ever thinks to ask Charles his surname but Roseanne does ask if he had a family. The conversation between Roseanne & Barnstable shows he hasn't accepted his situation and still thinks everything will return to normal, his comment about his injuries is a rather clear sign of radiation sickness though.

Rogan makes the same diagnosis citing images of Hiroshima as his information source which leaves both him & Charles to start checking themselves for similar symptoms. Rogan & Charles discuss the possibility of getting a generator and Roseanne informs them Barnstaple is awake and wishes to go to the ocean. After the group travel there Rogan asks Roseanne when shes due to give birth (He can't even bring himself to ask that much, just saying "when does" and trailing off there) but she's not sure and thinks 3 months maybe (again reinforcing her as a sterotypically dumb '50s woman).

Whilst reminiscing on the beach they witness a man washed up on the shore who Rogan & Charles drag out of the sea as he is unconcious. After recovering he tells us (in an incredibly silly and impossible to place accent) that he was on Everest, stranded for 5 days before descending and crossing Asia then sailing to Hawaii (thats a journey of over 7000 miles as the crow flies according to Google Earth) before flying a plane to America that ran out of fuel. After finishing his story Charles calls them over to reveal Barnstable had died.

We finally discover our newest group member is called Eric (Roseanne calls him by his name as she is tending to him) and Charles reveals their attempts at agriculture have been successful (In a great goof you can clearly hear birds singing in the background despite the fact that Roseanne had clearly said there were no birds or animals left alive in the previous scene mere moments before).

Charles & Rogan further progress by succeeding with their generator project providing them with music and light but Eric never works and thinks he is above the rest of the group calling the food they eat "swill" (His accent constantly comes as goes as well). Eric also questions why they are all alive (clearly he'd never been told Rogan was aboard an elevator in the middle of The Empire State Building so he'd have the thickness of both building and elevator & shaft to protect him, pretty logical really) stating immunity from the radiation saved them offering a glimmer of hope that others may have also survived.

Rogan tries to act as the logical voice of reason but Eric plays the emotion card stating Roseanne needs to know if her husband is alive or not. After Rogan storms out Charles wonders about travelling to the city as well and Eric reveals he is an ignorant bigot and attacks Charles (which injures Roseane sending her into what I assume was an incredibly badly acted early labour).

After a stormy night we have a wonderful dawn as Charles cites his creation story which ends hearing by a babies crying as the 1st child born into the new world is a boy and Roseanne procrastinates about naming him until she discovers the fate of his probably dead father.

Eric returns from his extremely short self imposed exile acting as though nothing has happened and tries to ingratiate himself with Roseanne by bringing her gifts, claims his actions were caused by tension and promises to help with repairs but returns to his lazy ways doing nothing as Rogan works.

Rogan tries again to discuss having a relationship with Roseanne, a conversation ended by them seeing a vulture flying in the sky (I assume it was a vulture from Rogans "filthy scavengers" comment) and we discover Eric has destroyed their attempt to grow crops (Charles tells Rogan but they choose to keep the information from Roseanne) and Rogan confronts him telling him to leave.

Eric reveals he has a gun and says he'll go when he wants to. Roseanne finally accepts her feelings for Rogan but calls him Steven as they are in a passionate embrace before realising her faux pas and leaving him looking like a lemon. Eric calls on Roseanne in the night and cons her into going with him by saying he doesn't know what her husband looks like (so the writer very convienently forgot the photograph Rogan found?) by playing off her emotions of Rogans desire to not leave.

Charles discovers Eric leaving & is murdered by Eric and it appears Roseanne had named her baby calling him Tony as she soothes him. Rogan discovers the body of Charles and the empty house with a note left by Roseanne. As they drive through the city she is haunted by the sound of sirens (imagined in her head I assumed to yet further reinforce her role as hopeless woman but they appeared to be real and must have been severly sapping whatever powered them).

She enters the building where her husband works (and we finally discover her surname is Rogers almost 2/3's of the way into the movie!) but she finds his office empty, she also returns to the hospital where she was getting her x-rays and we see a mark of the era as she is listed as "Mrs Steven Rogers" and not under her own name. She eventually discovers a body in the hospital waiting room and Eric reveals his true colours showing his impatience (stupidly asking "where have you been" knowing full well what the answer was) and showing off stolen jewellery to try and impress her.

He tells her his true motivation and she starts to walk away but when he runs after her she tears his shirt revealing he is suffering from radiation sickness causing him to freak out & abandon her completely. Roseanne starts back to the house on foot travelling for several days and I'm not exactly sure what causes her to start ripping off the babies clothes but I assume it was because he had died (from the radiation in the city or the water she was feeding him).

She does finally meet back up with Rogan who finds her sitting on the road rocking the baby in a rainstorm and she tells him the baby is dead. They return to the house and bury him next to Charles and the film just tails off after she goes to help him in their garden with another Bible quote "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, And there shall be now more death, No more sorrow, No more tears. Behold! I make all things new" (Revelation 21).

Its not a great ending to a particularly good movie with far too many sterotypes and rather badly written roles for all involved. Worth a look at how 50's America felt and thought even if they are all rather outdated ideas & concepts now.