Film Review
In spite of its stellar cast, compelling story and first rate
production values,
The Key
remains one of Carol Reed's most overlooked films, and it is hard to
see why this should be as it fits perfectly into the director's body of
work and makes a more than satisfactory companion piece to his far
better known noir masterpieces
Odd Man Out (1947) and
The
Third Man (1949). Based on a novel by Jan de
Hartog,
The Key almost feels
like a dark parody of a 1940s British war film, with all the
propaganda trimmings and bogus sentimentality brutally stripped
away. Far from being a conventional war film, it is more a sombre
meditation on the illusion of fatalism, one that makes its point
succinctly in one crucial line: if everyone who is caught up in a war
is doomed from the outset, there is no point in fighting at all.
In the grim lottery of war, not everyone is doomed to die.
The real conflict underpinning the film is not between the Allies and
the Nazis; it is a more subtle one, between man's belief in predestination and free
will. For a while, it seems that the hero Ross (William Holden)
is destined to follow the same path as his predecessors. No
matter what he does, it looks as if there is nothing he can do to alter
the course of events. Even when he acts with juvenile spontaneity, giving the
alluring femme fatale (Sophia Loren) a potted plant, he merely repeats
what has been done before. The pattern appears to be
unbreakable. He will move in with Stella, he will fall in love,
he will pass on the key, then we will die. There is nothing he
can do to change any of this - he might as well be in one of those
crassly predictable war films of the 1940s. It is the growing
conflict between this conveyor-belt fatalism and the hero's
refusal to accept the inevitable which gives the film its intensity and
almost unbearable tension.
The nature of the story lends itself naturally to the distinctive film
noir stylisation that Reed employed on some of his earlier films.
Slanted camera angles and high contrast photography are skilfully
employed to build the tension and give an unsettlingly subjective feel
to the more dramatic scenes in the film. Reed and his talented
cinematographer Oswald Morris compel us to experience something of the
hero's paranoia as he gradually succumbs to the illusion that he has
been caught in a trap, forced to play out a tragedy that has already
befallen several men in his position. Throughout the film, there
is a growing sense of fatalism, as palpable
as that of any film noir, and it isn't towards the end of the film that
the spell is broken and we realise that there may, possibly, be the
chance of a happier outcome. Another strength of the film are the
sea battles, which are extremely well-choreographed and filmed with an
almost balletic elegance and gripping sense of drama.
The casting is as impeccable as in any other Carol Reed film.
Trevor Howard, who had made a memorable appearance in Reed's
The Third Man, is the perfect
choice for the role of the English tugboat captain who faces up to his
mortality with what can only be described as affable
indifference. William Holden's portrayal of Howard's successor is
quite different, far more heroic as the character sees war in a more
realistic light and is visibly tormented by the fear of a brutal
death. As the mysterious Stella, Sophia Loren has an unsettling
ghostlike presence for much of the film - her character only comes to
life once Holden has infected her with his belief that there is a
glimmer of hope. A remarkable ensemble of British character
actors (Bernard Lee, Beatrix Lehmann, Bryan Forbes, Irene Handl, not to
mention a young Michael Caine in a walk-on part) adds considerably to
the film's stark authenticity and dramatic impact. No admirer of
Carol Reed can fail to be impressed by this film, which deserves to
be placed alongside his other achievements as a work of exceptional
quality. It is worth noting that an alternative happy ending
was shot but this was vetoed by the American
censors, thankfully so as the more downbeat ending is a much more natural
conclusion to the film.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Carol Reed film:
Our Man in Havana (1959)
Film Synopsis
In 1941, David Ross, an American sergeant serving in the Canadian army,
is reassigned to command a Royal Navy tugboat, whose purpose is to drag
stricken cargo vessels to shore. The tugboats are poorly equipped
with weaponry and are an easy target for German U-boats and aircraft,
so the mortality rate of those who undertake this dangerous work is
high. David meets up with an old friend, Chris Ford, who captains
another tugboat. After David's trial run, Chris takes him back to
his apartment to meet his lover, Stella. Chris tells his friend
that he was given the key to the apartment by its former tenant,
another tugboat captain named Van Barger, who in turn took the key from
his predecessor, Stella's fiancé Philip. Each of the men
in turn became Stella's lover, and David reluctantly accepts the key
when Chris offers it to him. Shortly after Chris and Stella
decide to get married the inevitable happens. Chris is killed in
the line of duty and David replaces him as the tenant of the
apartment. The pattern repeats itself. David falls in love
with Stella and they agree to marry. But the next day David is tasked
with salvaging a crippled American freighter that has been sending out
an S.O.S. distress call on an open channel. Aware that the
U-boats will be waiting for him, David sets out to sea, knowing that he
will not return...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.