Apart from the unique acting style of Jack Hawkins (before his so sad illness),one thing which marks this film out from modern detective yarns is that the detective work follows logical sequences - little depends on chance and nothing on fantastic coincidences.
It is a rattling good yarn - I only wish the same could be said of todays films.
And the supporting cast!!! Ian Bannen gets run over and killed and (Sir) Alec McCowan is an unimportant doctor. But everyone has to start somewhere.
Those were the days
Gerald (aged 72)
The Third Key
1956
Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
The Third Key
1956
Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
7.0Keywords: detectivenoirscotland yardfilm noir
Plot summary
Someone has broken into the safe of a London company, and yet no force or explosive was used, and the keys do not appear to have been lost. A police superintendent is investigating, assisted by a new and very keen sergeant. The superintendent's wife is worried that he may be in personal danger, and the superintendent is not always mindful of the need to reassure his wife. Then a safe in another business is also robbed without the use of force, but the robber's getaway car runs down a bystander, who later dies. There seems to be nothing to link the crimes, but then the getaway car is found abandoned in a scrap yard. A discarded newspaper in the car may be a crucial lead in solving the crime, but there isn't much to go on.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Jack Hawkins as Detective-Superintendent Tom Halliday
Ian Bannen as The Young Workman - Stanley James
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB 889.23 MB
956*720
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
A logical story
Reviewed by
Best British police drama no-one's ever heard of
Agree with all previous comments. I first saw this film on TV 20 years ago on a wet Sunday afternoon and loved it. I recorded it on VHS the next time it was shown on telly, bought it when it came out on commercial VHS and have just placed an advance order on Amazon for the DVD version which is due out in February 2008.
It's a glimpse into a lost world - 1950s Britain - and all the more charming for it. A surprising amount of location shooting adds to the authenticity. Facsinating to see the Royal Festival Hall, for example, standing alone before the South Bank was developed. I even went on a pilgrimage to Long Acre to check out Stone & Company Ltd - it's still there and looks exactly the same (the building that is)! The detective work is logical, methodical and low-tech. Scraping some clothes fibres of a car radiator is about the height of the forensic work.
Some nice touches of humour too. Example: Jack Hawkins complaining that his Sergeant is running off to a payphone to call his girlfriend. "You haven't seen her," comes the reply, "she's worth three shillings for three minutes." That must have had them blushing in the 50s.
Things only slow a bit when we're dealing with the Hawkins domestic front but that's a small complaint and was no doubt intended to inject a little social realism.
Find yourself a quiet afternoon, make yourself a cup of tea, crack open the custard creams and enjoy.
Reviewed by
Classic British Crime Movie
I echo Mike Wilson's views on this film, it is the classic British crime drama. Jack Hawkins is superb (and I feel that John Gregson's TV portrayal of Gideon was based on this). It even has little touches of humour which succeed in making the movie real. I would also agree with Mike that the later Gideon of Scotland Yard is poor in comparison, if Jack Hawkins had played the character in the same manner as he played Supt. Halliday, it could have been perfect. The movie has just been re-issued in the UK (Feb. 2003) on VHS.