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Carol Reed's "The Key" is a forgotten film, or so it seems. It was a rare occasion when it showed up the other night on TCM. This film presents a different side of WWII that many of us are not aware of. We are given an account of England's way of rescuing ships that have been attacked at sea and the courageous men that commanded those small vessels to bring the damaged ones to safe haven. The film is based on a novel by the Dutch writer Jan de Hartog, with a screen play by Carl Foreman. The film was photographed in white and white by Oswald Morris and has an interesting music score by Malcom Arnold.

The film capitalizes on the rescue operations, which are reproduced in vivid detail by Mr. Reed and his crew. The ocean settings have a poetic look, at times. The story is set before America's entry into the war and we are introduced to David Ross, who is assigned to the rescuing team. Ross happens to know one of the captains in the operation, Chris Ford, who in turn, takes an interest in him and hands him a duplicate of the key to his flat. Little does Ross knows what awaits him there.

Trevor Howard is excellent as Capt. Ford. This actor showed an inner integrity no matter what role he played. Sophia Loren is Stella, the mysterious girl who lives in the flat and seems to bring out emotions from all the men that share the apartment. At the same time, she seems to be a jinx to all the men that she comes in contact with. Ms. Loren gives a subtle performance. William Holden, is also effective as Capt. Ross. Bernard Lee, Oskar Homolka and Kieron Moore do excellent work under Mr. Reed's direction.

"The Key" is an interesting look at the way the war was fought at sea and Mr. Reed makes a compelling account of those days.

If I were to explain to someone this film's plot in a nutshell, some church lady and maybe others will label this film as some kind of a pinnacle of adultery. In reality any sexual content is needed to add to the hopelessness faced by those who heroically undertook to save the lives of the English, Danish, Swedes, Americans, surviving Nazi attacks on North Sea shipping. You compare the brave men facing extremely high odds of losing their lives in the rescues to the first Marines on the Normandy beaches on June 7, 1944, seen in "The Longest Day", or the B-17 pilots engaged in daylight bombing as portrayed in "12 O' Clock High". This is a war film only slightly just as "Barefoot in the Park" is not a movie about a park. The Key is not listed with all the other WW II movies, because it's less war than a study in how one copes with certain death. Ms Loren is at her best playing the girl who goes with the apartment, Trevor Howard, the British steady in almost every WW II classic is superb. The next holder of the "Key" is Sunset Blvd.'s William Holden, playing the same brooding, sullen, character we are used to. I'm close to adding Mr. Holden to the list of actors playing themselves along with Dean Martin, Burt Reynolds, Gig Young, and many others. However at the end, you are victim of a huge surprise, when a battle battered, nearly drowned, Holden unexpectedly returns to the apartment, to find the next in line already holding court. He breaks with his type casting at that point and you're treated to a great ending. Not wanting to reveal the entire idea behind the key, I'm been very vague, but as I added the characters and the roles they played, I've created more confusion than I intended. Let me try to do a short outline on The Key. A rescue boat captain rents an apartment near the South Hampton docks, which includes the beautiful Sophia Loren. Knowing his life has "the same length as a lit match", he copies the key forcing it on a close friend, so that friend, (also a rescue boat captain) may take over the apartment in the occasion of his death. The process repeats itself three times when Trevor Howard becomes the key holder, and the film picks up here. On the very day the Howard character has set to marry the Ms. Loren character the film becomes a hanky grabber. You may only be able to catch this great movie on TCM, but if you are a fan of Loren, Howard or Holden, DO NOT miss it. You will be touched, saddened, then given a good dose of hope.

It's both surprising and disappointing that this 1958 film has been virtually forgotten. If for no other reason than the amount of talent involved in its making, it deserves continuing recognition. The script, for example, came from Carl Foreman, (adapted from a Jan de Hartog novel), Sir Carol Reed directed, Malcolm Arnold provided the score and Oswald Morris photographed in black-and-white CinemaScope. Heading the cast are William Holden, just fading from his #1 status, and Sophia Loren, just nearing her #1 status. Trevor Howard provides fine support.

Despite all these assets, however, the movie doesn't quite take off. It's consistently interesting but never really engrossing. Scenes alternate between wartime action in the Atlantic and domestic drama inside a small apartment but neither aspect of the movie seems to provide it with a solid core. It all somehow seems a bit tentative and slightly oblique.

Michael Caine is said to play a small part here. William Holden has a brief shirtless scene which indicates, at the time of filming, he was still in his shaved-chest mode.

Sophia Loren shines in a rather somber role as a woman in England who obstinately attaches herself to British naval officers that are involved in some of the most dangerous assignments in the war. Their job is to try to rescue the crews and cargo of ships that have been destroyed by Nazi ships or submarines. Since the Nazis know exactly where the battle took place, they know where the rescue ships are going to be, so the death rate among the rescue teams is very high. The great Trevor Howard gives a wonderfully understated performance, and William Holden also holds his own very well. The film is rather slow, though I prefer to call it casually paced. The wartime atmosphere of southern England is illustrated with good detail, and the action sequences are well-choreographed and suspenseful. It's not a great film, but I prefer it to most of those 'stiff upper lip' wartime melodramas that England and Hollywood produced in the forties.

'The Key" is a good movie but I sometimes wonder why so many films are made with wartime psychological themes. Probably it is simply because authors and film makers find wartime a ripe territory for drama. I have two problems with this. First, it is just too blatantly obvious that wars cause intense emotions and psychological issues. Wars always cause heroic but also desperate and aberrant human response. Second problem- war fighting is necessarily a morbid process.

Carl Forman's hard hitting style is applied to the emotional swamp that is wartime psychology in "The Key". Fortunately it is an extremely well acted film with excellent performances, and also features well staged Atlantic ocean battle sequences with real ships on the bleak, menacing North Atlantic. Wide screen black and white filming is excellent for the Atlantic war action and it is a fact that color filming is not necessary here. And black and white suits the downbeat nature of this story which will of course include nothing sunny or upbeat.

"The Key" is a serious, relentlessly grim drama that will probably hold your attention despite being a little slow in spots. Malcolm Arnold contributes one of his masterpiece film scores. Arnold was a genius.

This film tells the story about Tug Boats being utilized by England during 1941 in order to try and salvage damaged ships which were hit by German U Boats. David Ross, (William Holden) is an American assigned to one of these Tugs which are poorly armed, with guns that do not function when needed. David has not been on a tug in over ten years and meets up with an old chum named Capt. Chris Ford, (Trevor Howard) who shares an apartment with a very attractive gal named Stella, (Sophia Loren) who seems to like Tug Boat Captains as she has had many Captains who have died once she gives them a key to her apartment. The story makes a complete turn when Chris gives David a key to the apartment and that is when the trouble starts to happen. There is plenty of action, drama and romance. Great film with an outstanding story and Sophia Loren looked great at the age of 24 years. WOW

This is a curious film. A gritty, tough realistic movie during the action sequences at sea, but when the story shifts to land and Sophia Loren and the men her life, it's dull and lifeless.

Trevor Howard and Bill Holden are men numbers three and four in refugee Sophia Loren's life. The key is the key to her apartment which the guys make duplicates of and pass on to friends. Right after that's done, the giver is killed at sea.

Howard and Holden are tugboat captains assigned to tugs who go out to the open sea and pick up crippled freighters bringing needed war supplies to Great Britain during World War II and tow them in. The tugs are poorly armed and barely sea worthy and are easy marks for the

Germans. It's hard tough work and director Carol Reed does a superb job showing that. This is one of the least glamorized war movies I've ever seen. The men are fatalistic to say the least, but especially around Sophia as if the Nazis weren't enough to worry about.

