During every war, there are many stories of how people who would normally be passed by, are often chosen to become heroes, despite their infamy. Here is one such story called " The Safecracker. " It concern one Colley Dawson, (Ray Milland) an honest enough man, but one who is keenly aware that his desire for the good things in life, will never be acquired through hard work and determination. Like so many others, he discovers his talent for opening safes can bring him more money by theft. With a Mr. Bennett Carfield (Barry Jones) as fence, the two commit a series of jewel robberies which lead to instant riches. However, one robbery goes wrong and Dawson ends up doing ten years in prison. WII then provides the unusual but hazardous circumstances, during which he is promised a pardon if he will go to occupied Europe and break into a Top Secret German safe. Dawson joins a special team and finds himself in danger of his life once again. Milland does better as director for this film but is a little out of sync as the hero. Still, the movie is a good effort and he is seen as always in good form as an actor. ***
14 Reviews
strange little film
blanche-24 January 2011
Ray Milland starred in and produced this film from 1958. He plays Colley Dawson, an expert safecracker who can open a safe by listening to the tumblers. While in prison, he is recruited by the British to break into a safe in Germany and photograph a list of their spies working in Britain.
What's odd about the film is that it starts out as one thing - a safecracker who is stealing things for a partner and getting a percentage - and then turns into more of a spy film.
Milland is way past it to be playing this part. Also, at least in the print I saw, the night scenes and dark house scenes were so dark it was hard to make out anything.
Just okay.
What's odd about the film is that it starts out as one thing - a safecracker who is stealing things for a partner and getting a percentage - and then turns into more of a spy film.
Milland is way past it to be playing this part. Also, at least in the print I saw, the night scenes and dark house scenes were so dark it was hard to make out anything.
Just okay.
Breaking the glass.
brogmiller20 March 2022
This low budget 'B' is the third of five films directed by and starring Ray Milland. To say that these five represent a mixed bag would be an understatement but this one is by far the most interesting.
The story itself is involving and the title character provides a perfect vehicle for Mr. Milland's rakish persona.
The pacing and momentum are pretty good compared to this director's other films but that quite frankly would not be difficult. He has the plus factors here of editor Ernest Walter, cinematographer Gerry Gibbs and a first rate score by Richard Rodney Bennett not to mention a supporting cast of familiar and thoroughly dependable British thesps notably Barry Jones and Victor Maddern. Nice performance too from Prague-born Jeanette Sterke who did not alas make as many films as her looks and talent deserved.
Mr. Milland returned to England ten years later to direct and reprise his stage role of Simon Crawford QC in the pedestrian 'Hostile Witness' of which the less said the better.
The story itself is involving and the title character provides a perfect vehicle for Mr. Milland's rakish persona.
The pacing and momentum are pretty good compared to this director's other films but that quite frankly would not be difficult. He has the plus factors here of editor Ernest Walter, cinematographer Gerry Gibbs and a first rate score by Richard Rodney Bennett not to mention a supporting cast of familiar and thoroughly dependable British thesps notably Barry Jones and Victor Maddern. Nice performance too from Prague-born Jeanette Sterke who did not alas make as many films as her looks and talent deserved.
Mr. Milland returned to England ten years later to direct and reprise his stage role of Simon Crawford QC in the pedestrian 'Hostile Witness' of which the less said the better.
OK film but Milland rather miscast.
peterjamesyates2 March 2002
unnecessary start
SnoopyStyle8 January 2022
It's 1938 London. Locksmith Colley Dawson (Ray Milland) demonstrates his safecracking skills to get a job designing a foolproof safe. He gets recruited by a crooked antiques dealer to break into a safe. Eventually, he gets caught and imprisoned. After the start of the war, he gets recruited by the military to steal a German spy list from a safe in occupied Belgium.
This is fine. I wouldn't spend that much time introducing Colley's descend into the criminal world. The movie could easily start with training at the military base. That's the meat of the story anyways. The training has some fun bits and dropping behind the lines has some good action. It has some good sneaking around but the scheme always has an unavoidable issue. The Nazis would always find out no matter how careful they are. The Nazis would assume that something was stolen and the list seems to be a high priority. I like a lot of this but much of the first half can be cut.
This is fine. I wouldn't spend that much time introducing Colley's descend into the criminal world. The movie could easily start with training at the military base. That's the meat of the story anyways. The training has some fun bits and dropping behind the lines has some good action. It has some good sneaking around but the scheme always has an unavoidable issue. The Nazis would always find out no matter how careful they are. The Nazis would assume that something was stolen and the list seems to be a high priority. I like a lot of this but much of the first half can be cut.
