Please don't spend money on this.

i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely Fantastic

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Six year old Steven Walker is in the bank with his father near closing time he is in a playful mood and slips into the vault unseen just as it is shut. The problem is that for security reasons the vault is on a time lock and has been set to remain closed until after the weekend. With no more than half a day's air in the vault the race is on to try and get the boy out. The local vault expert is out of town for the weekend but, with no guarantee that he can be found in time, the parents are frantic to get him out.The plot was more than enough to hook me into it because it sounded like one of those setups that will be tight and tense, set in a single location and, given the race against time, effortlessly engaging. Although there were no guarantees for this, I was surprised by just how flat the whole thing was and how much it failed to grip me. In terms of actions and narrative flow things are fine; the story follows a solid path that makes sense and isn't contrived or forced for the sake of falsely producing tension. However it is the delivery where it takes this and does nothing of interest with it. The main problem is with the script; where it is shouting urgently then things are fine but it regularly has horridly flat scenes of dialogue while the cutting etc is going on and none of them really work. Of course it doesn't help that the performances mostly put me in mind of my last time I was in a forest. Thomas does manage to produce some tension when the action is the focus but he totally undercuts this by his flaccid inability to bring out this tension in his characters and his actors – after all, if they don't seem bothered by the whole thing, why should I the viewer be?As another review has stated the worst performance is mercifully the shortest – that of the boy Winter. Christ but he could not be less convincing, natural or sympathetic. It is rare for me to be shocked by the ineptitude of a performance but Winter achieved that with very few lines. I know he was a child but are you telling me he was the best child available to the casting director? Of the rest of the cast only Beatty stands out and that is mostly because his dialogue consists of being in charge and tough. Conversely all those blessed with flat lines give bland performances; the list is long but includes Patterson, Mannering, McDowall, Ayres and so on. Connery is only memorable for who he is rather than anything else.Overall a semi-engaging film that sadly has more weakness than strength. The simple premise should have allowed for great tension but the script and delivery let this fall down badly. Deserves a low-budget but intense remake – perhaps not of the detail but certainly using a similar premise.

Economically shot on a low budget by Beaconsfield Studios this film has curiosity value for two small reasons; it was the first speaking role by Sean Connery and one of the earliest films to feature a helicopter (Bell 47 CF-AKL). Interestingly one of the stars of the film (Robert Beatty) also shared a plot featuring a later version of the same helicopter type in the film "Where Eagles Dare".It is a mildly atmospheric B movie which due to it's venerable age (it reaches it's half centenary in 2007) provides an interesting and nostalgic look at Canadian/British class values and aside from the aforementioned flying object is refreshingly free of UFO's, little green men or giant spiders as was the fashion in 1950 b-movies.

Happened to (accidently) see this travesty on UK TV a few days ago. It might have been better if the audiences had been locked in the bank vault and the actors (I use the word actor in its loosest context) left outside to get on with it. This film can be bracketed with 'Plan B from outer space ' as the joint worst films of all time. Their is no aspect of this film (even allowing for its age) for which (search as I may) I can find any redeeming feature. Ghastly dialogue,, wooden acting and risible photography all vie with each other to win the prize of supreme awfulness. A story line which defies belief and a child 'star' of somewhat limited intelligence and mind-numbing mediocrity, not to mention a character which qualifies as an irritant of the first magnitude - see it at your peril, there is no known antidote !

An out of the ordinary plot by Arthur Hailey is turned into a tedious 'b' film by the Carry on team of Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas. The actors are second rate, apart from Sean Connery in an early role, and can only offer below standard histrionics. The scenario is a small boy is locked in a bank safe, will he be rescued before he suffocates? The problem is that child actor Vincent Winter is such an unappealing performer that you don't care about him, thus ruining any suspense that the film attempts to create. Even if you are stuck in Warrington on a wet weekend, this is one to steer clear of.