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.
13 Reviews
Action-focused thrills in this dry-run for the Saint
Leofwine_draca17 August 2016
THE STEEL KEY is another low budget British crime film from Tempean Films, directed by Robert S. Baker (of the Berman/Baker) team and with a script by John Gilling. As other reviewers have noted, the plot is very similar to one of the Saint books by Leslie Charteris, albeit with the character names changed. It's no surprise that Berman and Baker would later go on to make THE SAINT TV series in the 1960s.
This film offers the rare chance to see movie bad guy Terence Morgan playing the hero for once. Morgan is a playboy-style hero, ever suffering from having the police at his heels, who adopts the identity of a research scientist in order to bring some real crooks to book. The tale is about the hunt for a scientific formula for hardened steel which is a classic MacGuffin in the Hitchcock mould and doesn't really have much in the way of relevance.
Basically, THE STEEL KEY consists of characters chasing each other around and attempting to outwit each other. Morgan is excellent and really shines as the likable hero and Joan Rice is a fine choice as the plucky nurse who helps him. Raymond Lovell adds humour as the exasperated detective while there are minor roles for the familiar faces of Sam Kydd, Michael Balfour, Esma Cannon, and Esmond Knight. Dianne Foster has a similar femme fatale character to the one she had in Tempean's THE QUIET WOMAN. Once again the south coast (this time, Newhaven) provides a good backdrop for the action. Watch out for Morgan's stuntman, who has different coloured hair to the actor!
This film offers the rare chance to see movie bad guy Terence Morgan playing the hero for once. Morgan is a playboy-style hero, ever suffering from having the police at his heels, who adopts the identity of a research scientist in order to bring some real crooks to book. The tale is about the hunt for a scientific formula for hardened steel which is a classic MacGuffin in the Hitchcock mould and doesn't really have much in the way of relevance.
Basically, THE STEEL KEY consists of characters chasing each other around and attempting to outwit each other. Morgan is excellent and really shines as the likable hero and Joan Rice is a fine choice as the plucky nurse who helps him. Raymond Lovell adds humour as the exasperated detective while there are minor roles for the familiar faces of Sam Kydd, Michael Balfour, Esma Cannon, and Esmond Knight. Dianne Foster has a similar femme fatale character to the one she had in Tempean's THE QUIET WOMAN. Once again the south coast (this time, Newhaven) provides a good backdrop for the action. Watch out for Morgan's stuntman, who has different coloured hair to the actor!
The Saint in all but name
dave-blake14 October 2005
"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.
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.
A highly enjoyable prototype of The Saint from producers Berman and Baker.
jamesraeburn20038 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A decade before they found tremendous success producing cult TV classics like The Saint, Monty Berman and Robert S Baker specialised in making low budget second features like this through their company Tempean Productions. Here we have Terence Morgan - reduced to appearing in b- pics like this after having the distinction of playing Laertes in Olivier's Hamlet - as an adventurer called Johnny O' Flynn who is out to stop enemy agents from stealing a top secret formula for processed hardened steel - The Steel Key of the title - from a kidnapped scientist, Professor Newman (Esmond Knight). The screenplay by John Gilling - a writer-director who would later find fame at Hammer with The Plague Of The Zombies and The Reptile - frustrates somewhat as it becomes difficult to keep up with who's doing what and when. Nevertheless, it is still well above the standard one normally associates with second features and, in many ways, it is a fun prototype of The Saint as Morgan's Johnny O' Flynn is remarkably similar to Simon Templar as an adventurer who sails close to the wind, is always playing hide and seek with the cops who want to put him behind bars but can't pin anything on him and is always on to something for personal profit - O' Flynn wants the formula to sale to the highest bidder - but always finds himself doing the law a favour by catching master criminals. It is efficiently directed by Robert S Baker - who directed some episodes of The Saint himself - who keeps the action moving at a cracking pace and the cast including Morgan, Joan Rice, Esmond Knight and Colin Tapley all offer excellent performances. It is beautifully shot in black and white by Gerald Gibbs and that, combined with some attractive set work, give the picture an appearance of a bigger budget product. One of the joys I get in watching pictures like this is that locations like Newhaven, Seaford and other towns alongside the Sussex coast are often used. In Britain, that part of the world is known as 'God's Waiting Room' and who would believe that sleepy seaside resorts like those were at the centre of intrigue and espionage?
Fast And Silly
boblipton23 June 2020
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.
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.
Steal the Steel Key?
barkiswilling4 December 2022
An enjoyable B feature which races along for its 70 or so minutes, The Steel Key has all the requisite ingredients with Terence Morgan at his most dashing and quick-witted as the confidence trickster hero Johnny O'Flynn. Throughout the film, he is able to keep at least two steps ahead of the usual clay-footed police headed up by Insp Forsythe (Raymond Lovell) and at the same time outwit the gang of double dealers behind the plot to steal a rare chemical formula.
Colin Tapley is suaveness personified as the villainous boss but seems far too nice and polite to be truly evil; Arthur Cosgrove, however, is a completely different kettle of fish - no one did nasty, weasly unpleasantness better than him and he crops up in quite a few films of the time in much the same role, although remains a relatively little-known name.
With twist, double twist and counter twist, the narrative does become over confusing if scrutinised too closely; better to sit back and enjoy the fun ride.
Colin Tapley is suaveness personified as the villainous boss but seems far too nice and polite to be truly evil; Arthur Cosgrove, however, is a completely different kettle of fish - no one did nasty, weasly unpleasantness better than him and he crops up in quite a few films of the time in much the same role, although remains a relatively little-known name.
With twist, double twist and counter twist, the narrative does become over confusing if scrutinised too closely; better to sit back and enjoy the fun ride.
The Muller Formula
richardchatten16 August 2019
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...
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...
Terence Morgan - very much a hero for his time.
ianlouisiana19 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
27 when he made "The Glass Key",Mr Morgan was transformed into posh arm - candy despite having quite serious aspirations at the start of his career.
He was certainly a handsome devil and played men with an eye for ladies,men of uncertain provenance as often as not,men,in fact very like Johnny O'Flynn,an adventurer/playboy,possibly a public school man with impeccable manners, a military background and somewhere,perhaps,well - hidden,a tragic episode in his past.
The sort of chap Dornford Yates wrote about 20years earlier.
Or John Buchan maybe.
O'Flynn has charm and charisma to spare as he works to catch a gang plotting against the British Scientific Establishment.
He smokes heroically,drives an Armstrong - Siddeley and fights like a gentleman.Women are putty in his hands - even some blokes appear to go a bit weak at the knees under his gaze.
A few years down the line he played a pimp in "The Shakedown" with rather less conviction but gave it a game go.
I suspect he lived near Brighton because the premiere of "The Shakedown" was held at "The Regent" and several scenes of "The Steel Key" were filmed in its environs.
I remember him striding imperiously through "Boots" trailing smoke and Old Spice accompanied by sighs from the staff - and not only the girls.
Some blokes,I thought,have all the luck.
He's not The Saint, he's a very naughty boy ...
johnshephard-8368228 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Watchable nonsense of the 'don't ask too many questions' variety. The plot is hard to follow since characters motivations and objectives seem to change, and it's also one of those films where normal, rational behaviour can't occur because it would derail the plot. Early on, the 'hero' - he's after the valuable papers for himself - watches the largely hopeless henchman cut the heroine's brakes; when her car crashes, she doesn't seem to be curious enough to ask 'who tampered with my brakes?', and just accepts it as a routine event. Some scenes appear to have no purpose - the villains go to a boat to search for the coveted papers, open one drawer, and then say 'come on,. let's go..' and off they go again. And did I mis-hear it or does the real Dr Metcalf say at one point that he had found the body of the murdered boffin, and rescued the charred papers from the fire, and later on, when he thinks he's being accused of that murder, he says 'I was in Philadelphia at the time.' ? And what's he doing in that final scene anyway - it's another common trope of the B movie crime story that the police take witnesses, and waifs and strays, around with them as they try to catch criminals. There's a farcical scene near the finale where all the key players pile into a posh house through the French windows from the drive. The suspect escapes through the door leading to the rest of the house, and locks it behind him, and the police waste time yanking at a door that is clearly not going to open, yet all they have to do is turn around and go back out through the door they just entered by, about six feet away. The hero drives to Newhaven, but somehow the police know that's where he's going, and follow. In films like this characters know things that they had no way of knowing. Anyway, on the boat the hero has a fist fight with three different villains, who conveniently take it in turns to fight him so that he has a better chance, and the one with the gun, of course, can't shoot straight, then the rest of the cast show up for a Poirot style explanation, the hero nabs the precious papers, the sale of which will fund his impending marriage to the girl he met the day before yesterday. Formulaic hokum, and Sam Kydd too.
