Man in the Vault (1956)

Beautiful, moving film.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

William Campbell, in my youth, appeared on a TV show called Cannonball that had a very catchy theme song. So catchy that we made up new lyrics to it that were about our school principle.He has several other distinctions, some as an actor, and he earned his place in the JFK saga by being married to one of JFK's girlfriends, Judith Campbell Exner.Campbell plays a locksmith, Tommy Dancer. He often hangs out at a bowling alley. One night he meets a man, Willis Trent (Berry Kroeger) who invites him to a party. After we hear the song "Let the Chips Fall Where They May" sung by Viviane Lloyd, Dancer meets Betty Turner (Karen Sharpe). They begin dating.Tommy is offered a job for $5000 if he will rent a safe deposit box, and while in the vault, make impressions for two keys to box 315. He doesn't know it at the time, but the box has $200,000 in it that Trent wants stolen. He refuses to do it until Mike Mazurki beats him up and then Betty is threatened. In a suspenseful scene, he makes impressions of the keys.Then he finds out about the money from a man named Herbie (Paul Fix) tips him off about the money and suggests that they split it.Familiar faces here, including Fix, Kroeger, Mazurki, and of course Campbell. Karen Sharpe, who played Betty, married Stanley Kramer and became a producer as well as an actress. Anita Ekberg, looking gorgeous, is on hand as Earl Farraday's (Robert Keys) girlfriend - it's Farraday who owns the safe deposit box.Despite the film being low budget, there are several interesting things about it. First, being low budget, it's filmed on the streets of Los Angeles. The sections they were in were familiar to me and made it so much fun, seeing a large Rexall Drugs, Dutch Paint, the whole ambiance of old Hollywood.The other thing is one starts to notice keys everywhere. Dancer works in a key-making establishment. He's called on by Trent to open a trunk, so he makes an impression of the lock; he makes keys for the safe deposit box, later he uses the keys to get into it - he is constantly using keys. Finally you're noticing them every time he pulls one out.Lastly, parts of the film are very Hitchcockian - one is the ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances; the other is danger in landmarks or familiar places not known for danger, as Dancer first escapes being hit by a bowling ball and then attempts escape by traversing pin-setting machines. Really terrific. Unfortunately, today we're all too familiar with danger in familiar places.Not bad for a low budget film.

Adapted by Burt Kennedy from the Frank Gruber novel, The Lock and the Key, Man in the Vault is a minor 50s crime flick that has somehow been lumped into the film noir encyclopedias. Andrew V. McLaglen directs and William Campbell, Karen Sharpe, Anita Ekberg and Berry Kroeger star. Story has Campbell as a locksmith who gets coerced into a deposit box theft just as Sharpe turns his head romantically.Amazingly, nothing much happens, there's a lot of talking and pouting, Campbell's teddy-boy quiff always holds court, while Kroeger tries to eat all the indoor scenery. William H. Clothier is utterly wasted on photography, only really getting to use his skills when the story enters out onto the real L.A. locations; which are actually the film's only saving grace. OK! The deposit box sequence has a modicum of suspense, the mystery element as Campbell tries to fathom out what's going on also works, but come the weak and cop-out finale you may well wish you had done the gardening instead. 5/10

A tough choice for nice-guy assistant locksmith Tommy Dancer: to continue plodding on with his $80/week, go-nowhere job, OR to give in to the demands of petty hood Willis Trent, and get paid $5,000 for using his skills to break into the safety-deposit box of top-dog criminal De Camp and steal $200,000. This ethical conundrum becomes a no-brainer, however, when Trent turns the screws by kidnapping and threatening Tommy's newest girlfriend, Betty Turner. Anyway, that's the setup for Andrew V. McLaglen's "Man in the Vault," a compact little film noir from 1956 that, despite its "B movie" status--and despite the "Maltin Film Guide"'s assertion that it is "drab" and only deserving of one of its lowest ratings--still offers much. Though surely made on the cheap, the film looks just fine, and features at least two highly suspenseful sequences: the heist that Tommy carries out inside a crowded bank, and a nighttime game of cat and mouse between Tommy and one of Trent's thugs inside a deserted bowling alley. Plus, with a running time of only 73 minutes, the picture is lean and fast moving, with little in the way of flab (excepting, perhaps, that three-minute song "Let the Chips Fall Where They May," warbled by a chantootsie early on at Trent's house party).And then there is the film's single best element: a surprisingly excellent performance by William Campbell as Tommy Dancer, who does indeed get to "dance" all over L.A. while embroiled in this film's shenanigans. Campbell, who is perhaps best known for his appearances in three "Star Trek" episodes (as Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos" and the wimpiest Klingon ever, Koloth, in "The Trouble With Tribbles," both from the original series, and then toughening up Koloth considerably, many years later, in "Deep Space 9"'s "Blood Oath"), is immensely likable and sympathetic here. The late actor (he passed away on 4/28/11, at the age of 84) easily carries this film. Karen Sharpe (not to be confused with Karen Steele, as I did going in) is cute and appealing as Betty, Berry Kroeger is memorable as the smarmy Trent, and former heavyweight wrestler Mike Mazurki adds his always welcome, menacing presence. Oh...how could I forget the main reason for my rental of this film in the first place: Anita Ekberg, Miss Sweden 1951, playing the part of De Camp's moll, Flo Brant? Sadly, Anita is only given perhaps 10 minutes of screen time in all to make an impression, but looks so stunning that, yes, an impression is most certainly made. Anita would have to wait another four years before really making the world sit up and take notice, in 1960's "La Dolce Vita," but is still fairly riveting here, despite her small part. Throw in some nice location photography of 1950s Los Angeles (including the Hollywood Bowl and Hollywood Blvd., replete with a Rexall Drugstore!), some well-done, naturalistic dialogue, efficient direction from McLaglen and a highly satisfactory denouement and you've got a little film that's a lot more than merely "drab"!

Tommy Dancer is a locksmith whose skills do not go unnoticed by mobster Willis Trent. Trent wants Tommy to get into the safe deposit box of a rival mobster. Tommy refuses, despite being offered $5000 and later being roughed up by one of Trents goons. Tommy agrees when he his tipped off by one Trents men that the box contains $200,000 in cash. Tommy decides to go along with the plan, and keep the 200 grand for himself and run off with Trents moll, whom he has fallen in love with.MAN IN THE VAULT is standard low budget crime thriller from the period made enjoyable by the presence of Berry Kroeger, Paul Fix and Mike Marsurki. William Campbell gives a good performance as Tommy. There are some good moments of suspense, but things get a bit confusing toward the end.