Sophia Loren is a lovely thing of beauty and certainly a pleasure to watch, but her scenes with her two male co-stars have absolutely no spark at all.

If you watch this I recommend you fast forward the romance and get to the action.

The great Carol Reed bit off more than he could chew here. The novel has three fine, intertwined stories that each deserved lots of time: the very dangerous offshore wartime tugboat service, and its unique terms of battle; the men of the service, who suffer atrocious casualties and constant stress; and an onshore romance through a woman who plays a unique role in the lives of several captains. All three could have been handled adequately in a "mini-series", but here the battles got a bit too much treatment and the psychological and romanic stories a bit too little. Sophia Loren at age 23 shows that she was already a fine actress, much more than simply a spectacular beauty. In an understated performance she conveys the stress of her unusual life and transmits the constant dread that everyone feels. William Holden, Trevor Howard, Oscar Homolka and Bernard Lee are, like the supporting cast, very good.

As a master (captain) of salvage tugs I can attest to the incredible reality of the shipboard scenes. I have seen no other film that rivals the scenes shot at sea for this film. I found the film riveting for both the action at sea, and the drama ashore.

The plot develops as the characters develop. Will the ship complete her mission? Will the captain return to the apartment? Will the characters overcome the obstacles before them, both emotionally and physically?

Trevor Howard is the perfect old salt, full of bravado, yet terrified.

William Holden, the optimistic American.

Sophia Loren played the role of Stella perfectly! She is the despondent, cynical, war shocked shell in whom we are drawn to share William Holden's hope.

I was mesmerized to the end.

This film is visually interesting, based on really interesting source material and very well acted. My problem with the film is the content, aka the main storyline which involves a woman played by Sophia Loren who is passed along with an apartment from one tug boat captain to the next. I imagine that there are those that would argue that this is war time, yada yada yada... but to me as a woman it was dehumanizing and it troubled me that this clearly broken woman was being taken advantage of. Stella is never forced, but when you hear the story of the death of her tug boat captain fiancé, see his photo still in it's frame and her wedding ring, you know that this woman is not mentally healthy as she is being passed from man to man with her apartment.

The story itself is based on a novel "Stella" by the Dutch author Jan de Hartog. Having joined the Netherlands merchant navy as a correspondent in 1943 and served as a ship's captain for which he received the Netherlands' "Cross of Merit", de Hartog had lots of great material to draw from for his book.

I really appreciated the accuracy and danger of the WWII tug salvage missions. The tugs did not have long range weapons and were almost sitting ducks for the German submarines until they got with gun range of the ship that they were rescuing.

The story follows an American sea captain David Ross (William Holden) who, while ten years out of practice, volunteers before America enters the war and is assigned to an Atlantic tug salvage post were he meets an old British friend who is already stationed there. Captain Chris Ford (Trevor Howard) has a pretty good set up, a top floor private apartment that he shares with a girlfriend named Stella. On his first night however, David has the situation explained to him about Stella, the apartment and the key. Chris gives David the key before David heads to his hotel accommodations, which are shared with 3 other bunk mates in a room behind the kitchen.

Eventually, Chris is killed and David is left to tell Stella...but he also tells her he won't be using the key. This only last a short while and when he eventually uses the key I really appreciated how Stella doesn't say anything she just picks up the phone and asks for his phone calls to be transferred to the apartment.

I'm not going to say too much more, other than to say that for WWII historical content I highly recommend this film. The acting is fabulous. I wasn't wild about Sophia's choppy boy like hairstyle, it made it difficult for me to look at her and take her seriously. And while I didn't like the storyline itself I still have a great appreciation for the film.

"The Key" is a frustrating film for me. I love that the story talks about a seldom talked about group of men and their seemingly impossible and thankless mission. But there also is a romance that seems poor and difficult to care about as well.

