Five Minutes to Live

1961
X
1h 15m

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

Cay Forester and Johnny Cash in Five Minutes to Live (1961)

In this classic crime noir thriller, country music legend Johnny Cash (in his film debut) stars as Johnny Cabot, a violent, guitar playing ex-con who gets another chance at the big money when a notorious gangster (Fred Dorella) offers to bring him in on a bank heist. While Dorella holds up the bank, Cabot, pretending to be an insurance salesman, kidnaps the wife of the bank's vice-president, holding her for ransom. Simmering sexual tension soon develop as a demented Cabot makes advances toward the housewife - in true pulp style, he forces her to dress in a negligee while singing the song "Five Minutes to Live" (written by Cash).

Play trailer0:53

1 Video

60 Photos

Crime Drama Music Thriller

A murderous thug and his cohorts take a bank executive's wife hostage after their robbery plans go awry.A murderous thug and his cohorts take a bank executive's wife hostage after their robbery plans go awry.A murderous thug and his cohorts take a bank executive's wife hostage after their robbery plans go awry.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

1.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 0:53

Trailer

Photos60

+ 56

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Also known as "Door-To-Door Killer."

Goofs
Johnny is seen using a suppressor on his revolver; this is a common mistake in films, as the gap between the cylinder and barrel renders a suppressor mostly ineffective.

Quotes
Johnny Cabot: I like a messy bed.

Connections
Edited into The Clock (2010)

Soundtracks
Five Minutes To Live
Written by Johnny Cash
Sung by Johnny Cash (uncredited)
Solo Guitar by Merle Travis (as Merl Travis)

User reviews41

Featured review

6/10

Nasty Thriller With -- Wait: Vic Tayback, Ron Howard, and Johnny Cash?

This is a tough little movie. It would work quite well without names. But let's face it: The leading man is the draw. Johnny Cash, in 1961, looking a little like Elvis, as a ruthless killer. A killer, to be sure, who sings the title song and whom we see playing guitar.

Donald Woods is a dead ringer for the Darren character in "Bewitched." He is a complacent suburban dad. Cay Forrester is just right as his upwardly mobile blonde wife. Ron Howard is very cute as their son. (And Pamela Mason turns in a good acting job but is a little implausible as Woods's mistress.) Before he got the job cooking for Alice, Tayback was apparently a crook. A pretty mean one, at that. And here, he has hired Cash to hold banker Woods's wife hostage. (Before he takes the job, Cash has to dump his girlfriend, the greedy Doris, AKA Dory.) For an obviously low budget movie, this does its job neatly. And it holds up very well 45 years after it was released.