Customer Reviews

Man in the Vault

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MAN IN THE VAULT is a fairly interesting drama about a locksmith (William Campbell) who unwittingly becomes involved in a plan of local mobster (Berry Kroeger) to steal a cash of money from a bank safe deposit box. Campbell is reluctant to get involved in the scheme until Kroeger holds Cambell's girlfriend (Karen Sharpe) forcing him to cooperate. Andrew V. McLaglen directed this taut little film from a compact script by Burt Kennedy. William H. Clothier's excellent black & white photography gives the film a much needed film noir look. The highlight of the film is Campbell's suspenseful venture into the vault to make copies of the keys of the safe deposit box holding the cash in broad daylight. Anita Ekberg gives the film a little glamour as a girlfriend to one of Kroeger's gaggle of shady associates. Campbell is adequate as the leading man and gives a straightforward performance though his approach is rather juvenile at times. On the whole, MAN IN THE VAULT is a bit routine yet manages to remain somewhat appealing throughout.

MAN IN THE VAULT, produced by John Wayne's Batjac production company, is a well-paced and impressively-cast crime thriller, which reunited "High and the Mighty" co-stars William Campbell and Karen Sharpe.

Tommy Dancer (William Campbell) is an unemployed professional locksmith, forced into assisting a daring bank raid, after his girlfriend Betty (Karen Sharpe), a feisty society debutante, is swept up into the plot.

Filled with some great performances, MAN IN THE VAULT is an enjoyable excursion into a shady world of corruption and greed, and never wears out it's brisk 70-minute running time. Both William Campbell and Karen Sharpe are attractive and well-used in the leads; with Anita Ekberg, Paul Fix and Barry Kroeger in strong supporting roles.

Despite an uninteresting cast, the scriptwriter and director make this movie a very inspired effort. I did wonder about Anita Ekberg's role. Her role is rather shallow and ambiguous not to mention confusing. I am a little confounded as to what her character actually had to do with the plot. Bill Campbell, on the other hand, has the great screen impact of a Robert Mitchum or Robert Ryan. Too bad it all didn't work. This film could have been a success.

Other reviewers are quite right -- this is sub-par noir. Although one wouldn't want it to linger much further beyond 72 minutes, the character development and plot resolution do seem rushed. In fact, quite a bit of the acting and interacting seems to be ritualistic, like the players are aware that they're making a noir picture, so that they must strike a certain stance or pose in keeping with the genre. Self-conscious noir doesn't work.

I will say that the scenes in the vault itself are pretty tense. The final scenes in the bowling alley are just lame and ill-conceived.

And again, everything gets sewn up in a tidy little package at the end - gangsters knock off other gangsters and get caught by the police. How convenient!

Skip it. Certainly don't buy it.

MAN IN THE VAULT is a mesmerizing tale of conscience. Should our hero William Campbell sell out for money or work to make a living like the rest of us? In the world of film noir that is often an intriguing question and sets the shadowy world of darkness full of things that go bump in the night. This is another underrated classic from the troubled and paranoid 50s.

Good intentions aside, MAN IN THE VAULT is mediocre at best. Unfortunately, William Campbell is not leading man material. This early effort from director Andrew V. McLaglen (THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE) and Burt Kennedy (RETURN OF THE SEVEN) is strictly of interest from a historical cinematic perspective. The script is adequate but the inclusion of Anita Ekberg and Paul Fix (THE SEA CHASE) to the cast adds nothing to possibilities of something of more substance. Cinematography by William Clothier (TRACK OF THE CAT) is one of the film's high points, especially the downtown location photography.

The Man in the Vault is William Campbell, a sort of D-movie hybrid of Cornel Wilde and a much-diluted Robert Mitchum with a quiff the size of a tidal wave. The closest it gets to big names are in the supporting cast, and even then we're only talking about bit parts from Paul Fix, Mike Mazurki, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez ("Ay theenk") and Anita Ekberg. The behind the camera credits are slightly more impressive - a script by Burt Kennedy, direction by Andrew V. McLaglen and cinematography by William H. Clothier that shows that his mastery of color was not always matched by the blandness of some of his black and white work.

It's the kind of programmer that DVD boxed sets were made for, something you can't imagine any major studio releasing if they didn't have to pick it up as part of a package with The High and the Mighty and Hondo or anybody buying if it didn't come in a set with Track of the Cat. The Man Who Would Be Mitch is locksmith Tommy Dancer (they knew how to give characters names in those days), forced to break into a mobster's safety deposit box with the usual consequences. It passes the time inoffensively and efficiently enough, but it says something that the most memorable thing about it was the discovery that a restaurant on La Cienaga that I used to pass on my way to work every day used to be a bowling alley.

No extras whatsoever, despite an extract from the trailer featuring on other Batjac titles.