Captain David Ross (William Holden) is an American sailor who has volunteered to fight for the British in the early stages of WWII. He's disappointed, however, to see he's made a tugboat captain. But it's a different sort of tugboat...it's used to escort supply ships into the UK and the tugboats are essentially defenseless and their main purpose is to draw fire away from the 'important ships'!

In the midst of this thankless job, the Captain goes to live with a friend and his mistress (Sophia Loren). Soon he learns that she's been with successive men...and when one is killed she seems to just go on to the next. The other skippers see her as a bad luck charm. But despite this, once her current love is killed, the Captain falls for her.

The problem with the film is that the romance is never especially romantic. In fact, many times it seems anti-romantic and the chemistry is never there between the pair. An okay film...but it easily could have been much better.

An extraordinary movie in every way, from the combat scenes, which are so lifelike as virtually to constitute a documentary, to the superb acting by every single member of the cast, including each of the supporting players. But the very highest praise must go to Sophia Loren's absolutely stunning performance (not to mention her uncanny command of English at so early an age). Her quiet, dignified, and restrained interpretation of her very unusual and extremely demanding role is simply in a class by itself. I have never been able to get her graceful performance out of my mind. This is one of those movies of great merit, bewitched from the start, that simply disappear from public and critical consciousness---never to be recalled or mentioned even when, for example, the careers of Loren, Holden, or Trevor Howard are discussed. It is as if it were never made at all. A great shame.

The Key (1958) is a pretty good wartime drama with some good acting and enough suspense to keep us interested. The problem is that it needs to be edited down by at least 15 minutes. Especially, the seafaring missions on the tugboats. Some of this seems to drag on a bit too long and made me lethargic. Some effective usage of WW2 battlements, sounds and warfare are done well, but we don't need to drag out these scenes.

William Holden, Sophia Loren and Trevor Howard each give good performances. Sophia's delivers a rare understated and soft-spoken performance which is perfectly correct since she is the woman in question. Trevor Howard musters up a cantankerous voice for his weather beaten British sailor character. William Holden is himself naturally.

I particularly liked the metaphysical /supernatural element to this story since war movies are often too rehashed and derivative of other war movies. This had an interesting plot device. I must have watched the extended version of 2.5 hours plus. It's just too long. Strangely, the ending is not your typical Hollywood ending with a happy ending.

Jan de Hartog's novel "Stella" becomes interesting, erratic, uneven WWII battle story mixed with romantic melodrama. William Holden, an American sergeant with the Canadian Army, is transferred to England to captain a rescue-tugboat in U-boat-infested Atlantic waters; the job inadvertently comes with a flat and a resident girl (Sophia Loren, an Italian by way of Switzerland!). Carol Reed directs the shipboard battle sequences well, but there's too much intricate detail (bombs going off, waves rocking the ships, crews scrambling the decks) that one loses sight of the main characters. Holden has some wonderful moments early on--fearful of his new position, nervous about his first day on the job--and his gaining respect from his men is one of the highlights of the picture. Loren has much less to work with...and in much less time; every so often she has a frightening premonition, or she's cooking, cleaning, or getting out of the tub. The bit with the apartment key near the end (passing it along before a treacherous assignment) is pure balderdash, and even talented Holden can't make the final scenes work. Very nice cinematography from Oswald Morris, sumptuous scoring by Malcolm Arnold; yet, overall, the picture is a minor one. ** from ****

a war story. special for the manner to reflect it. for the scenes of confrontation, for the minimalist and impressive performance of Sophia Loren, for grow up of his character of William Holden and for the flavor - mix of cinnamon and ashes - . its great virtue - the inspired equilibrium between slices of docudrama and a love story who escapes to the easy definitions. result - a memorable film, exploring the war theme from provocative angle, giving an inspired portrait of states and emotions, work of a wise director who knows use , with great impact, the story for a delicate and precise , admirable result.

