Five Minutes to Live (Door-to-Door Maniac) (1961)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Johnny Cash-An Anthology, Pickup On South Street Trailer-Panic In The Streets, Pulp Cinema
Rating
Year Of Production	1961
Running Time	74:27
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Bill Karn
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Johnny Cash Donald Woods Cay Forrester Pamela Mason Vic Tayback Ron Howard Merle Travis Midge Ware Norma Varden Leslie Kimmell Marge Waller Patricia Lynn Frances Flower
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Gene Kauer

    Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) concocts a scheme to rob $70,000 from a bank. With the help of bowling alley manager Max (Merle Travis) he enlists the aid of a psycho killer named Johnny Cabot (Johnny Cash). The plan is to hold Nancy Wilson (Cay Forester) hostage, and force her husband Ken (Donald Woods), an executive at the local bank, to simply hand the money over to Dorella. Dorella's plan involves calling Cabot every five minutes or Mrs Wilson gets it.

    One wonders whether this low-budget drive-in fodder was the inspiration for that big Irish bank robbery a year or so ago. Even if it wasn't, it is clear that the Irish executed the plan with greater efficiency and success. They should have been called in to make this film as well. While it is not the worst movie I have ever seen, or even the worst I have reviewed for this site, it is laughably bad. The direction is terrible. There are long scenes that drag on and on without generating the suspense that they should. There is some terrible acting: witness the overplaying of the bank guard in the closing minutes. But even he is not as poor as Cash, who seems very uncomfortable. Donald Woods, a leading man of the 1930s, is adequate as the bank executive, but at 57 he is far too old for the role. His bit on the side is played by Pamela Mason, then wife of James Mason. And the Wilson's young son Bobby is played by none other than Ronnie (now Ron) Howard.

    The plot is badly worked out as well. It's the sort of movie that is almost so bad that it's good. I found myself laughing out loud in inappropriate places because of the dialogue or the acting or both. If you like really bad movies, you might get a kick out of this. If you are a Johnny Cash fan, well, he sings a bit. The movie is also known as Door-to-Door Maniac, which was the title when it was reissued in 1966.

Video

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.29:1, this movie seems to have been filmed in 1.37:1.

    This is not a very good transfer. It looks like an NTSC to PAL conversion, with the associated lack of detail and blurriness. It could also be the result of a transfer from an old 16mm TV print. I suspect that both scenarios may be the case. Contrast and shadow detail are both poor. Black levels are reasonably solid but there is more black than there should be. Whites are quite washed out, and bright objects in bright light lack any detail.

    There are a lot of film artefacts, including scratches, marks, dirt and assorted debris. There is some mild aliasing.

    The disc is single-layered and there are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

    This is a fairly average audio track. There is some hiss, and there is some crackling, especially at the beginning of the film. Dialogue is clear enough, unfortunately as it turns out. Audio sync seems to be spot on.

    There is a fairly mediocre music score which has the distinction of Johnny Cash singing the title song. He does so over the credits and then again as he torments Mrs Wilson. It is not a bad song, much in the Cash style.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

    The menu has the title song playing in the background.

Theatrical Trailer (1:00)

    An original trailer that must have had patrons running to the cinemas, or more likely away from them.

Trailer-Johnny Cash-An Anthology, Pickup On South Street, Panic In The Streets, Pulp Cinema (8:10)

    Trailers for other Umbrella releases.

    There is a US Region 1 release from Something Weird Video which is probably coded for all regions. I have not been able to find any information about the quality of this release, so I will have to rate this a draw.

    A laughably bad exploitation film that will be of interest to students of bad movies and Johnny Cash fans only.

    The video quality is quite poor.

    The audio quality is average.

    No serious extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall