The Safecracker – 1957 | 96 mins | War, Crime, Thriller | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Mildly entertaining but forgettable tale directed by and starring Ray Milland, of a jailed safecracker freed during WWII to go behind enemy lines on a top secret Allied mission. The film is two thinly connected stories linked by a moment of light relief in the middle. The posh-speaking and aging Milland is miscast in the role of a thief that lives with his Cockney mother in a terraced house.

Professional locksmith Colley Dawson (Ray Milland)assists in the design of improved safe’s but soon becomes disillusioned when he receives just a £5 bonus despite knowing he could break into a safe within minutes and steal thousands. Motivated by greed and jealousy, he joins forces with disreputable London antique dealer Bennett Carfield (Barry Jones), who targets antique items, kept in customer’s safes, and Colley is rewarded with fifty-percent for breaking in and stealing them. The police are quickly on Dawson’s tail and he plans one final robbery; ‘something really big.’ But the police pursue him during the getaway and Carfield leaps to his death from the speeding car – Dawson is subsequently sentenced to ten years behind bars.

Two years have passed since Dawson was imprisoned and WWII has broken out. The Special Operations Executive requires a man to be parachuted into Belgium with a crack team of commandoes and steal a list of German spies operating in England from a chateau. Army major Adbury (Ernest Clark) reluctantly offers Dawson a deal if he’ll agree to embark upon the mission behind enemy lines – the safecracker accepts the challenge. After a week’s basic training, Dawson and the commando’s are dropped into occupied Belgium.