A convict's skills help the British war effort
SimonJack7 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Ray Milland plays a bit younger role than his 51 years as "The Safecracker." This also is his fifth crack at directing a film or TV drama. This is a so-so MGM film about a World War II British intelligence operation to get a list of all the Nazi agents operating in England. But, they have to get behind enemy lines to find it. A commandeered castle in Belgium is the control center for the Nazi agents. And, once the Brits find the list, they need to copy it and return it so that the Nazis don't know the British are now onto all of their agents to haul them in. The Belgian underground has provided the Brits with the castle location, floor plan and all the details they need to sage a quiet Commando operation. There's just one hitch - the military and government don't happen to have an expert safecracker. As a matter of fact, there are only three experts left in all of the land who can crack safes by hearing. The modern thieves, it seems, have less skills and have gone the raw noisy, messier, and more destructive method of safecracking - drilling holes and inserting explosives to blow open safes.
Well, that won't do if the ploy is to get the information without the Germans knowing they got it. A blown safe would be a dead giveaway. Now, before all of this plan can be orchestrated, Ray Milland's Colley Dawson is going about his livelihood of cracking safes to steal expensive jewelry and treasures that wealthy people have acquired over the years. One old guy has the jeweled tiara of a famous queen or princess of somewhere. Another has an ancient gold cup embedded with gem stones. Colley has an eye for expensive heirlooms and such. And, working with an English gentleman, Bennett Carfield, Colley is able to pull off some big thefts that bring them lots of money. Carfield has high society connections, and get the details for where the goods are located.
When Colley buys an expensive car and parks it in a garage away from his home, and starts spending lavishly with a lady friend, he comes under suspicion by the police as being the crafty crook in the spate of recent spotless thefts. Against Carfield's advice, he wants to pull another job right under the nose of Scotland Yard, saying that that would convince them he wasn't the crook since they had been tailing him. But, he underestimates the boys from the Yard and gets caught red-handed after a car chase.
The film opens in 1939 and it is now 1941 and Colley has spent two years of a 10-year prison sentence. Now the government comes calling. He becomes their man for the safecracking job behind enemy lines. But first, he has to undergo training and conditioning with the small Commando team that will parachute into Belgium at night to pull off the mission.
Other parts of the story aren't nearly as far-out as having to have a convict to crack a safe, and the team does its job. But the ending has an interesting twist. It proves once again, that crime doesn't pay. Colley's greed leads him to stop to steal a precious statue, only then to be seen and shot and killed by a German officer. But, with no other signs of a beak-in or raid, or tampering with the safe, the officer assumes he was just a thief trying to steel a valuable piece of art. And, back home, the operation leader and intelligence officer deliver the message to Colley's mother about his death. But, it lifted her spirits to learn that Colley's death had been for a heroic cause to help England defeat Hitler and the Nazis.
There's nothing exceptional about the story, the screenplay, the acting or the technical production. The plot is quite simple, and the technical production seems to be bare bones and cheap. It has just a smidgeon of intensity and mystery over getting caught. It's just not a very captivating story or picture. But for Ray Milland's role, it probably wouldn't have had much of an audience or interest at all.
Well, that won't do if the ploy is to get the information without the Germans knowing they got it. A blown safe would be a dead giveaway. Now, before all of this plan can be orchestrated, Ray Milland's Colley Dawson is going about his livelihood of cracking safes to steal expensive jewelry and treasures that wealthy people have acquired over the years. One old guy has the jeweled tiara of a famous queen or princess of somewhere. Another has an ancient gold cup embedded with gem stones. Colley has an eye for expensive heirlooms and such. And, working with an English gentleman, Bennett Carfield, Colley is able to pull off some big thefts that bring them lots of money. Carfield has high society connections, and get the details for where the goods are located.
When Colley buys an expensive car and parks it in a garage away from his home, and starts spending lavishly with a lady friend, he comes under suspicion by the police as being the crafty crook in the spate of recent spotless thefts. Against Carfield's advice, he wants to pull another job right under the nose of Scotland Yard, saying that that would convince them he wasn't the crook since they had been tailing him. But, he underestimates the boys from the Yard and gets caught red-handed after a car chase.
The film opens in 1939 and it is now 1941 and Colley has spent two years of a 10-year prison sentence. Now the government comes calling. He becomes their man for the safecracking job behind enemy lines. But first, he has to undergo training and conditioning with the small Commando team that will parachute into Belgium at night to pull off the mission.
