FIVE (1951) - February 24, 2021 - Imprint Films

[DawnShadow]

A WORLDWIDE FIRST ON BLU-RAY!
Intriguing, offbeat film by famed radio writer-director Arch Oboler about the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. FIVE stars William Phipps, Susan Douglas and Charles Lampkin, and is probably the first film to deal with a post-apocalyptic theme.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

NEW 2K scan from the original negative
NEW Audio Commentary by film historians Glenn Erickson & Matthew Rovner (2020)
NEW Kim Newman Interview on “Five” (2020)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono
Optional English subtitles
Theatrical Trailer
Limited Edition slipcase on the first 1500 copies
This is a pre-order title and will be dispatched in the week leading up to its February 24th release date. Special features and artwork subject to change.

Imprint No 33

Pre-order : https://viavision.com.au/shop/five-1951/

[Zarak]

This was an immediate preorder for me. I've had this DVD on my wishlist for literally years and am a big fan of nuclear holocaust movies, so the Impulse Blu-ray release pushed me over the edge to actually buy it.

The movie would make a great double feature with The World, The Flesh and the Devil, because both movies are "last man" films that address racial issues.

Of the five people who remain in the world in Five, one is hopelessly deluded (the banker) and two are creeps (the woman and the explorer). The ending was unsatisfying to me, because an undeserving person is one of the two survivors, but I'm trying not to spoil the film.

The movie is a great example of an early '50s film with ridiculous overheated speeches that are supposed to pass for dialogue. As a morality play, it gets its point across only partially, because of the morally ambivalent ending, but as a drama, it succeeded in keeping me cursing at the screen for half the movie, so I guess that's something.

[bagdul]

Just watched this. An expensive purchase but happy to finally get to see it. I am a little disappointed on the lack of restoration. Not more than a minute total I think screen has static dirt and lines. Should not have been a huge effort to clean it up. Movie was better than I expected so happy anyway.

[Show spoiler] Sad to see the european the bad guy though.

[DawnShadow]

Put [spooiler] at the start and [/spooiler] at the end

(Except spell spoiler correctly without the extra o)

[bagdul]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

Put [spooiler] at the start and [/spooiler] at the end

(Except spell spoiler correctly without the extra o)

Fixed! Thank you!

[Pumpkinhead]

Interesting range of opinion regarding the picture quality. I thought it was superb, and the manufacturer claims they've provided a 2K scan from the original negative for this release. It certainly looked that way to me; as a matter of fact, this is the best Imprint title so far IMO, the problematic WAR OF THE WORLDS transfer provided by Paramount aside. Meanwhile, the reviewer here insists "an older transfer" was used for FIVE, apparently dismissing the official Imprint claim outright, without even mentioning what he clearly believes is false advertising. For what it's worth, FIVE never looked better, and it has all the characteristics of an impressive negative scan. Your move.

[Davidian]

BDinfo:

Disc Title: Five
Disc Label: FIVE
Disc Size: 31,560,518,456 bytes
Protection: AACS
Playlist: 00002.MPLS
Size: 25,393,809,408 bytes
Length: 1:31:00.997
Total Bitrate: 37.20 Mbps
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video / 32978 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio: English / LPCM Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /  2304 kbps / 24-bit
Audio: English / Dolby Digital Audio / 2.0 / 48 kHz /   224 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitle: English / 16.016 kbps

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by bagdul

Just watched this. An expensive purchase but happy to finally get to see it. I am a little disappointed on the lack of restoration. Not more than a minute total I think screen has static dirt and lines. Should not have been a huge effort to clean it up. Movie was better than I expected so happy anyway.

[Show spoiler] Sad to see the european the bad guy though.

They often are in real life

[bagdul]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

They often are in real life

Especially imports.

[DawnShadow]

For anyone who hasn’t grabbed this yet, might be worth jumping on it. Sold out at Imprint, no click and collect available at JB Hi-Fi (meaning limited stock) and only 8 copies are available at Amazon US.