The Steel Key

THE STEEL KEY is another low budget British crime film from Tempean Films, directed by Robert S. Baker (of the Berman/Baker) team and with a script by John Gilling. As other reviewers have noted, the plot is very similar to one of the Saint books by Leslie Charteris, albeit with the character names changed. It's no surprise that Berman and Baker would later go on to make THE SAINT TV series in the 1960s.

This film offers the rare chance to see movie bad guy Terence Morgan playing the hero for once. Morgan is a playboy-style hero, ever suffering from having the police at his heels, who adopts the identity of a research scientist in order to bring some real crooks to book. The tale is about the hunt for a scientific formula for hardened steel which is a classic MacGuffin in the Hitchcock mould and doesn't really have much in the way of relevance.

Basically, THE STEEL KEY consists of characters chasing each other around and attempting to outwit each other. Morgan is excellent and really shines as the likable hero and Joan Rice is a fine choice as the plucky nurse who helps him. Raymond Lovell adds humour as the exasperated detective while there are minor roles for the familiar faces of Sam Kydd, Michael Balfour, Esma Cannon, and Esmond Knight. Dianne Foster has a similar femme fatale character to the one she had in Tempean's THE QUIET WOMAN. Once again the south coast (this time, Newhaven) provides a good backdrop for the action. Watch out for Morgan's stuntman, who has different coloured hair to the actor!

International playboy and thief Johnny O'Flynn (Terence Morgan) tries to prevent criminals from stealing a secret formula for processing hardened steel, called the Steel Key, and discovers that one of the scientists involved has been murdered while another, Professor Newman, has died of apparently natural causes. His investigation leads him to a sanatorium, run by one Dr Crabtree, and a captured scientist forced to reproduce the formula. On the way, Johnny meets Newman's glamorous, younger wife Sylvia and rescues Joan Rice, a nurse, after the kidnappers try to kill her. Inspector Forsythe of Scotland Yard is also on the scent, but is intent on arresting Johnny for the crime.

Okay, I'll be honest. Some people say they love a particular film. I'm willing to go further than that. If this film was a woman, I would invite her to the most expensive restaurant in town. I'd buy her flowers. I'd get on bended knee and propose. I've only seen the film once so far but - come on - there's such a thing as love at first sight, isn't there?

But seriously, this one is such a good deal of fun and will probably end up being one of my favourites of the era. It seems explicitly designed to appeal to me and other fans of fun adventure-thrillers in which a suave and witty hero make fools of the police, gets into fisticuffs with the bad guys, joins forces with a plucky heroine and flies by the seat of his pants until he prevents an international conspiracy to ... well, whatever the bad guys are trying to do.

This was originally intended to be a film of The Saint, but producers Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman could not secure the rights to the character. (They would eventually, of course, make a phenomenally successful television series based on the character with Roger Moore.) Its Saintly beginnings, however, remain obvious to all as O'Flynn is considered to be a thief who claims a reward for any boodle he recovers and spars wryly with a portly inspector who would love to put him behind bars. It's basically Simon and Inspector Teal, with all the hijinks that implies.

With his chiselled features, slick dark hair and glint in his eye, actor Terrence Morgan makes for a likable and charismatic hero as Johnny O'Flynn. Amid all the action, there are some good dollops of humour in here too. There is, of course, the constant cat-and-mouse game with the police, but there are also moments which border on farce (never a bad thing, in my book) as Johnny pretends to be one of the scientists involved with Newman. Indeed, nurse Joan never discovers his real name and it is uttered only a handful of times in the whole film. The finger of accusation moves frequently from one suspect to another, but this a pacey adventure and not a drawing room whodunit, though the revelation does come as a surprise. The only criticism I would make is the inclusion of three scientists (one who is only referred to), which seems a bit messy to me. Perhaps it would have been better if Newman alone had been the scientist and the other two helped fund his experiments or held government positions.

Morgan's career started out promisingly with roles in Olivier's Hamlet and Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck, but he quickly slid into B-films and became typecast as villains, and though a switch to television with The Adventures of Francis Drake was successful, it did not last. Fortunately, there does not seem to have been an unhappy ending for Morgan, as he left acting to run a hotel in Sussex for many years before becoming a property developer. He died in 2005 at the age of 83. It's a wonder Hollywood didn't want him, but I suppose there were so many other actors out there who could also offer what he had.

Anyway, The Steel Key - see it!

Terence Morgan arrives in England, intending to find Esmond Knight. Knight is the only scientist around with the know-how to perfect a process for hardening steel, a process worked on by a dead man in America. Morgan's progress is hampered -- though not much -- by stolid police inspector Raymond Lovell, and aided by Joan Rice, a nurse who quit working at a doctor's sanatorium.... who recently pronounced Knight dead.

It's a light-hearted adventure yarn in which Morgan keeps a step ahead of everyone else while he tries to figure out who's dead, who knows what, who he's claiming to be at the moment, and where the formula is. It's a pleasantly fast-moving second feature that takes only 70 minutes.

Terence Morgan has a bit of a glint in his eye here as "Johnny", a bit of an opportunist who finds himself embroiled in a plot to abduct a professor (Esmond Knight) and pinch his formula for hardened steel that could revolutionise production and durability. Together with his charming - and quite wily - girlfriend "Doreen" (Joan Rice) they have to thwart these would be thieves and save the boffin whilst convincing Scotland Yard's finest "Insp. Forsythe" (Raymond Lovell) that they are on the level too! It's quite a lively affair and the sort of roguish, but honourable, antics of the star really did remind me of a "Simon Templar" type of character. It's all pretty predicable fayre, but there are a few fun cameos from amongst the supporting cast and it whizzes along fine for an hour. You'll never remember it afterwards, but it's perfectly watchable on a wet afternoon.

An early Berman/Baker production for Tempean in which several people get murdered without anybody seeming particularly alarmed, least of all the police. Shady hero Terence Morgan meanwhile simply shrugs his shoulders and pleads innocence by declaring that "I haven't murdered anybody in a month of Sundays..."!

It being the fifties, Esmond Knight as the bearer of the film's MacGuffin (which furnishes the cool title) keeps his tie on throughout his incarceration and rough handling by what the principal bad guy calls "our little organisation". The women - Mata Hari Dianne Foster and Girl Friday Joan Rice - naturally look great in their permanent waves and immaculate clothes; and there are attractive locations used as backdrops in and around London in places that at today's prices would be prohibitively expensive (including a couple of visits to Newhaven).

Sam Kydd sports a spivvy little moustache as a sinister chauffeur, while Esma Cannon (billed as 'Esme') is a delight as usual in a very brief role sitting in a waiting room as a neurological patient who recently received a phone call in the middle of the night from her long dead husband. (Nobody else has mentioned that this film also contains the final featured appearance by Raymond Lovell as the scowling detective, since he died a few months after it was released aged only 53.)

A Metallurgist Writes: The process by which Iron is transformed into Steel is already a process for strengthening it; and anyone out there who understands chemical formulae could probably amuse themself by studying the scribblings we briefly get a close-up of to see if they actually make any sense...