Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Mabel Munoz 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?

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

newslogger44 A passable 1956 film which just happened to be Barbara Eden's (of TV's "I Dream of Genie" fame) first onscreen appearance (all of ten seconds, so don't blink!) as a reporter.For the curiosity of aircraft buffs, the first plane shown leaving the U.S. and arriving in Panama is a four-engine Douglas DC-4 of the then-fictitious "PSA Airlines" which (coincidentally?) became an actual airline company in 1995.The second aircraft leaving Panama for the fictitious nation of "Boca Grande, Pararico", South America is a twin-engine DC-2, registration number N39165 and according to Google sources may well still be in use, although likely for a flying club for vintage craft airshows. Search in airport-data dot com.Also fictitious for the film's purposes was the presumably Panamanian (or other foreign) "Aerea Pan Latina" or "PLA", "Pan Latina Airways" as painted on the DC-2's body. However, this plane could not have been legally registered as N39165 since Panamanian aircraft of that era would have have had an HP prefix followed by three numbers, i.e. HP001-HP999; all N-prefix registration numbers being within the U.S.A.

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 ****

Gunn I've been waiting for years for "Back from Eternity" to come out on DVD. It, along with many other older movies, is on my Website King Spud's Movie & TV Pages on my Up to the Minute Page. For a time many films on my List were coming out on DVD, but of late nothing, save The African Queen has been released. Back from Eternity is an absolutely terrific little film, albeit a B movie. It has an excellent cast led by Robert Ryan and Rod Steiger in an early role. The rest of the cast are doing some of their best work, Beulah Bondi, Cameron PrudHomme, Jesse White, Phyllis Kirk, Gene Barry, Fred Clark, little Jon Provost and especially Keith Andes, who makes one wonder why he wasn't a bigger star. This is an edge of your seat film, a real nail-biter. The tension builds as the pilots and passengers scuttle to repair the downed plane's engine while the danger of an attack by Jivaro headhunters increases. A fine score by the great Franz Waxman also helps elevate this film to almost classic stature. I saw it as a kid and never forgot it. After all these years it was great to see it has held up to all my expectations of its thrills.

jotix100 It's hard to imagine what attracted John Farrow into remaking his own "Five Came Back", which was good. By updating the story to 1956, nothing really was improved, although the film is good to watch because of the performances Mr. Farrow was able to get from this cast.The first part of the film brings together all the characters into a small airport where they are preparing to embark for another point in South America. The flight is commandeered by Bill Lonagan, who is a strange man that seems to be going through a rough patch in his life. The co-pilot is Joe Brooks, a young man who doesn't trust the older captain.The passengers are an assortment of characters that have been put together by fate, or so it seems. There is the beautiful Rena, who is going to work in a casino. The Spanglers, a professor and his wife who are on a studying trip. Then there is Jud Ellis and Louise, who are going to Brazil, but have missed their flight and are forced to go on the PAL flight. We also find Pete who is taking a young boy, Tommy, the son of a mobster, to his mother and a prisoner, Vasquel, being taken by his guard.When the flight develops problems, the captain makes the decision to land the plane in a valley in the middle of a jungle. While on the ground, they realize the plane has been greatly damaged and all try to put it back in service. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by an Indian tribe that is not kind to their invasion.The film is interesting to watch because of Robert Ryan and Rod Steiger, who as Lonegan and Vasquel do excellent work for Mr. Farrow. There is an ensemble kind of playing in general by the supporting players making the film better than what it could have been and it holds the viewer's attention.A film to be seen as a curiosity.