Review of Five Golden Hours

Ernie Kovacs was an exceptionally talented but very overlooked actor. He pioneered a lot of techniques when it came to television and is often considered to be tv's first comedian. You would think that this would have made him an automatic winner when it came to starring in things that weren't his own programs, but the majority of films he appeared in were not that good. The sad thing is, it didn't have to be that way. It's mostly the fault of the scriptwriters and directors who probably didn't know about his past work in television, and as such, they gave him roles that barely fit his personality. A good example of Ernie being horribly miscast is Five Golden Hours. The movie is a joint Italian/British venture and also takes place in italy. Kovacs plays Aldo Bondi, a man who mourns the deceased and makes a living doing so because he receives wealth from widows who enjoy his company. One day, he meets Baroness Sandra (Cyd Charisse), who is also rich, but every man she has ever married is now dead. Aldo decides to take money from three women he already knows and invest it in the five hours between the closure of the italian stock exchange and the opening of new york's stock exchange, hence the title of the movie. This in turn will massively increase his finances. When Sandra decides to run away suddenly with the money Aldo has made for her, he is left in an unenviable position and owes the other 3 women money. During a car ride, Aldo tries to sneak out of the car with the women still inside and cut a wire under the rear, sending the car into a ravine. Unfortunately for him, the women left the car earlier and are thus still alive. His homicidal scheme thwarted, Aldo is committed to a mental hospital and stays with his fellow patient Mr. Bing (George Sanders) for over a year. Eventually after much taunting from him, Aldo learns that one of the widows has died and has left a large amount of money for him, but he can only receive it if he remains mentally disturbed. Aldo is asked to sign a document stating that now that he is all better, he won't be needing the cash anymore, which will go to a monastery instead. Aldo is forced to sign the paper, but signs it as Napoleon Bonaparte, successfully convincing the hospital staff he is still insane. After this, he makes his way back to rome and gets Mr. Bing to arrange a marriage between him and Sandra, meaning Aldo is now destined to die soon. This movie is not impressive generally. For some utterly baffling reason, Kovacs himself said it was his favorite movie that he acted in. It was also the second to last movie Kovacs would ever be in, as he was killed in a car crash about a year later. Strangely ironic because the woman he marries at the end has all of her husbands die. To my dismay, not even Ernie could save the rest of this movie. The characters are just flat and uninteresting, to put it nicely. We just don't care what happens to them. Even Ernie's character is burdened by how gullible he is. George Sanders as Ernie's roommate while in the asylum is also irritating, since he tries on purpose to get on his bad side. At the time of its release Five Golden Hours was treated like a pretty average movie, and that's precisely what it is. It's one of those movies I would only recommend to Kovacs fans, because removing him would make the film completely devoid of amusing characters. Were it not for Ernie, this film would have lost a lot more points here. Still not worth looking at unless you're a fan of his though.