Robert J. Maxwell London in the mid 50s. Three thieves have plotted a bank robbery. They slip into the building expecting to find it empty but two of the staff have stayed late and in order to keep them out of the way the robbers tie and gag them, then lock them away in the bank's strongroom -- that's a "vault" to you and me.A long weekend lies ahead. There isn't enough air to sustain two captives in the air tight vault.To ensure the rescue of the captives before their oxygen runs out, one of the thieves is detailed to drive the bank manager's car to a distant phone booth, call the police, tip them to the situation, and tell them the keys to the vault will be found in the phone booth. The police will then retrieve the keys, release the two captives, and no murder charge will be hanging like a black cloud over the miscreants.Well, these three crooks are no brighter than they have to be. The guy with the keys, the one driving the manager's car, totals the vehicle and is killed before he can make the call, which is very foolish of him. It leaves the two remaining thieves in an uncomfortable situation. If they don't release the captives, they'll die. But they don't have the keys to the vault because the dead man had the keys in his pocket. A visit to the mortuary and a threat of violence to the coroner do them no good. It's Friday afternoon, and nobody will be at the bank until Tuesday, by which time the two captives will no longer need air.I think that's about as far as I'll go with the plot. It's not an unfamiliar narrative, either in feature films or television series, but the reason it's familiar is that it works. It's innately suspenseful. Will they get the two innocents out alive? And if they do, what will it cost them. Meanwhile the clock is ticking.It's an inexpensive film. Sometimes I could almost believe they had only one set and just rearranged the furniture. The acting is at about the same level as an ordinary person might achieve with one or two days' tutoring. I've given better performances myself, most notably in the undersung art house classic "Traxx." It's true. I was the drunken cowboy in the whorehouse. My kid was the little Oriental boy who was startled by a door being burst open. Two of the performers do stand out, though. The head honcho of the gang of three is a young man with a most peculiar face -- not ugly, just unusual. You'll see what I mean if you watch the movie. The other memorable character is the blond secretary who is locked away with the manager in the bank's vault. She has an attractive face, although it consists mostly of nose.There's nothing outstanding about the movie. The narrative works because it's irresistible, but the performances are about what you'd find in a high school play in East Orange, New Jersey. Well, there are some grace notes. A cleaning lady hums a snatch from a Beethoven symphony as she mops the floor. Note, in particular, the coroner or whatever he is. The guy huffs and blubbers his way through a tense scene, and he's hilariously bad. The investigating detective is given the best line of dialog. When the mortician complains that one of the thieves threatened to kill him in an argument about the keys, the policeman gets to ask, "Well, did he?"

Spikeopath Strongroom is directed by Vernon Sewell and written by Max Marquis and Richard Harris. It stars Derren Nesbit, Colin Gordon, Ann Lynn, Keith Faulkner and W. Morgan Sheppard. Music is by Johnny Gregory and cinematography by Basil Emmott.Three men enact a bank robbery and lock up the manager and his secretary in the vault. Upon making their getaway it dawns on them that the two in the vault could die from lack of oxygen and thus landing them as murderers should they be caught...Every once in a while a "quota quickie" or "B" crime movie really strides out on its own to stand tall and proud, Strongroom is one such film. Originally the support feature to the George Chakiris film Two and Two Make Six, Sewell's picture went down well enough with the public that it often became the main feature in some theatres.Compact at just 80 minutes in length, it's a picture heavy on claustrophobia and thematic stings, embracing that old noir devil of fate along the way. It's directed in a tight no-nonsense way by Sewell, who manages to keep things moving without it being at cost to nail biting suspense. Well performed by all involved, it's a film that never once cops out, right up to, and including, the quite brilliant finale. 8/10

naseby This crime or film noir from the golden days of British film-making (Yes, the '50's/'60's B-flicks), proves good plot and script, however lesser-known a movie is, is still effective even today.The two crooks, played by Nesbitt and Faulkner and another hold up a bank - they're not vicious in any real way, however wrong they are. The stuffy bank Manager, Colin Gordon and his secretary played by Ann Lynn are locked in the 'Strongroom' or vault if you want to call it that, by the two crooks, with the intent that they will hand the keys in at a police station and let the cops know the two bank workers are in there - all the time running out of air - but that's excused as it's done and dusted, isn't it, that they will soon be released? Wrong! Faulkner's brother, also a member of the gang is tasked with this - he's seen driving off to do just that, but of course - he has an accident and dies! Faulkner and Nesbitt receive a knock on the door from the police - unknowing of what's happened at this stage, panicking slightly. But then the news of Faulkner's brother's death is given. A little panic of both his brother's death and what'll happen to the bank workers by Faulkner surfaces but he knows he has to keep his mouth shut.Faulkner has tried to retrieve his brother's belongings angrily as he's promptly told by the police the dead brother's items can't be returned not for weeks - which of course includes the Strongroom keys! The remaining duo decide to get hold of the usual bank busting equipment, Oxycetelene gear etc., and try their best to break through to the suffocating bank workers. In the meantime, an astute person has noted that part of the dead brother's belongings are a Strongroom key, after Faulkner's rantings lead them to suspect something was wrong.The police then hurry to the bank after contacting an experienced locksmith as to what bank/door it belongs to.They're about to make their pinch, when the boys tell them that they're trying to free the workers. Reluctant at first, they understand and let them continue - they get the door open - a huge look of relief from them is shown at what appears as the very last scene but at this point their relief is shattered as a police officer states :'This one is DEAD sir!' The look from Nesbitt and Faulkner sums up the impending doom for the pair, as hanging is still a capital offence at that time in the UK. However, it beckons from us up to and after the credits still a legal position that they may get a manslaughter charge - but the film doesn't give them the chance they thought they had.Excellent and good performances all round and sadly not shown enough.

Michael A trio of crooks plan "one last job" that results in them unintentionally sealing a bank manager and a humble secretary in a time-locked vault, with sweaty cross-cutting moral-dilemma results.Unfortunately the production as a whole is less hermetically sealed, resulting in a distinct lack of consistent tension. Unaided by listless direction from Sewell, the intrigue comes in the intense playing of Gordon and Lynn as the incarcerated couple who start off with nothing in common, but come to wring a credible denouement out of a genuinely unpredictable situation.This is achieved through admirably unhysterical script and dialogue, in a way only the British could ever have achieved in second-feature quality material.