5 Against the House

source: 5 Against the House

This film is mediocre at best. Easily the best thing about it is the luscious Kim Novak. The next best thing is Brian Keith, who does a good job with a character that is not drawn quite clearly enough. His back story is simply painted with brush strokes that are too broad to really clarify the ebb and flow of his tormented character's motivations. But both Novak and Keith turn in decent performances in a forgettable film. The first half of the film is like a fore-runner of Animal House, featuring 4 wisecracking law students. Some of the lines (especially their overtures to the ladies) are really quite entertaining. It is kind of a mystery to me why I didn't find them funnier. Perhaps because the characters take themselves just a little too seriously - not quite tongue-in-cheek? Perhaps the absence of a mood-setting soundtrack? Anyhow, some of the dialog makes this part of the film rather interesting as a light comedy. Then everything shifts into pseudo-thriller mode for the second half of the movie. All of the repartee is replaced with dialog about the "fool-proof" plan to rob a casino in Reno. This, too is described in the broadest of terms, so that you don't really have any clear idea of this great, "foolproof" plan until it is actually unfolding. After the buildup, I was expecting something pretty slick and elaborate (in fact, the film seems to also vaguely foreshadow Ocean's Eleven). Boy, was I disappointed! The "foolproof" plan is laughable. It isn't foolproof but foolhardy! It is totally incapable of deceiving anybody in the casino - but, of course it does. Casino security men, behind two-way mirrors in the ceiling are oblivious to the fact that their money man on the floor is being escorted everywhere by the same 3 "cowboys." And they fail to notice the introduction of a second money cart while the first is "parked" at a blackjack table and left unattended. The fact that the money man just pushes his cart around, unguarded, in a crowded casino to begin with is just absurd! This movie would have been much better if it had been a light comedy from beginning to end rather than attempting to switch genres in the middle. Actually, the absolute best thing about this film is the casino's pick-and-pull car "parking" mechanism. I guess such things actually existed... Truly a thing to behold!

Kim Novak is of course terrific (she rarely phoned one in), and it's an interesting pre-star turn, meaning before PICNIC and VERTIGO, but the rest of the cast is pretty interesting, and particularly Brian Keith---Keith did a lot of 50's B-picture work that's worth watching, if you can find it. The real reason to see this picture is because it's a Phil Karlson. Karlson is one of those guys like Don Siegel, who came up in the studio system just before television. Early live TV produced people like Frankenheimer and Arthur Penn and Paddy Chayevsky, but there were already guys in the trenches like Siegel and Karlson, who got the chance to direct because they could do it quick and cheap, but make a picture look like it didn't come from Poverty Row. (See, for example, Clint Eastwood's PLAY MISTY FOR ME. Eastwood got his shot by rock-bottom budgeting, a lesson he might have learned from Siegel.) Karlson is due for a re-evaluation, along with, say, Budd Boetticher and Burt Kennedy. Siegel seems to be getting his due, not that he couldn't use an occasional boost. But watch this, and maybe THE PHENIX CITY STORY (not a misspelling), and tell me Karlson can't do it tense.

These guys are hardly college aged. They look like they are all middle aged. The film is rather dopey. The dialog is so dated. The print I saw this on was strange. Not sure if it was from the restoration, but it was clean with an odd transparent pebbly overlay. I read good things about the movie, but found it rather dull. The exposition, where we learn about the main characters is excruciatingly boring. Then you're never really clued into why these old clowns want to heist a casino. They just seem to do it. Not a great film.

This movie, 5 Against the House, had an interesting tag line which is why I saw it. However, I found that the build up of the story line and the build up of the characters took forever! Once the plot got going though, about thirty-five minutes in, the story took off from there and held my attention until the end. This movie is good if you are looking for an obscure film noir to view, other than that, pass on it.

This is a Columbia picture starring, according to the credits, Kim Novak, Guy Madison, Brian Keith, Kerwin Matthews and Alvy Moore It also throws in William Conrad, later of Cannon TV fame. The film begins with four ex-army buddies on a visit to a casino town, who both there and later back at college, spend much of their time wisecracking. But Keith exhibits his 'psycho' tendencies in a night club brawl and we learn that these were induced by his experiences in the Korean War. Then its back to college where a fresher (Jack Dimond) is the butt of some humorous pranks. In the second half of the picture the emphasis changes to thriller as three of the four plan a supposedly foolproof heist at a casino, but intend to return the money, having once proved it can be done. Keith is however back in violent mode and Madison and girlfriend Novak are forced to become unwilling participants in the robbery. Conrad, as a casino employee, is induced at gunpoint to help with the heist and the strong wartime links between the four are put under great strain. This picture is neither one thing nor another and those led to expect a light hearted heist film by its early light hearted approach will be surprised at how it turns out. Worth seeing for an early Kim Novak role and for a heist picture set in Reno and not Las Vegas.

