Five Miles to Midnight [Le couteau dans la plaie] ** (1962, Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Gig Young) – Classic Movie Review 11,541

Anatole Litvak’s flashy, slickly shot 1962 thriller film Five Miles to Midnight stars alluring Sophia Loren and Anthony Perkins at the height of their fame.

Director Anatole Litvak’s 1962 Franco-Italian international co-production drama film Five Miles to Midnight [Le couteau dans la plaie] stars Sophia Loren, Anthony Perkins, Gig Young and Jean-Pierre Aumont.

Five Miles to Midnight is a muddled, contrived-seeming thriller that lives up to the promise of its intriguingly daft title about jittery American husband Robert Macklin (Perkins, in another version of his Norman Bates Psycho-style acting) who tells lovely Italian wife Lisa Macklin (Loren) to hide him so that she can collect the life insurance when he is reported killed a plane crash, though in fact he is its sole survivor.

Some nervous style is evident in both the flashy film-making method and in the oddly twitchy, over-the-top performances. And it’s a film that does have the confidence of its absurdities. It mainly takes place in Paris. The slick cinematography is by Henri Alekan, unexpectedly shooting in black and white.

It is produced through Filmsonor SA, Dear Film Produzione and Mercury, and distributed by United Artists.

It is produced by Litvak and Louis Wipf from a screenplay by Peter Viertel and Hugh Wheeler with dialogue by Maurice Druon, based on an idea by André Versini. The score is by Mikis Theodorakis, with music by Jacques Loussier and Giuseppe Mengozzi.

Also cast are Gig Young as David Barnes, Jean-Pierre Aumont as Alan Stewart, Yolande Turner as Barbara Ford, Tommy Norden as Johnny, Pascale Roberts as The Streetwalker, Mathilde Casadesus as Mme Duval the Concierge, Billy Kearns as Captain Wade, Barbara Nicot, Louis Falavigna, Sophie Real, Jean Ozenne, Clément Haran, and Nicholas Vogel.

Five Miles to Midnight [Le couteau dans la plaie] is directed by Anatole Litvak, runs 110 minutes, is made by Filmsonor SA, Dear Film Produzione and Mercury, is released by United Artists, is written by Maurice Druon, André Versini, Peter Viertel and Hugh Wheeler, is shot by Henri Alekan, is produced by Anatole Litvak and Louis Wipf, and is scored by Mikis Theodorakis, Jacques Loussier and Giuseppe Mengozzi.

Release date: 12 December 1962 (France).

Le couteau dans la plaie translates as The Knife in the Wound, which really would have been a much better English title.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,541

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