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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 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

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.

'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.

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.