clanciai This is a very sad story but as deep as the ocean, charting the fates of the unknown limbo victims of war trying to make the best of a bleak life in the shadows just waiting for the dark final curtain to come down.Everything is excellent in this film. The three main characters Trevor Howard, William Holden and Sophia Loren make this film monumental in its almost shockingly documentary human drama of a struggle for life against hopeless odds, while the carrot making them go on is the illusion of hope after all.William and Trevor are both captains of tugs in the war saving "lame ducks", ships hit by submarines but not sinking, so they have to be tugged back to harbour, usually under hard fire from the u-boats. There are mines also, guns that don't work in battle, bad weather and what not.They are old friends, have been to Panama together, and when William comes to help the tugging from America (before Pearl Harbour) he stays at Trevor's place, but there's also Sophia Loren as a widow from previous casualty captains. She was at her very best in unglamorous roles, and this is one of them. Her acting is delicately understatement-like all the way, she knows too much about the conditions of war and the horrible cruelty of its merciless laws of destiny, but still there is in her very cool playacting a deep warmth like burning coals that never fade. There is a touch of eternal continuity in this extremely fascinating character.If you know anything about war, this film will touch you profoundly to the core. The black-and-white photography enhances its very human drama. There can never be enough said about rare films like this. There's only one thing to say: it's too good for words. At the same time, it couldn't be more hopelessly devastatingly noir.

Kirpianuscus a war story. special for the manner to reflect it. for the scenes of confrontation, for the minimalist and impressive performance of Sophia Loren, for grow up of his character of William Holden and for the flavor - mix of cinnamon and ashes - . its great virtue - the inspired equilibrium between slices of docudrama and a love story who escapes to the easy definitions. result - a memorable film, exploring the war theme from provocative angle, giving an inspired portrait of states and emotions, work of a wise director who knows use , with great impact, the story for a delicate and precise , admirable result.

Panamint '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.

bkoganbing This is a curious film. A gritty, tough realistic movie during the action sequences at sea, but when the story shifts to land and Sophia Loren and the men her life, it's dull and lifeless.Trevor Howard and Bill Holden are men numbers three and four in refugee Sophia Loren's life. The key is the key to her apartment which the guys make duplicates of and pass on to friends. Right after that's done, the giver is killed at sea. Howard and Holden are tugboat captains assigned to tugs who go out to the open sea and pick up crippled freighters bringing needed war supplies to Great Britain during World War II and tow them in. The tugs are poorly armed and barely sea worthy and are easy marks for theGermans. It's hard tough work and director Carol Reed does a superb job showing that. This is one of the least glamorized war movies I've ever seen. The men are fatalistic to say the least, but especially around Sophia as if the Nazis weren't enough to worry about.Sophia Loren is a lovely thing of beauty and certainly a pleasure to watch, but her scenes with her two male co-stars have absolutely no spark at all.If you watch this I recommend you fast forward the romance and get to the action.