Uneven heist film. Making 30-somethings Madison and Keith into college students is a bit of a stretch. But I guess pairing them with the youthful Moore and Mathews presented a problem that a college dorm room could solve. Screenplay is by the celebrated TV writer Stirling Silliphant who, nonetheless, can't seem to script a line without a wise-guy quip. It's clever, but does get tiresome. The movie has two things going for it. First is an absolutely superb performance by Brian Keith. Few actors could get more mileage out of a squint and a cigarette than this low-key tough guy. His final descent into battle-shock madness is both persuasive and oddly touching. The entire movie turns on an ability to convey the required changes and he brings them off beautifully. The other plus is the location photography in Reno. It's entertaining to watch the crowds milling around the casinos, circa 1955. How the production crew got the crowds to act so natural, without acknowledging the camera, amounts to a real feat. Also, the parking garage makes for good staging, but apparently is a commercial novelty that never caught on. At the time, Columbia's head Harry Cohn was promoting Novak into the studio's newest sex goddess. Novak is okay in the role, but unfortunately her scenes with Madison slow down the pacing. Her role here looks like a rather awkward add-on to the main plot. In fact the heart of the film is neither the casino heist nor the Madison-Novak romance. Rather, the emotional center is the solid bond between the two Korean war vets. The chemistry between the two older men strongly portrays the kind of special kinship forged only in combat Certainly director Phil Karlson knows his way around action movies as proved by his gripping Phenix City Story. I suspect that had he a freer hand here, a leaner, sharper, more coherent movie would have resulted. As it is, the 90 minutes is entertaining, but not front rank. As a heist movie, it's so-so; as a buddy film, it's first rate. (In passing-- Looks like the producers of Oceans 11 {1960} sat through this film more than once.)

5 Against the House (1955) Let's try to give this the best angle: the last half hour is terrific. Before that is a lot of off and on development. The four hapless, likable college chaps are a kind of wobbly precursor to the "Ocean's Eleven," the 1960 casino classic (also a bit wobbly, actually, if you watch it again, but still a classic). The casino where this one begins is a vintage gem, an old style, small town joint (Reno, in 1955, was a small city), with guns on the wall and general lack of swank. It's great. And there's Kim Novak, not for her appearance or her singing (both were soon to be talked about), but simply for her screen presence, her higher level of professionalism. And she sings to some smooth easy band music. Novak was almost unknown--she had appeared in a sleeper noir called "Pushover" the previous year, but it was later in 1955 she starred in her breakout films, "Pal Joey" and "The Man with the Golden Arm". Finally, among the four lead males, Brian Keith, mostly known for decades of television work, is a surprisingly powerful figure, making the most of what he has to work with. That's the extent of it, and Novak can't hold up the whole movie (especially all the parts she's not in--her role is relatively small). The chummy joking between the boys is weak stuff, including the college scenes, but these are meant to tap into the growing collegiate population (a full decade after WWII, college was becoming a far more normal step after high school). The initial crime incident with its interaction with the cops is patently unconvincing. And then there is the way the movie is patched together in separate segments. The first, fun road trip suddenly turns into a series of unexplained romances, which leads to the main plot again. Why is this considered a film noir? Well, it actually has one key element, the soldier returned from war trying to cope with American mainstream life, only now the war is the Korean War, which changes both the romance and depth of the situation, at least historically. And there is, eventually, a full blown criminal aspect. In fact, the last half hour is tightly made, and if the gimmick is a bit of a stretch, it's all well done, and even if you don't like the movie overall, you'll really find the ending has a great feel to it, with lots of great night stuff. Reno back then was a neon wonderland, very cool!

5 Against The House is a stylish noir caper film that involves four Korean War Veterans and the girl friend of one of them in a heist against a Reno casino. It was directed by Phil Karlson and while it's a bit slow in developing when the action starts, it builds up to a good climax. The four veterans are Guy Madison, Alvy Moore, Kerwin Matthews, and Brian Keith. They're in college on the GI Bill of Rights and being a bit older than the other students there and with a shared wartime bonding, they kind of keep to themselves. After a night in Reno where they overhear an arresting cop with a suspect who tried to rob Harold's club there saying how impossible it was. That gives Kerwin Matthews who's the genius of the group an idea to plan the perfect crime. The others mean it as a prank to give the money back, but Keith is not a well man having spent some time in the psycho ward at the Veteran's Administration. He means to keep the money and he brings a long a pistol to enforce his argument. It's hard for Madison to say no to Keith, he saved his life in Korea. But Madison who is also romantically involved with Kim Novak resents her being roped in on the scheme. Best in the film is Brian Keith who does a very good job in suggesting a fundamentally decent man who's been unhinged by his wartime experiences. You have to understand that in order to understand why the film ended as it did. Novak looks fetching and lovely as always and gets a couple of inconsequential songs to sing, no doubt dubbed as they were in Pal Joey. 5 Against The House did no harm to any of the careers among the cast here. Especially that of Kim Novak who was being prepped to take Rita Hayworth's spot as Columbia Picture's new sex goddess.

The last 25 minutes are good, since this is considered a film noir, but the first hour of this movie is pretty lame. Make that "very lame." It's as if they tried to make a comedy about this heist story. Some of the dialog is humorous and clever but most of it is just plain dumb. Why Columbia Pictures added this to their excellent "Film Noir Volume One" set is beyond me. It's the only poor movie in the package. One of the few redeeming qualities of the movie, at least for us males, is a chance to ogle Kim Novak, who began to make a name for herself the year this film came out. Brian Keith is fairly intense as "Brick," the ex-Korean soldier with mental problems but even he is fairly boring most the movie. The rest of the cast looks and sounds more "Gilligan's Island" than actors in a supposed film noir. It was doubly surprising because director Phil Karlson didn't usually offer up "fluff" like this. This light-hearted wink-wink comedy-drama was not his normal style.