Movie Time: Five Minutes to Live

It's Movie Time! 

Today's cinema themed post takes us back to 1961 for a crime thriller that features the film debut of Johnny Cash.

You mean "Ring of Fire" Johnny Cash?

"I Walk the Line" Johnny Cash?

That Johnny Cash?

Yep, that Johnny Cash. 

And get a load of this: he plays a psycho-killer!! 

Not Johnny Cash?

Yep, he does.

From 1961, it's Five Minutes To Live! 

Roll the credits! 

Hey, is that Johnny Cash singing the theme song?

Yes it is! 

Fred Dorella has a plan to rob a bank. 

He's gonna walk into the bank by himself and speak with Ken Wilson, the vice president of the bank who will give him a sack of money and Fred will simply walk out.

Now why will Ken just give Fred a sack full of money?

That's where Johnny Cabot comes in.

Johnny Cabot (played by Johnny Cash) is a high strung psychopath, always teetering on the edge of a violent outburst.

After Ken has gone off to work and little Bobby has scampered off to school, Johnny lures Ken's wife Nancy into her home and holds her hostage with instructions to kill her if Fred doesn't call every five minutes.

After each phone call from Fred, Johnny reminds Nancy she has 5 minutes to live if Fred doesn't call again.

Hey! That's the title of the movie!

Johnny also sings to Nancy part of the theme song too! 

Well, surely Ken won't let Nancy die, right?

Well, it seems that Ken has a mistress he has been scheming to run off with. He's even cooked up a scheme to run off with his girlfriend to Las Vegas but wasn't sure what to do with the wife.

Crazy Cabot putting a bullet between her eyes would solve all sorts of problems.  

Fred had been casing the Wilson household for days and didn't see that twist coming. But he thinks that maybe Ken doesn't have the guts to see through letting Nancy get murdered.

Ken tries to stare down Fred but yeah, he gives in with seconds to spare. 

"Is this over yet?"  
Sorry, Nancy, no it's not.

But Nancy is far from safe.

Johnny Cabot is walking a razor's edge between barely functioning humanity and a murderous psychotic desire to kill... something. Anything.  He may not want to wait for Fred's phone check in.

While quivering with the need to kill this woman, Johnny spends the time tormenting, torturing her and threatening to sexually assault her.  

While he's successful coerced Ken into handing over a sackful of money, Fred's shifty dodgy self has not escaped the notice of Ken's boss who realizes something is up. 

When the boss intervenes, Ken tries to interfere to help Fred escape to keep Nancy alive. But no go! Fred is arrested and Ken is beside himself with worry that Nancy is going to die when Fred does not make his next phone call.

Back home at hostage central, little Bobby comes home for lunch. (OK, he's a little kid. How did he get out of school to come home for lunch?)

Bobby's presence is a trigger for Johnny's anxiety and pyshosis.  Johnny is prepared to kill anyone at anytime but he's got a thing about kids being in danger that really, really upsets him. A lot!

Then the police show up and Johnny just goes total bug nuts, grabs Bobby as a hostage and attempts to flee. 

The police open fire and what the hell? Bobby gets shot and slumps dead to the ground.

You gotta be kidding me! 

Enraged that the kid got killed, Johnny opens fire on the police who return the favor and down goes Johnny Cabot in a hail of bullets, his evil miserable existence brought to an end.

Oh, don't worry about Bobby. He's seen enough crime shows on TV to know to play dead to escape from Johnny.

Oh, what a scamp! 

And the movie ends with Ken and Nancy going away on a romantic getaway to Las Vegas.  (Hey, that's where he was going to take his mistress, right? Yeah, just don't tell Nancy, OK?)

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

The role of Fred Dorella was played by Vic Tayback. Tayback was one of those character actors who was in a lot of things but mostly came to prominence in the 1970's as diner owner Mel in the TV series Alice. But for us sci-fi nerds, Vic Tayback's most memorable role was as mob boss Krako in the Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action") – Jojo Krako

Why does li'l Bobby look and sound like Opie Taylor? Because it's future Oscar winning film director Ron Howard.  Ron steals the movie if you ask me. He's such an adorable li'l scamp.

 After it's initial release in 1961, Five Minutes To Live was released again in 1966 under the title Door To Door Maniac. 

The name Cay Forrester appears twice in the credits, once as an actress in the role of Nancy Wilson and secondly as the film's screenwriter. With roles limited for middle aged women in Hollywood, Cay wrote herself a nice juicy dramatic part as the imperiled Nancy.

And how was Johnny Cash as the murderous psycho maniac Johnny Cabot.  He is sufficiently weird and frightening but I will say it's a good thing he had that music career to fall back on.

Let's wrap things up with a trailer for the film's 1966 Door To Door Maniac re-release.