Man in the Vault
"Forced Into Crime To Save The Girl He Loved!"
A locksmith is pressured into crime when the mob makes him perform an elaborate bank robbery.
Top Cast
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William Campbell
Tommy Dancer
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Karen Sharpe
Betty Turner
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Anita Ekberg
Flo Randall
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Berry Kroeger
Willis Trent
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Paul Fix
Herbie
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James Seay
Paul De Camp
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Mike Mazurki
Louie
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Robert Keys
Earl Farraday
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Nancy Duke
Trent's Girl Friend
Overview
A locksmith is pressured into crime when the mob makes him perform an elaborate bank robbery.
Rating
5.6
/ 10
15 Reviews 0 Popular
1 Reviews
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John Chard5 Apr 17, 2015Bowling for deposit boxes. 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
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