Five Miles to Midnight

1962 1h 50m English 6.2

Action, Crime, Drama

In Paris, Italian Lisa Macklin tells her husband, American Bob Macklin, just before he heads off on a business trip to Casablanca that she plans to divorce him in she classifying their relationship as a nurse mother taking care of a spoiled little boy. Their problems are punctuated by his abuse of her, both physical and emotional. That divorce does not occur as his flight crashes in southwest France killing all on board. Three days after the funeral, Lisa discovers that Bob, ejected from the plane as it crashed, survived, he, slightly injured, able to make his way back to their apartment without detection. The reason for the secrecy is that he wants her to collect his life insurance for him after which he will leave her life, ostensibly giving her that "divorce" while he gets rich in the process. His plan is to hide out in their apartment until the money arrives. But one delay after another in the process leads to both Lisa and Bob having to endure their time together much longer than anticipated. The pressures that build up between them is only exacerbated by the possibility of someone detecting him in the apartment, and American David Barnes, new to the neighborhood, wanting to get to know newly "widowed" Lisa in an intimate sense.—Huggo