William Campbell (Wayne's The High and the Mighty) stars as locksmith Tommy Dancer, who while bowling is approached by mysterious Willis Trent (Berry Kroeger, very hammy) with a job: open an old, apparently worthless footlocker back at his place. Tommy makes a new key in no time, and Trent invites the locksmith to have a few drinks at the party he's hosting.

There, Tommy becomes attracted to wealthy 23-year-old Betty Turner (Karen Sharpe, also of The High and the Mighty). She's in the middle of a fight with her lawyer boyfriend Earl Farraday (Robert Keys), who in turn has been cheating on her with trophy mistress Flo (Anita Ekberg, still four years away from La Dolce Vita). Catching Betty on the rebound, Tommy takes her home, but she bails on him after he tries to bed her.

Meanwhile, Tommy's suspicions that Trent is crooked are confirmed when he offers the locksmith an unusual job: make two keys to open a safety deposit box. Tommy initially turns the job down flat but, wanting to stay involved with rich Betty, the $5,000 Trent is offering is awfully tempting. What will he do?

Officially produced by Robert E. Morrison, Wayne's younger brother, Man in the Vault is oddly structured and occasionally weirdly convoluted, as if a scene or two of important exposition were cut (it crams a lot of story into its 73-minute running time), or maybe some footage was shuffled around. Most of the film centers around Tommy Dancer, but the story opens with a long scene involving Trent that isn't really necessary. Both Betty and Trent are connected to Tommy via their association with Farraday, and mistress Flo likewise ties Farraday to the safety deposit box, own by Flo's husband, the semi-reformed gangster Paul De Camp (James Seay). Added to all this is Herbie (Paul Fix), yet another crook trying to muscle in on the action.

The film is actually notably short on action, and a lot of what action there is occurs offscreen. But Man in the Vault works well when it sticks to Tommy's story and the mystery as seen from his perspective, trying to figure out what Trent is up to, how to win Betty heart, and avoid getting arrested as he tries to break into that mysterious safety deposit box.

Campbell and Sharpe are both quite good. He would become something of a cult actor for his long association with Star Trek, and though steadily employed through the mid-1970s and occasionally after that, casting directors generally didn't seem to know how to make the best use of his talent. Before retiring from acting after marrying producer-director Stanley Kramer in the mid-1960s, Sharpe was similarly busy but never became the big star she might have been in the Hollywood of the '30s or '40s. Beyond her exceptional beauty she's quite a good actress, very natural when given the right material.

Besides scenery-chewing Kroeger, the cast includes Mike Mazurki as (what else?) Trent's ex-fighter gorilla henchman, and Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales, whom Wayne hired after seeing the non-professional actor's hilarious appearance on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. He has a nice role as (bowling) pin-setter, back in the days before lanes were fully automated. Those familiar with Gonzales-Gonzales' story will find his reference to the show that made him famous amusing if out-of-place.

The film's best asset, which in 1956 was simply budget consciousness, is the use of real locations throughout the picture. There's some great footage shot at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, at a bank that's now a Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Much of the film was shot at Art Linkletter's La Cienega Bowling Lanes, a popular '50s hangout.**

Video & Audio

Paramount's DVD of Batjac's Man in the Vault is thankfully presented in its original widescreen with 16:9 enhancement, at about 1.77:1, and it retains the original RKO logo. The black and white image isn't perfect, but it still looks quite good on big, widescreen TVs. The English mono sound is adequate. There are no Extra Features, nor are there French or Spanish subtitle options (though there are English subs), a major omission.

Parting Thoughts

Man in the Vault is no masterpiece, but for those who enjoy program pictures and nifty little low-budget crime noirs, Man in the Vault fits the bill quite nicely.

**The late director Richard Fleischer and screenwriter Carl Foreman apparently used to bowl there every week with their wives back in the early-1950s. (This reviewer was, coincidentally, re-reading Fleischer's wonderful autobiography the same day he watched Man in the Vault.)

Stuart Galbraith IV talks about Invasion of Astro-Monster in an audio commentary track that's just one part of Classic Media's upcoming Godzilla Classic Collector's Edition. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.