Five Minutes to Live
Tags: cruelty, murder, neo noir, cult, violence, claustrophobic, romantic, suspenseful, sadist

Plot synopsis:
A man named Fred (Vic Tayback) sits in a dark room, detailing his most recent bank robbery. He talks about how he teamed up with hardened criminal Johnny Cabot (Johnny Cash) to execute his plan.
Cabot is to take the wife of the bank's vice president hostage. He is to hold her until he gets a call from Fred informing him that they have the ransom money. Cabot watches the Wilson house as the husband leaves for work and their son heads off to school. Posing as a door-to-door guitar instructor, Cabot talks his way into the house and takes Nancy Wilson (Cay Forrester) hostage.
At the bank, Fred enters vice president Ken Wilson's (Donald Woods) office and hands him a check for $70,000, informing Wilson that he will withdraw the funds to cover the ransom or his wife will die. He tells Wilson to call home for proof that Nancy is being held hostage, then informs him that if he does not call Cabot back in five minutes, Mrs. Wilson will die.
Wilson surprisingly responds that he's been planning to leave his wife anyway and run off to Las Vegas with his mistress, Ellen (Pamela Mason). He tells Fred that he will be doing him a favor by killing his wife. Fred does not believe that Wilson will let his wife die. He is proven correct, as time ticks by, when Wilson finally cracks and agrees to pay the ransom.
Fred calls Cabot and starts the clock over again. As five minutes tick away, Fred works on Wilson to hurry. Meanwhile, at the Wilson house, Cabot is enjoying terrorizing his hostage. He begins forcing her to listen to his songs about her impending demise, shooting at her and making sexual advances toward her. Back at the bank, Fred has been taken down by the police, who arrived after someone tripped the silent alarm. As a result, Cabot is getting nervous, having not received his expected call from Fred. Suddenly, in walks Little Bobby (Ron Howard), home for lunch.
The police arrive outside the house. In a panic, Cabot grabs Bobby and runs for it, running right into police gunfire. Bobby pretends as though he's been shot in order to get Cabot to put him down. After apparently being very upset by the accidental shooting of the young boy, Cabot shoots back and is killed by police. Nancy runs outside to find her son alive and well. The film ends with Fred finishing his story to the police, then Mr. Wilson driving to Las Vegas, but with his wife, not his mistress.

Review: This strange little B-movie was originally titled FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE, but was re-released in 1966 as DOOR-TO-DOOR MANIAC because Cash' star had risen considerably in those years.
He stars as Johnny Cabot, a level-headed murderer who teams up with another con (Tayback) in a scheme to hold a bank president's wife hostage.
But what they don't know is that the bank president is planning to run off to Las Vegas with his mistress and couldn't care less about his wife.The production values are close to zero complete with bad direction, dragging scenes and an all out over-the-top music score, more reminiscent of your average bad '50s Sci-fi flick.
Fact is, there's a tense and very cleverly thought-out idea at the crux of this, which, at a glance, would appear to be a rather ordinary, assembly-line B crime picture.Something of a cult favorite today, chiefly for it's inclusion of Johnny Cash as a sociopathic thief/killer, one of a mottle who embark on a killing spree in a small U.S. town, ringing doorbells of random homes, then slaughtering whomever answers.
A low budget film that feature Johnny Cash as a killer who serenades his victims!
DOOR TO DOOR MANIAC (aka FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE) features then up and coming Johnny Cash as cold blooded killer Johnny Cabot.
Reasonably taut thriller concerning a twisted killer (Cash) recruited by crook (Tayback) to hold the wife (Forrester) of a bank manager (Woods) hostage at their house while Tayback extorts $70k at the bank for the safe release of the wife - confirmed by a series of phone calls at five minute intervals.
Complications emerge when the bank manager proves reluctant to pay the ransom, seeing an opportunity to become free of his wife and take up with his mistress (Mason).Co-star Forrester's script is functional, perhaps predictably giving her domestic characters more depth than usual, her performance benefiting from the extra attention in the dialogue.
