Man in the Vault *** (1956, William Campbell, Karen Sharpe, Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroger, Paul Fix, James Seay, Mike Mazurki) – Classic Movie Review 11,617

Swedish actress Anita Ekberg.

The tense, taut 1956 film noir thriller Man in the Vault is the directorial debut of Andrew V McLaglen. It stars William Campbell, Karen Sharpe and Swedish sexpot Anita Ekberg, who was under contract with John Wayne at $75 a week.

The tense and taut little 1956 film noir thriller Man in the Vault is the directorial debut of Andrew V McLaglen. It stars William Campbell, Karen Sharpe, Anita Ekberg, Berry Kroger, Paul Fix, James Seay and Mike Mazurki.

William Campbell stars as Tommy Dancer, a normally law-abiding locksmith who works in a bowling alley, who is forced to help gangsters commit a robbery after they tell him the lovely Betty Turner (Karen Sharpe)’s face will be disfigured if he refuses to cooperate.

Berry Kroger plays Willis Trent, who plans to rob the safety deposit box of crooked LA businessman Paul De Camp (James Seay). Trent gets lawyer Earl Farraday (Robert Keys) to talk De Camp’s two-timing girlfriend Flo Randall (Anita Ekberg) into revealing the box’s number.

But then Dancer thinks that he has been double-crossed by Betty and decides to keep the $200,000 he has taken from the box.

The screenplay by Burt Kennedy is based on the novel The Lock and the Key by Frank Gruber.

It is produced by Robert E Morrison for his brother John Wayne’s company Batjac Productions. Wayne’s real name was Marion Morrison.

It is McLaglen’s first feature as director and the first screenplay by Burt Kennedy, and they followed it with Gun the Man Down (1956).

It is distributed by RKO Pictures who had given Ekberg a strong role in Back from Eternity (1956), directed by John Farrow.

The cast are William Campbell as Tommy Dancer, Karen Sharpe as Betty Turner, Anita Ekberg as Flo Randall, Berry Kroger as Willis Trent, Paul Fix as Herbie, James Seay as Paul De Camp, Mike Mazurki as Louie, Robert Keys as Earl Farraday, Nancy Duke as Trent’s girlfriend, Gonzales Gonzales as Pedro, and John Mitchum as Andy.

Swedish actress Anita Ekberg went to the US to compete for the 1951 Miss Universe title and ended up with a starlet’s contract with Universal Studios, who dropped her after six months. John Wayne signed her to a contract with his Batjac Productions at $75 a week. She had a small part in Wayne’s film Blood Alley (1955) and made Man in the Vault (1956). Robert Fellows took over Ekberg’s contract when he split with his producing partner Wayne.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,617

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