With the exception of Sunset Boulevard, I'm no Holden fan. I find there's a kind of arrogance about him that makes him unappealing. OTOH, I'm usually a Loren fan, not only for her good looks, but because she brings a certain pleasure to whatever role she's in. But this movie is an exception. While I realize Loren is supposed to be war-weary and troubled, she's unusually inert and rather uninteresting here. Still, there's plenty of war action to make it watchable, and the story moves along well enough. And I'm a sucker for anything British from the 1950s in black and white; so if you share that like, you might want to try out this movie.

A deceptive war drama which is really a fantastical love story in the vein of Billy Wilder's LOve in the Afternoon. William Holden plays the lead, and what character does he play but a reluctant dogged, selfish seeming individual who resists authority and wears cynicism on his face, mien and posture like a pair of brown well-trodden in sandals. No one did better and he does it excellently yet again. America is yet to enter WWII but Holden is sent to join the Britisn Navy and commandeer tug boats who make rescue missions for other vessels but carry no ammunitions to defend themselves. Thus when called up, the men know they are goners, thus they are known as suicide missions. Sophia who might just be the best foreign actress completely nails her part as the unkempt woman who has lost her will to live when the war took the lives of her family leaving her alone in the world. Therefore, she becomes a kept woman in an apartment, where the key of the title is passed by men who see themselves as goners on a suicide mission to the next fellow who takes up residence till he gets his own suicide call. The scenes are gritty and the ocean scenes realistic in the style of the French new wave. Trevor Howard is fantastic as the man who breaks Holden in and their camaraderie anchors the movie. The score is strange and the way director Reed paces and uses shadows, you think it might turn into a horror movie anytime soon but he is really planting the seeds of love in our heads. Based on a novel by Jan de hartog a Tony winning playwright, the adaptation is fantastic, true and not preachy. As Holden does everything to stay alive and Loren does everything not to, the question of why do we live that everyone asks is tested. The last fifteen minutes and breaks, copies and redounds the rules of this to and ending that is well deserved and earned. Mr. carol Reed , thank you for the effort. Thsi movie which underperformed in the US was a smash hit overseas, a tradition that would become part of Sophia's career. Sophia who at this point had not shown any real proclivity for drama walks like a shining gem and shows why she is one of the few foreign actresses to be nominated more than once for the Oscar in a foreign language performance. Well done!

The Key is a combination of two films: a war movie and a creepy romance. Neither one of them is very good, so the end result is an odd black-and-white war movie in the late 1950s with romantic scenes forced in every ten minutes. Amazingly enough, they managed to make Sophia Loren look homely, and the love scenes between her and William Holden are laughable at worst and awkward at best. If you're interested in naval wartime movies, there are hundreds of others you can rent.

William Holden joins a group of rescue ships under the command of Trevor Howard. Trevor has a salty, crusty character that's unlikable and unimaginative-and he also has a mistress who's slightly nuts. Sophia Loren lives in an apartment haunted by the memories of all her dead sailor boyfriends. Every time one of them dies, the key to her apartment gets handed off to another man, who then hands it off to another friend in the off-chance he dies. It doesn't sound like much fun for Sophia, does it? It's no wonder she's not convincing in her love scenes. Bill tries to make up for it by overexaggerating his sighs and moony eyes, but it feels pretty ridiculous at times.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie is not your friend. The boat scenes are filmed with a bobbing camera, and several shots are randomly tilted. It will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!" Seriously, you can skip this one. Chance are, if you're looking for a war movie, you'll fast-forward the love scenes, and if you're looking for a romance, you'll fast-forward the battle scenes. Why not pick something else for tonight?

This excellent film comes within director Carol Reed's golden period that began with 'Odd Man Out' in 1947 and ended with 'Our Man in Havana' in 1959. Any director, even one in the same class as Reed, requires a good script to interpret and here he has a superlative screenplay by Carl Foreman based upon the novel 'Stella' by Jan de Hartog which deals with the incredible bravery of tug crews whose job it is to rescue damaged ships in a stretch of the Atlantic known as 'U-Boat Alley'.