Fun, fast-moving noir: femme fatale croaks, police plodders rely on Saint-like action man
adrianovasconcelos27 April 2023
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!
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!
The Steel Key
CinemaSerf10 February 2023
Terence Morgan has a bit of a glint in his eye here as "Johnny", a bit of an opportunist who finds himself embroiled in a plot to abduct a professor (Esmond Knight) and pinch his formula for hardened steel that could revolutionise production and durability. Together with his charming - and quite wily - girlfriend "Doreen" (Joan Rice) they have to thwart these would be thieves and save the boffin whilst convincing Scotland Yard's finest "Insp. Forsythe" (Raymond Lovell) that they are on the level too! It's quite a lively affair and the sort of roguish, but honourable, antics of the star really did remind me of a "Simon Templar" type of character. It's all pretty predicable fayre, but there are a few fun cameos from amongst the supporting cast and it whizzes along fine for an hour. You'll never remember it afterwards, but it's perfectly watchable on a wet afternoon.
The Steel Key
djfjflsflscv1 April 2020
International playboy and thief Johnny O'Flynn (Terence Morgan) tries to prevent criminals from stealing a secret formula for processing hardened steel, called the Steel Key, and discovers that one of the scientists involved has been murdered while another, Professor Newman, has died of apparently natural causes. His investigation leads him to a sanatorium, run by one Dr Crabtree, and a captured scientist forced to reproduce the formula. On the way, Johnny meets Newman's glamorous, younger wife Sylvia and rescues Joan Rice, a nurse, after the kidnappers try to kill her. Inspector Forsythe of Scotland Yard is also on the scent, but is intent on arresting Johnny for the crime.
Okay, I'll be honest. Some people say they love a particular film. I'm willing to go further than that. If this film was a woman, I would invite her to the most expensive restaurant in town. I'd buy her flowers. I'd get on bended knee and propose. I've only seen the film once so far but - come on - there's such a thing as love at first sight, isn't there?
But seriously, this one is such a good deal of fun and will probably end up being one of my favourites of the era. It seems explicitly designed to appeal to me and other fans of fun adventure-thrillers in which a suave and witty hero make fools of the police, gets into fisticuffs with the bad guys, joins forces with a plucky heroine and flies by the seat of his pants until he prevents an international conspiracy to ... well, whatever the bad guys are trying to do.
This was originally intended to be a film of The Saint, but producers Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman could not secure the rights to the character. (They would eventually, of course, make a phenomenally successful television series based on the character with Roger Moore.) Its Saintly beginnings, however, remain obvious to all as O'Flynn is considered to be a thief who claims a reward for any boodle he recovers and spars wryly with a portly inspector who would love to put him behind bars. It's basically Simon and Inspector Teal, with all the hijinks that implies.
With his chiselled features, slick dark hair and glint in his eye, actor Terrence Morgan makes for a likable and charismatic hero as Johnny O'Flynn. Amid all the action, there are some good dollops of humour in here too. There is, of course, the constant cat-and-mouse game with the police, but there are also moments which border on farce (never a bad thing, in my book) as Johnny pretends to be one of the scientists involved with Newman. Indeed, nurse Joan never discovers his real name and it is uttered only a handful of times in the whole film. The finger of accusation moves frequently from one suspect to another, but this a pacey adventure and not a drawing room whodunit, though the revelation does come as a surprise. The only criticism I would make is the inclusion of three scientists (one who is only referred to), which seems a bit messy to me. Perhaps it would have been better if Newman alone had been the scientist and the other two helped fund his experiments or held government positions.
