A taut thriller, "Hell's Five Hours" chills to the bone, by telling a tale about a disgruntled ex-employee planning revenge on the last place he worked, to wit a giant military plant lying next to an unremarkable and unsuspecting town. In doing so, the movie points out that it might not be a good idea to build a hugely dangerous installation next to an unremarkable and unsuspecting town.
Released in the late '50s when paranoia about thermonuclear annihilation was running rampant through America, Hell's Five Hours looks not at Communist operators but at a disturbed individual with access to one installation of the nation's military-industrial complex. It's set at night, in cozy Meritville, a little town whose chief employer is a huge and ominous rocket-fuel plant (in an expressionist touch, it registers as a looming bank of lights in the dark distance).
I saw "Hell's Five Hours" in theatrical release, and I recall that it actually drew audience applause at its conclusion. Vic Morrow, three years after "Blackboard Jungle", is perfectly cast.
,_in_Misbehaving_Husbands.jpg)
.jpg)
