The Steel Key

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...

Robert S. Baker directs a good action script by the ever dependable John Gilling, and the result is a charming 69-minute film with handsome male lead Terence Morgan in fine form, the precursor of the Saint that Roger Moore would immortalize on TV in the 1960s. As pointed out by other viewers, Director Baker would be actively involved in THE SAINT series.

Always stylish and with a quirky sense of humor, Morgan rapidly puts Inspector Forsythe - whom he calls Basil - in his place, hunts down the much sought after "steel key" formula that hardens metals, and deals with a gang of fairly smooth villains led by Ross and Tapley, with sidekick evil-eyed Lovegrove playing nurse Gilchrist, who is definitely not good for anybody's health.

Curvaceous Dianne Foster provides the most curious character of all: she is clearly a scheming criminal intent on capitalizing on her hubby's "steel key" formula, and she thinks nothing of having Ross as her lover, French-kissing Morgan, and still keeping hubby Professor Newman out of sight in gaol-like tenements. The latter is understandbly less than chuffed.

Cinematography is better than I would expect of a B pic from Tempean films, the unobtrusive score is pleasant enough, and the ending is something to savor.

Definitely worth watching!

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.

I can see the point being made by the other reviewers.This is a Saint film in all but name.Terence Morgan is constantly evading the police whilst looking for the professor and his formula.The cast is quite interesting.Edmond Knight who was blinded in the sea battle with the Bismark,playing the professor.Michael Balfour is a sailor.Sam Judd with a moustache plays a henchman.Same Cannon is a rather dotty patient in the doctors waiting room.The film was made on the south coast and I am wondering if it used Brighton studios which was one of the oldest studios,closing in the sixties.The script isn't marvellous,but it provides some action.

"The Steel Key" looks like an early try-out for "The Saint" TV series.

Terence Morgan plays an attractive rogue that police forces around the world would love to catch red-handed; and yet he is happily focused on bringing real criminals to justice.

The "steel key" is a military secret - a "Macguffin" that matters not one jot. The baddies want it - Terence Morgan's character (who uses three different names during the film) gets involved by pretending to have it.

Forsythe, the policeman, is Chief Inspector Teal by another name. And Joan Rice is absolutely charming in the love interest role.

Good fun - with nice views of Fifties Newhaven.