Morgan's career started out promisingly with roles in Olivier's Hamlet and Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck, but he quickly slid into B-films and became typecast as villains, and though a switch to television with The Adventures of Francis Drake was successful, it did not last. Fortunately, there does not seem to have been an unhappy ending for Morgan, as he left acting to run a hotel in Sussex for many years before becoming a property developer. He died in 2005 at the age of 83. It's a wonder Hollywood didn't want him, but I suppose there were so many other actors out there who could also offer what he had.
Anyway, The Steel Key - see it!
Okay, I'll be honest. Some people say they love a particular film. I'm willing to go further than that. If this film was a woman, I would invite her to the most expensive restaurant in town. I'd buy her flowers. I'd get on bended knee and propose. I've only seen the film once so far but - come on - there's such a thing as love at first sight, isn't there?
But seriously, this one is such a good deal of fun and will probably end up being one of my favourites of the era. It seems explicitly designed to appeal to me and other fans of fun adventure-thrillers in which a suave and witty hero make fools of the police, gets into fisticuffs with the bad guys, joins forces with a plucky heroine and flies by the seat of his pants until he prevents an international conspiracy to ... well, whatever the bad guys are trying to do.
This was originally intended to be a film of The Saint, but producers Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman could not secure the rights to the character. (They would eventually, of course, make a phenomenally successful television series based on the character with Roger Moore.) Its Saintly beginnings, however, remain obvious to all as O'Flynn is considered to be a thief who claims a reward for any boodle he recovers and spars wryly with a portly inspector who would love to put him behind bars. It's basically Simon and Inspector Teal, with all the hijinks that implies.
With his chiselled features, slick dark hair and glint in his eye, actor Terrence Morgan makes for a likable and charismatic hero as Johnny O'Flynn. Amid all the action, there are some good dollops of humour in here too. There is, of course, the constant cat-and-mouse game with the police, but there are also moments which border on farce (never a bad thing, in my book) as Johnny pretends to be one of the scientists involved with Newman. Indeed, nurse Joan never discovers his real name and it is uttered only a handful of times in the whole film. The finger of accusation moves frequently from one suspect to another, but this a pacey adventure and not a drawing room whodunit, though the revelation does come as a surprise. The only criticism I would make is the inclusion of three scientists (one who is only referred to), which seems a bit messy to me. Perhaps it would have been better if Newman alone had been the scientist and the other two helped fund his experiments or held government positions.
Morgan's career started out promisingly with roles in Olivier's Hamlet and Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck, but he quickly slid into B-films and became typecast as villains, and though a switch to television with The Adventures of Francis Drake was successful, it did not last. Fortunately, there does not seem to have been an unhappy ending for Morgan, as he left acting to run a hotel in Sussex for many years before becoming a property developer. He died in 2005 at the age of 83. It's a wonder Hollywood didn't want him, but I suppose there were so many other actors out there who could also offer what he had.
Anyway, The Steel Key - see it!
Was the seed for The Saint planted here?
Sleepin_Dragon7 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The Steel Key, a fifties B movie, as many have commented, one which felt like the origins of The Saint.
The pacing is pretty good, I've watched several films from this era of late, and one common criticism has to be the slow pace at which everything develops and unfolds, The Steel Key doesn't canter along exactly, but it held my interest to the end.
One of the first things you notice is just how fiendishly handsome and charismatic Terence Morgan was, I find it hard to believe he didn't crack Hollywood in his career. You can see why he was good casting as a villain.
The brief appearance of Esma Cannon cannot help but bring a smile to the face, always cast in funny roles, you can't help but wait for her to do something amusing.
It's quite a fun watch, an interesting plot, good characters, worth a look. 6/10
The pacing is pretty good, I've watched several films from this era of late, and one common criticism has to be the slow pace at which everything develops and unfolds, The Steel Key doesn't canter along exactly, but it held my interest to the end.
One of the first things you notice is just how fiendishly handsome and charismatic Terence Morgan was, I find it hard to believe he didn't crack Hollywood in his career. You can see why he was good casting as a villain.
The brief appearance of Esma Cannon cannot help but bring a smile to the face, always cast in funny roles, you can't help but wait for her to do something amusing.
It's quite a fun watch, an interesting plot, good characters, worth a look. 6/10
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