A different way of telling a story

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Anthony Perkins does an effective almost like continuation of the Norman Bates character in this 1962 film. Sophia Loren is equally effective doing a Norma Desmond crack-up like character in the film as well.Misdeed comes to the unhappily married couple when the plane Perkins is flying on crashes and he is thrown from the plane and survives. No one has to notice that so he literally returns from the dead and plots with Loren to get the insurance money. He promises her her freedom from him, only to go back on his word when she finally gets the money by saying that after all she lied and signed papers to get the money.Gig Young is the reporter she meets earlier after he takes over the apartment of Jean Pierre Aumont who is fortunate enough to exit this film quite early.Everyone is dancing about twisting in the era of the twist and there is that obnoxious little boy, a neighbor from quite the way, who sees Perkins and tries to be his friend.

***SPOILERS*** Transplanted former US airman Robert Macklin, Anthony Perkins, and his sexy Italian wife Lisa, Sophia Loren, have been having their material problems in the city of lights Paris France with Robert suspecting his wife of cheating on him. It's not that Robert's suspicions are unfounded in that Lisa has been having an affair with American newspaper reporter Alan Stewart, Jean-Pierrie Aumont, whom she plans to take off with after a divorce from a very reluctant Robert. Robert knows what he's got, ultra sexy film star Sophia Loren, and isn't that willing to give her up without a fight!It's then that two things happen in the film that changes it's entire completion or storyline. Alan is transfered back to New York City and Robert is killed in a plane crash on his way to Casablanca for a job interview! Or so it seems!As things turn out Alan is replaced by his newspaper by David Barnes, Gig Young, who's even more hotter for Lisa then even Alan or her late husband Robert is. As for Robert he somehow survived the plane crash, by landing on his head, when he was flung from the aircraft before it hit the ground! Coming back home to as shocked Lisa, who felt that she finally was rid of him, Robert forces her to file a life insurance claim for $120,000.00 that Robert made out for himself before he boarded the doomed plane. Despite having all the cards in her favor, all she had to do is go the the insurance company and tell them that her dead husband was in fact alive, Lisa does as Robert asks her to do thus making herself an accomplice in Robert's issuance fraud scheme! As for the dying to jump into the sack with Lisa David Barnes he in his sniffing out her apartment, as well as Lisa herself, comes to the realization that Robert is in fact alive and plans to use that information to get Lisa to go on a date with him just to start the ball, in finally getting her to say "I Do", rolling!***SPOILERS**** You would have expected more form a movie with top stars like Sophia Loren Anthony Perkins and Gig Young in it but it comes across like a run of the mill made for TV cheesy forbidden romance revenge flick! You would have at least expected at one time in the movie, just to keep from from nodding off, to see Lisa or Miss Loren take her clothes off and show off her impressive vital statistics, 38-24-37, but she's fully clothes during he entire lengths of the film! All we have left is Lisa trying to somehow get Robert off her back in committing a crime far worse, that can end up getting her shot at sunrise, then the insurance fraud that he was blackmailing her into doing!As for the love sick David Barnes he blows his big chance in getting it on with Lisa by not only finding out her criminal involvement with Robert but having her give herself up to the Paris Police for it! Where in the future the only way David can see her, if in fact she want's to see him, is behind bars on visiting day in prison!

You would think that any thriller beginning with Sophia Loren doing the Twist in a Paris nightclub couldn't be all bad! Unfortunately, the plot mechanisms (and red herrings) of "Five Miles to Midnight" nearly defeat Loren, very good as the put-upon wife of a neurotic who has sneakily walked away from a plane crash, hoping to collect on his flight insurance worth $120,000. Anthony Perkins, more nervous and fey than ever, continually bites his fingernail, his face twitching in possessive jealousy, while we in the audience wait in agony for Loren to come to her senses and put him out of his misery. It's hard to determine which element of the picture is more inappropriate: Perkins' icky Norman Bates-isms, Gig Young's leering, Cheshire Cat-like performance as an ex-detective-turned-newspaper man, or Mikis Theodorakis' insanely 'Parisienne' background music. ** from ****

Anthony Perkins is not exactly the abusive husband type (especially to an ever-beautiful Sophia Loren). Add to it the plot elements of master-minding an insurance fraud, and the odds of good-natured Perkins pulling it off become immeasurable. The sole survivor of a plane crash, Perkins was fortunate to have taken out a special insurance policy (even if the odds of dying in a crash were 1 in 1,000,000). Good wife Loren, already prepared for widowhood by the "news", gets a good shock when Perkins shows up, pressuring Loren to play along with the hoax to collect the insurance money.Although the ending is somewhat of a surprise, the time spent getting there seems like an endless and tiresome walk through the woods, only to arrive at a run down greasy spoon as a reward. Without any frills or glamour, even shot in b&w, this is a less than average vehicle for either of the stars. Look for a young Tommy Norden (of TV's "Flipper" Fame) in a minor role. Otherwise, skip it altogether