5 Against The House (Phil Karlson, 1955)

After visiting a Reno casino, four ex-GIs-turned-students, Al (Guy Madison), Ronnie (Kerwin Matthews), Roy (Alvy Moore) and Brick (Brian Keith)  come up with a scheme to rob it. Some want excitement, others think it’s bad idea. But one of the group, Brick (Brian Keith) is determined that they go through with it.

With Al's girlfriend, Kaye (Kim Novak) along for the ride, the group head into Reno to pull off the heist. Will they succeed?

I first heard about this movie from a reference Martin Scorsese made to it in some interview I cannot remember. After his recommendation of Murder by Contract, when this movie showed up online, I had to check it out. In a neat (bit intended) tie-in to my previous reviews, Kerwin Matthews, star of Ray Harryhausen's Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Three Worlds of Gulliver, plays the one of the five who actually plans the heist.

Centred around four Korean War veterans who link up at university, 5 Against The House is less interested in the mechanics of the heist than the dynamics between the friends, particularly the friendship between Al (Guy Madison) and Brick (Brian Keith).

The most involving element of the film is Keith's Brick. Unable to articulate the psychological trauma he has suffered, he is struggling to find purpose. When Ronnie comes up with the idea to bust the casino out of boredom, Brick is the most enthusiastic booster of the idea. It will be a chance to get the old rush back.

The movie does not get into detail about PTSD, but there is an empathetic portrayal of a soldier's inability to reconnect with society is moving and more specific than I expected.

Keith's simmering, inarticulate performance is heartbreaking, but with a rage and unpredictability that makes the character more ambiguous - it is easy to feel empathy for Brick, but Keith's portrayal always keeps you on edge.

The heist is enjoyable, but the tension comes from the growing distrust between our protagonists. What is really affecting about the film is the power of Al's love and belief in Brick. Even as Brick becomes more forceful, effectively taking his friends hostage at the point of a gun, Al is more determined to save his friend.

Kim Novak is effective as Al's girlfriend, but the film is so focused on homosocial relationships that her involvement comes off as an attempt to counter any implication of homosexuality among the four friends. The character also feels like a signifier of the divide between Al and Brick - while Brick is unable to form  relationships (romantic or otherwise) outside the foursome, Al is planning to marry Kaye. Kaye symbolises a future that Brick cannot dream of. While this works for Brick and Al's relationship, Kaye's role is designed in relation to them.

Watching the film with Scorsese in mind, I could see how he could be interested in this film - while a genre picture, it is mostly concerned with relationships between the main characters. There is something enjoyable about how long the movie spends setting up the four friends, their running jokes and petty squabbles.

When the heist finally comes into view, and the 'five' have fallen apart over whether to go through with it, 5 Against The House comes into its own. The mechanics of the heist are relatively simple but the film's focus on character development gives this final set piece a sense of tragedy as we watch the titular characters go through every step of the heist, caught between the watching eyes of casino security and Brick's hair trigger.

A fine picture, 5 Against the House is no. masterpiece but works as a character study folded within the conventions of a genre piece. 

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