William Holden and Trevor Howard play tugboat captains and Sophia Loren plays Stella with whom their fates are inextricably linked. She is regarded as a 'jinx' to the ill-fated men who have in their turn been given the key to her apartment. The question is will Holden's character suffer the same fate.....?

Loren gives a beautifully sympathetic and understated performance, one of her finest actually. Holden never disappoints and Howard whose film career owed a great deal to Reed, picked up a BAFTA. Mention must also be made of Oscar Homolka and Bernard Lee. The editing by Bert Bates is exemplary, especially the suspenseful battle sequences, while Malcolm Arnold's score is powerful without being overpowering. Of the two endings that Reed was obliged to shoot the one here is far less happy but far more dramatic.

This is a very sad story but as deep as the ocean, charting the fates of the unknown limbo victims of war trying to make the best of a bleak life in the shadows just waiting for the dark final curtain to come down.

Everything is excellent in this film. The three main characters Trevor Howard, William Holden and Sophia Loren make this film monumental in its almost shockingly documentary human drama of a struggle for life against hopeless odds, while the carrot making them go on is the illusion of hope after all.

William and Trevor are both captains of tugs in the war saving "lame ducks", ships hit by submarines but not sinking, so they have to be tugged back to harbour, usually under hard fire from the u-boats. There are mines also, guns that don't work in battle, bad weather and what not.

They are old friends, have been to Panama together, and when William comes to help the tugging from America (before Pearl Harbour) he stays at Trevor's place, but there's also Sophia Loren as a widow from previous casualty captains. She was at her very best in unglamorous roles, and this is one of them. Her acting is delicately understatement-like all the way, she knows too much about the conditions of war and the horrible cruelty of its merciless laws of destiny, but still there is in her very cool playacting a deep warmth like burning coals that never fade. There is a touch of eternal continuity in this extremely fascinating character.

If you know anything about war, this film will touch you profoundly to the core. The black-and-white photography enhances its very human drama. There can never be enough said about rare films like this. There's only one thing to say: it's too good for words. At the same time, it couldn't be more hopelessly devastatingly noir.

The latter reviews do not mention Sophia Loren's electrifying performance, partnered by the ever-excellent William Holden. The direction is subtle at first, but as the film gains in intensity the camera starts moving in a 3 D manner, it was shot in CinemaScope, and the action takes you into the relationship, adulterous and complex, as the ships begin to list, dive into the waves as they come at them, spewing salt water as in a Tsunami, without let up, and the love between Holden and Sophia Loren dives along with the oceanic activities, creating a kind of bedlam of emotions and expressed feelings. The world has many weapons to use against this couple, and it can strike from all sides and does. The key is perhaps the worst object and yet the best object either of them can possess. A must from Carol Reed who gave us The Third Man.

I recently viewed The Key (1958) on Tubi. The storyline unfolds during World War II, where a widow resides in an apartment funded by a naval officer. After the officer's passing, he bequeaths the key to the apartment to his best friend, another naval officer. They fall in love, and the naval officer friend vows that their relationship will be different. However, his subsequent actions and decisions cast doubt on the widow's belief in their future together.

Directed by Carol Reed (The Third Man), starring William Holden (Sabrina), Sophia Loren (El Cid), Trevor Howard (The Third Man), and Oscar Homolka (The Seven Year Itch).

The film is meticulously crafted, presenting intricate circumstances, interactions, and conversations. The unconventional pairing of a sailor after sailor and Sophia Loren was interesting as was how they depicted her mindset and desperate fight for survival. Loren's captivating performance enhances well-delivered characters. The model boats, submarines, and action sequences add enjoyable elements. The films twists and turns culminate in a realistic and satisfying conclusion.

In summary, The Key stands as an underrated war drama, a must-see, deserving of a 9/10 score. I would strongly recommended it.