Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Arch Oboler's Five (1951)


The first nuclear apocalypse movie. Five people survive the end of the world, most of it destroyed by radiation rather than the nuclear explosions themselves. There were six people counting the baby, although one of them had died by the time the baby was born.

Arch Oboler was a prolific writer working in radio. He apparently did pretty well for himself---the movie was filmed at his home, Cliff House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He wrote the short radio drama, "The Chicken Heart", another end of the world story.

Had a bit more diversity in the cast than you'd normally see. It had a Black guy, a Nazi and a polite older guy. But it was four men and one woman. And a baby.

It was better than I expected. I thought it would be a poor man's Day the World Ended, the Roger Corman movie made years later. It was dialogue driven, not surprising in a movie made by a radio guy.


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