Renowned tough-guy Tayback delivers his trademark mobster with all the expected motifs and the attractive Midge Ware has a brief role as Cash's ill-fated moll.As far as unconventional casting of singers in movies go, this is somewhere between Neil Sedaka's bizarre appearance in "The Playgirl Killer" and a traditional Elvis Presley vehicle.
This actually lowered my expectations for the film, as I'm not a massive fan of Cash and films that go down in history for the casting of a non-actor are often not very good...but this film has far more going for it than it's lead actor, and overall I've got to say that it's criminal that this hasn't won itself a more esteemed place in cinema history.
After explaining the situation to her husband, they offer him a trade; his money or his wife.Overall, it has to be said that this little thriller isn't very original as there have been a lot of films in this same vein; but Bill Karn's film approaches it's subject with a fresh view, and the way that the director continually ensures the tone is always bleak provides a major highlight.
It's easy to believe that the central character is in danger through Cash's loose cannon performance, and the way that the action focuses on two central locations; the family home and the bank, ensures that the plot always takes centre stage, and it is made interesting through its memorable cast of characters.
Even though Cash wasn't predominantly an actor, his performance is really good and the way that the director lets him play his guitar makes best use of him.
And on a personal note, I think it's good of Cash to put himself at risk to play a sadistic maniacal character.
The rest of the support cast play second fiddle to the musical genius, but each one gives a good turn and this ensures that the film is elevated above its low budget thriller status.
This movie is worth seeing for Johnny Cash's performance as a sadistic hit-man, but beyond that its pretty enjoyable.
Again, the lame attempts at feel-good family humor seem out of place and take away from the overall nasty feeling of the film, but Johnny's performance and the plot itself make this a film worth seeing!.
5 Minutes to Live is a great underrated and forgotten classic's and a personal fave, not only does this film feature Johny Cash but also a young Ron Howard and Vic Tayback (remember Alice) as the crime boss.
Nasty Thriller With -- Wait: Vic Tayback, Ron Howard, and Johnny Cash?.
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.
(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.
I almost feel as if i should go back to the store and insist they let me pay them so more(it was that worth it to me) Johnny Cash's hair is perfect it's almost another character altogether.
And it stays cool most of the films as Johnny Cash does a good job playing the well dressed bad guy.
Five Minutes to Live (1961) ** (out of 4) Bizarre thriller about a couple thieves who take a woman (Cay Forrester) hostage to get money from her husband (Donald Woods) who just happens to be Vice President at a local bank.
One of the bad guys (Johnny Cash) stays behind with the wife while the other goes to the bank and unlucky for the woman, this guy is a raving maniac who enjoys to torture women.
Cash plays his guitar throughout the film and he even sings the title song, which never made it onto any of his Greatest Hits collections for obvious reasons.
That, of course, was never going to happen and Elvis could only Dream (he did manage to get one good Role and He Shined, King Creole (1958).But here His Sun Record Label Contemporary Johnny Cash had no such restrictions and went Hog Wild with this Low-Low-Budget Grindhouse Movie that was Raw and Raunchy.
Yet, it has a very interesting story line and some decent acting.You can see why Johnny Cash was more successful as a singer than an actor, but he's not bad here.
So those looking for a vehicle to showcase Cash's singing talents, might be a little disappointed.Vic Tayback does a good job as the hardened criminal mastermind.
Oh, and I have a gun with a silencer but it makes a big noise when I shoot it.Merle Travis and Johnny Cash are both country music legends who appear here as actors.
If it were not for the great names in the cast this one would have disappeared altogether like many other fun films that gave us a look at the technology and attitudes of 50 years ago.The only thing I missed seeing here was a revolving door at the bank.
That is always a great place for a shootout.The title song is so bad even Johnny Cash can't save it.
I want to watch it again after I have watched every other movie that has ever been made.Johnny Cash did do some other acting roles where he was pretty good.
This would be just another drive-in programmer were it not for the fact that none other than Johnny Cash plays the psycho who terrorizes the bank manager's wife and his restless energy is compulsively watchable.
(Who wants to see Johnny Cash rape a woman?) The movie itself is routine..
