The Safecracker *** (1958, Ray Milland, Barry Jones, Jeanette Sterke) – Classic Movie Review 7918

Ray Milland directs and stars in the 1958 British low-budget film noir thriller The Safecracker, an involving, fact-based story of a locksmith, gone criminal as an antiques robber, freed from a 10-year jail term in return for breaking into a bank vault in Belgium in 1940. The safe holds a vital record of World War Two enemy agents working in England.

With a screenplay by Paul Monash based on a book by Rhys Davies and Bruce Thomas, The Safecracker is an above-standard, small-scale British wartime crime drama adventure that offers much of the style and scope of its successful big-league counterparts.

Milland shows considerable skill as director, keeping his film tense and pacy, and his presence as star actor as expert on locks Colley Dawson certainly injects spice into an often nail-biting and entertaining production.

Also in the cast are Barry Jones, Jeanette Sterke, Victor Maddern, rnest Clark, Cyril Raymond, Melissa Stribling, Percy Herbert, Barbara Everest, Anthony Nicholls, David Horne, Colin Gordon, Clive Morton, Colin Tapley, John Welsh, Pamela Stirling, Henry Vidon. Ian McNaughton, Bernard Fox, Charles Lloyd Pack, Barry Keegan, and Sam Kydd.

It was shot in black and white at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

MGM released it in 1958 in a double bill with Underwater Warrior.

The Safecracker was a Warner Archive DVD release in April 2016.

It is Milland’s third film as director, following A Man Alone and Lisbon.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7918

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