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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

The Dukes' production company Batjac did occasionally turn out films that didn't star the American icon, but they were typically low budget affairs. William Campbell, an actor who bounced back and forth between A and B films throughout the 50s and 60s, stars as Tommy Dancer, an average guy earning meagre wages as a locksmith. But a two-bit hoodlum named Willis Trent (Berry Kroeger) wants to hire Tommy for a job: make a set of keys for a safety deposit box that contains a substantial payday. Tommy refuses at first - he's no angel, but he's a basically good man - but the bad guys will naturally figure out ways to manipulate him into doing the job.

While Leonard Maltins' paperback review guide has always dismissed this one, in truth it's a fairly entertaining crime / noir programmer with some good acting. Campbell is okay, but is outshone by top character actors like Kroeger, Mike Mazurki (cast to type as Trents' thug), Paul Fix, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, and James Seay. It also features very nice eye candy in the form of the lovely Karen Sharpe, who plays Tommy's love interest, and delectable Anita Ekberg, the mistress of big time mob boss Seay. A lady named Vivianne Lloyd gets fairly prominent billing, but her main purpose is to take a few minutes belting out the number "Let the Chips Fall Where They May".

"Man in the Vault" is given competent guidance by director Andrew V. McLaglen, who subsequently graduated to bigger movies, a number of them with The Duke. A truly special film it's not, but it entertains reasonably for a trim 74 minutes, and features two standout suspense sequences: one, inside a bank vault, where Tommy doesn't stand much chance of not being witnessed, and two, inside a bowling alley where Tommy is pursued by an unseen assailant.

Co-star Gonzalez had earlier appeared on TV's 'You Bet Your Life', which is where The Duke had first noticed him. This little factoid is echoed as part of the movies' story (scripted by future director Burt Kennedy, based on a novel by Frank Gruber).

Seven out of 10.

Enjoyed this B Film from 1956 which involves a locksmith named Tommy Dancer, (William Campbell) who lives a very average life and one night in his favorite bowling alley a man named Willis Trent, (Berry Kroeger) makes his acquaintance. Willis invites Tommy to a party he is having and a young gal named Betty Turner, (Karen Sharpe) catches Tommys eye and a romance starts to bloom. The film gets interesting when Tommy decides to take a job making special keys which will provide him with five thousand dollars but things change and Tommy decides to take more of the cash than he expected to receive. This is a low budget film, but I always enjoy seeing veteran actors who have a long career of appearing in many films over the years. Berry Kroeger gave a great performance along with William Campbell and Karen Sharpe who made this film very entertaining.

I had an old fuzzy copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy of a TV broadcast of this 1956 crime-noir B programmer, but now that there's a new letter-boxed DVD out, I threw the old tape away and can finally enjoy this film for what it is: a solid "b" crime film with good performances, good pacing, and great Los Angeles location photography. The under-rated William Campbell plays an average guy working as a locksmith, who is approached by a gangster who wants to break into a safe deposit box. Campbell, like most people probably, initially tries to be polite, but turns down the offer. Gangsters don't like being turned down, so one can imagine where the plot goes. There's a woman involved, a shady lawyer, another gangster who has gone legit, Mike Mazurki as an ex-boxer turned enforcer, and the comedy of Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez (a regular in Batjac Productions of this era). The main female role is played (well) by Karen Sharpe, who hails from here in San Antonio! Anita Ekberg is in a small role as the girlfriend of James Seay's character, the owner of the safe deposit box. Ekberg is not really given much to do. The film, an early directorial credit of Andrew V. McLaglen. legendary director of many classic westerns and action films, is very well-paced and has amazing location photography of 1950's Los Angeles. A few key scenes take place in a bowling alley, actually Art Linkletter's La Cienega Lanes, which is of great documentary value in itself. Wait until you see the climax inside the bowling alley! This probably deserves a "7" rating, but I'll give it one star more for the nice widescreen transfer on the DVD and the great location photography. This plays a lot like an Allied Artists low-budget 50's crime film, and for me that is a high compliment. Check it out...

John Wayne's Batjac Productions produced this average and cheap potboiler noir and the cast and credits look like they could have come from a Wayne film. With Andrew McLaglen directing, Burt Kennedy doing the script and William Clothier behind the camera it sure looks like a Wayne western.

But it's a modern noir film that Batjac has given us. I think John Wayne was trying to launch William Campbell's career with a lead and while Campbell had a good career, he sure never became box office.

Campbell plays a locksmith who Berry Kroeger wants to employ to make a duplicate key for a safety deposit box that contains $200,000.00 in cash. Kroeger is one ruthless dude and has many ways of persuasion including capturing and threatening to torture Karen Sharpe who Campbell has recently been seeing. He's got Mike Mazurki for the rough stuff on his payroll.

It's a real pickle Campbell is in, but he's a plucky soul

A lot of money sure wasn't spent on this given the folks associated with this one. All I can say is that in this average noir film, a whole lot of people did this one as a favor to the Duke.