The mature issues involved make the intended audience problematic - it's not kinky enough to be a true exploitation thriller, certainly too kinky for straight movie houses of the era.Johnny Cash is the stand-out performance here, hands down.
Further, there is so much more of his character here that wants to be developed, such as his odd commitment to avoiding hurting the child played by Howard.The low budget leaves that undeveloped, and probably accounts for the lack of direct action the film desperately needs - there should be some truly violent act somewhere in the middle of the film's running time to balance off the tension (say, the killing of a real door-to-door salesman who happens into the hostage house by accident), but it never shows up.
Well, I won't spoil it; but the tone of the very last scene is decidedly late 30's or late 40's - doesn't fit the rest of the film at all.Definitely worth seeing, but don't expect any diamond in the rough - except for Mr. Cash, of course, running blues licks on his guitar in a manner not typical of his recorded musical performances of the time..
This film is also known by the title "Door to Door Maniac"--a title I much prefer.Over the years, Johnny Cash had several opportunities to act as well as his own television show.
The film involves two low-lifes, Johnny (Cash) and Fred (Vic Tayback) pulling off a big crime.
And what's going to happen to the wife?Johnny Cash's performance sure ain't subtle...but it is, at times, entertaining...especially when he destroys the lady's home just for kicks or seems to be on the verge of molesting the woman.
In his simple plan, he hires a hard-up hood, Johnny Cabot to take the wife of the bank's vice president hostage.
The characters are broadly drawn and dated.Opie is in the movie too and his scene plays like a TV commercial.In all, just not so good..
This movie isn't very good but it is interesting for huge Johnny Cash fans ,like myself,to see him in this movie.Johnny Cash was The Man and I'm a fan for life of his music.In this film Johnny Cash plays a hoodlum who happens to be named Johnny too.He and another thug ,played by Vic Tayback of "Alice" 'fame',plan to rob a bank by holding a bank employee's wife hostage and then forcing him to turn over 70 grand.Cash goes to the house and holds the wife while Tayback works the bank end.I'm not sure what movie the guy who wrote the plot synopsis for IMDb saw but it doesn't sound like this one.Also "Door to Door Maniac" is a horrible alternate name for this movie because the door to door salesman thing was about a 2 minute trick Cash's character used to get inside the house."Five Minutes to Live" is the real name of this movie.Cash even sings a song with that title in the film.Well anyway what makes this movie interesting,besides Cash, is the appearance of Merle Travis,another country music legend.He is the guy who wrote "16 tons" and a whole bunch more great songs.Ron Howard, who played Opie Taylor and is now a big time movie director,is also in this movie.This movie was made just about the same time that Howard would land the role as Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show".While this movie isn't great you'd be hard pressed to find another movie this unknown to have all those names in it.The movie itself is pretty bad.The script is sort of lame in places .The lighting and sound are awful.The film is totally silent during the opening and closing credits.I thought my DVD was bad but nope it was just how it was supposed to be I guess.
And everyone, except Cash and Tayback, were just awful actors.Cash is actually pretty good in this movie.He had the dark brooding looks and his trademark scar to make him look the part of the thug.The scenes where he tortures the wife inside her home are cool.Cash leers at her and breaks up her stuff and makes her put on a nightie and keeps messing with her until you feel kind of sorry for her.Cash shows some natural acting talent that would get better over the years.Like I said this movie would interest no one but Cash fans.But it's a great treat to see him in something so early in his career.Who would ever guess watching him in this thing that he would go on to be the greatest country artist of all time?.
A Creepy little slasher movie about a man (Johnny Cash) and his friend plot a bank robbery.
Bearing a 1960 copyright date and released the following year, by which time Hammer Films had made a superb, overlooked little thriller called 'Cash on Demand' in which the emphasis is on the bank manager and his tormentor, whereas here it's the wife (Cay Forrester) and psycho henchman (Johnny Cash) that comprises the film's core.
