Chris Gaskin I have now seen Back From Eternity several times and find it an exiting and gripping thriller.A motley collection of passengers including a young boy, a murderer, an elderly couple and a blonde lass board a dodgy aircraft, not knowing further danger lies ahead when a storm forces the plane to crash land in a very remote and unexplored jungle, inhabited by cannibals! After eventually fixing the aircraft, only 5 of the group will be able to escape...This movie has a great cast with Robert Ryan as the pilot, 1950s glamour queen Anita Eckberg, a great performance by Rod Steiger as the murder and Gene Barry (War of the Worlds).Back From Eternity is well worth a look if you haven't seen it. Excellent.

moonspinner55 Director John Farrow's remake of his well-regarded 1939 adventure "Five Came Back" is generally considered by many film buffs to be not quite as effective the second time around. A small passenger plane bound for South America makes an emergency landing in the jungles of Central America--but, with only one working engine, can only hold five of its passengers for the voyage home. This is the kind of overheated, overexcited actors' piece in which the encroaching head hunters are secondary to the character conflicts happening among the flight crew and guest list; it's also the type of movie where the natives are never seen but we hear their drums getting closer...closer. As a political assassin who holds a gun on the terrified group, Rod Steiger overrides the scenario with his Method acting; snarling and sweating and twisting his mouth, Steiger turns this piece into a one-man showcase, as if he were heading up an acting seminar. Steiger works out not only his demons, but maybe Farrow's as well (the director gives the actor ample room to go into his lunatic arias). None of the other cast members stands a chance against Steiger's scenery-chewing, though Beulah Bondi nearly gives him competition (she's still doing her humble act on a grandiose scale to tug at our heartstrings). There's a child wrapped around Anita Ekberg's neck who doesn't have much to offer (he's used as a prop, much like oldsters Bondi and Cameron Prud'Homme, who seem to have been beamed in from "Playhouse 90"). Even the production is disappointing, with Farrow trying for claustrophobic hysteria but instead getting melodrama in theatrically-cramped quarters. *1/2 from ****

classicsoncall It's been a while since I saw the 1939 original "Five Came Back", but in trying to make a quick mental comparison I don't find much difference between the two pictures. Most of the characters retain the same names, the addition of youngster Tommy Malone (Jon Provost) might be one of the more significant differences. Anita Ekberg as a prostitute heading to Boca Grande comes across a bit more believable than Lucille Ball in the earlier movie. As I mentioned in my review of that one, I thought she was more of a hard luck gal than a hooker but you didn't have to read between any lines regarding Ekberg's Rena character here.Funny, but when I saw Jesse White's name in the cast list, that became one of the draws to catching this one. I didn't think I ever actually saw the long time Maytag repair man in a movie before, but there WAS that Twilight Zone episode (Once Upon a Time) in which he previewed that role. His character here is sort of a guardian for the kid Tommy, who's father made headlines as a gangster who was shot early in the film. I don't know how that scenario had anything to do with anything, other than to make Tommy an orphan and a prime candidate to make it out of the jungle when the plane got fixed.Most of the other characters play out the way they did in "Five Came Back" with the notable inclusion of a cat fight between Ekberg's character and Phyllis Kirk's Louise. As they tumble into a jungle pond, both players emerge laughing it up when co-pilot Joe Brooks (Keith Andes) comes on the scene. Considering how the fight started over Louise's budding romance with Joe, it didn't end up very realistic, but they must have figured the result was so outlandish they couldn't help themselves and it was just left in the story that way.With both pictures, the struggle over who makes it out of the jungle merits kudos for dramatic writing and a thoughtful exploration of character motives. The elder Spangler couple makes a brave decision, as Rod Steiger's Vasquel decides to face the consequences of staying behind in hostile territory. One can conjure up an alternative fate for Vasquel if one so desires, but it's almost certainly his personal sacrifice that inspires the closing moments of the picture.

Jonathon Dabell For a film director to remake one of his own movies is a fairly rare occurrence, but that's not to say it hasn't happened down the years. Cecil B DeMille made two versions of The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956); Alfred Hitchcock made two versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and 1956); The Vanishing was also done twice by George Sluizer (1988 and 1993).Back From Eternity marks the turn of John Farrow to join this select band of movie makers who have remade one of their own pictures. In this case, Farrow resurrects his 1939 philosophical jungle adventure Five Came Back, but his purpose in doing so is never particularly clear. Indeed, in most aspects this film is actually INFERIOR to its predecessor. Yes, there are occasional moving and exciting moments…. but on the whole it should have been a lot better.A plane flying across South America runs into difficulties during a freak storm and crash lands in the jungle. The pilot Bill Lonagan (Robert Ryan) and his co-pilot Joe Brooks (Keith Andes) reckon they can fix the damaged aircraft, at least partially, but unfortunately for the passengers it's not just a simple case of sitting around waiting for the plane to be repaired. Gradually they come to realise that they're in cannibal country, with a tribe of headhunters preparing to close in for the kill. Things get even worse when the pilots announce they'll only be able to take five passengers aboard the plane – any more will make it impossible to take off due to the weakened engines. Tensions boil as the group debate and argue over who should go and who should stay to face horrible and certain death…..Back From Eternity definitely has a strong cast, with Ryan doing solid work as the pilot with a booze addiction and Rod Steiger in splendid form as a Death Row criminal among their number. Keith Andes makes a surprisingly big impression too as the co-pilot who gets involved in a love triangle. The plot automatically throws up fascinating philosophical questions about the value of life. How can you say one life is more precious than another? How would YOU persuade your way aboard the makeshift plane if you were in those circumstances? Is there a purely methodical way of choosing five worthy survivors… and would there be any way of avoiding the inevitable emotional implications when making such a choice? Unfortunately, though, these inherent philosophical ideas don't make for as engrossing a picture as you might expect. Maybe it's the wordy and over-extended script, or maybe it's the silly extraneous details (e.g a needless love triangle, an exploitative female swamp-wrestling scene, etc.), but Back From Eternity just never quite fulfils its potential.