Having supposedly spent months planning this caper, mastermind Victor Tayback seriously crashs and burns with his careless last minute choice of Cash to provide the muscle - although despite killing two cops and a chattering female before the main event has even started in order to demonstrate what an itchy trigger finger he has, dear old Johnny Cash never really makes a convincing sadistic killer.The basic situation dates back at least as far as 'The Petrified Forest', and as the wife held hostage, Cay Forrestor's ordeal may have been inspired by Inger Stevens' at the hands of Neville Brand and then Rod Steiger in 'Cry Terror!' (now there was a scary pair!); although it's probably just coincidence that Terry-Thomas in 'Too Many Crooks' had recently shown a similar initial indifference to the use of his wife as a hostage as Donald Woods does here when he first gets the bad news.
As scriptwriter, producer Ludlow Flower's wife Cay Forrestor makes up for years of usually minor film roles by writing herself a showy part that she really gets her teeth into in which she also scripts herself some pretty rough handling (as well as a brief interior monologue at one point), and the rest of the cast are generally good too (including fellow country legend Merle Travis as Tayback's blustering, put-upon inside man).Historical note: in 1960 the silenced pistol that Cash spends much of the film waving in Ms Forrester's face is described by Tayback as having a "muffler" on it..
They will grab the manager's wife as a hostage, and then threaten to kill her if the money is not handed over.Tayback tells Cash he has spent months planning the job and that nothing can go wrong.
Cash is to grab the wife while Tayback goes to the bank to pay the manager, Donald Woods, a visit.
Tayback plays it cool and calls the house where Cash is holding the woman.
Johnny Cash gives a raw and disturbing performance, but this film is a nice watch.
Before making "Five Minutes to Live", Johnny Cash's only prior film credits included a handful of TV Western guest appearances.
After watching it though, it might just as well stay at the back of the pack.Well, to be fair, if you're a Johnny Cash fan, you'll want to catch this little gem, but for all the wrong reasons.
Otherwise I wouldn't get this at all.The single plot element that really could have taken this film over the top was the idea that bank president Wilson (Donald Woods) was OK with ex-con Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) having his wife killed if he didn't fork over seventy grand.
That was a great idea to get Johnny Cash as a killer who plays guitar before violent action on his victims (remember Lino Ventura in Pensione Edelweiss).
The heist in itself isn't exciting at all and the ending is a complete change of tone in comic style, and we get the kid Ron Howard stealing the scene with a big laugh.So, Johnny Cash is the main attraction of this minor heist movie that would have deserved better script and direction.
(There are Spoilers) Being told in flashback by gangster Fred Dorella, Vic Taybak, we get the lowdown of the bank heist that he was involved with the on the lamb cop killer Johnny Cabot, Johnny Cash.Johnny fled him home state of New Jersey after a blotched warehouse robbery where his partner Pete,Max Manning, and two policemen were shot and killed.
Meeting New York hoodlum Fred Dorella Johnny not only gets the job that he's been craving for, as the both wheel and hit man, but as a bonus finds out who set him and the late Pete up in the blotched warehouse job back in Jersey.The plan thought out by Dorella to rob the Harper Federal Trust in Carmellia is foolproof with Johnny holding the bank's vice president Ken Wilson, Donald Woods, wife Nacny, Kay Forrester, hostage in her suburban home.
Johnny who would kill a man or woman just for looking at him cross-eyed or not appreciating his country & western music, he plays the guitar in his spear time, has this thing about shooting adolescents.Jonny Cash, in what seems to be his first movie role, has the time of his life playing the ruthless and murderous Johnny Cabot doing as good of a performance as you would have expected from a young James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart.
Even when Johnny is slapping Nancy, and threatening to blow her brains out, around he still finds time to play his guitar, Cash also wrote and sings the films title song "Five Minutes to live", and crack a number of jokes that puts off the edge of the tension that's built up in the film.
Maybe this wouldn't be too bad had there been some suspense along the journey, but there is precious little, one reason being that Johnny Cash (in his motion picture debut) isn't very good as the hostage taker.
Johnny Cabot is an ex-con looking for a way to make some quick cash.
The movie is wrapped up with a little bow, as Nancy and Donald drive off with grins on their faces and stars in their eyes.This overshadows the somewhat dark performance by Johnny Cash, and the first 10 minutes or so, which has several people shot down by Johnny.