Other parts of the story aren't nearly as far-out as having to have a convict to crack a safe, and the team does its job. But the ending has an interesting twist. It proves once again, that crime doesn't pay. Colley's greed leads him to stop to steal a precious statue, only then to be seen and shot and killed by a German officer. But, with no other signs of a beak-in or raid, or tampering with the safe, the officer assumes he was just a thief trying to steel a valuable piece of art. And, back home, the operation leader and intelligence officer deliver the message to Colley's mother about his death. But, it lifted her spirits to learn that Colley's death had been for a heroic cause to help England defeat Hitler and the Nazis.
There's nothing exceptional about the story, the screenplay, the acting or the technical production. The plot is quite simple, and the technical production seems to be bare bones and cheap. It has just a smidgeon of intensity and mystery over getting caught. It's just not a very captivating story or picture. But for Ray Milland's role, it probably wouldn't have had much of an audience or interest at all.
Unappealing 'Dirty Dozen' minus eleven
Turfseer18 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Ray Milland was around 53 when he starred in and directed 'The Safecracker'. Obviously, at this point in his life, he had experienced stardom as an actor and wanted to expand his horizons as a director. Unfortunately, deciding to cast himself as the main character in 'The Safecracker' was a completely misguided idea. Clearly, he is too old for the part, which should have been played by a much younger actor.
In 'The Safecracker', Milland plays Colley Dawson, a locksmith in pre-World War II London, who specializes in making safes burglar-proof for his well-to-do employers. The movie is divided into two distinct halves. The first half focuses on Dawson's career as a locksmith turned burglar. He's resentful that he's not compensated for his talents and hooks up with a somewhat elderly antiques dealer who hires him to break into a safe belonging to a rich Londoner and steal an expensive heirloom. Meanwhile, Dawson fancies himself a ladies man but still lives at home with his mother. There's a rather long-winded scene where he takes a woman to a dog track but leaves her there after he suddenly becomes aware that he's being followed by the police. The first half of 'The Safecracker' concludes with a car chase, and Dawson's arrest and conviction for the burglary. During the car chase, his accomplice, the elderly antiques dealer, jumps out of the moving car and dies.
After serving two years of a ten year sentence, Dawson is approached by British military intelligence with a secret plan. In exchange for commutation of his sentence, Dawson, aided by a group of elite troops, will break into a château controlled by the Nazis in Belgium where he must crack a safe, allowing a photographer to snap pictures of a list of all the Nazi double agents in England. Dawson will re-set the tumblers on the safe so that the Nazis don't have a clue that something's amiss. It's sort of like the 'The Dirty Dozen' minus eleven of the dirty criminal crew. Only Dawson has a chequered past but unfortunately the rest of the crew are totally non-descript.
The rest of the second half involves Dawson and the squad parachuting out of a plane into enemy territory. The big twist is that Dawson gets lost after he falls into a marsh and is unable to hide his parachute (the water in the marsh holds it up). He's finally found by a member of the Belgian resistance, Irene, played by the lovely Jeanette Sterke. Somehow the Nazis aren't able to locate the hidden airmen even after finding Dawson's parachute in the marsh. Dawson is depicted as a hothead who can't follow orders and almost botches up the whole operation by getting into a serious conversation with the resistance girl, right before everyone is supposed to head off to the château.
The denouement is thoroughly implausible as Dawson and the crew are able to enter the château without being detected (the Nazis only have a large contingent of guards in the front since they reportedly don't want to call attention to the fact that this building is part of an espionage unit). Still, the crew has to strangle one guard to get in and then manage to get Dawson inside where he cracks open the safe, despite having some loud Germanic martial music being played over loudspeakers, interrupting his concentration. Dawson tarries too long by attempting to steal another priceless heirloom which he finds in a glass case, which gives one German officer enough time to shoot him, causing his death. The shot, you would think, would attract at least a dozen soldiers (or maybe twice that amount) rushing to the scene, but somehow it takes quite a bit of time before any of the Germans rush to the spot where Dawson has been shot. That gives the Brits enough time to easily make an escape without being detected. Still, would the Nazis be stupid enough to believe that Dawson was there merely to burglarize the joint? They already found his parachute, so would a burglar fly all the way from England, break into a top secret Nazi facility, simply to steal a chachka?
In the end, Dawson is redeemed when the head of British espionage unit pays a visit to Dawson's mother. She's told he sacrificed his life for his country and she can now go to her grave with the knowledge that her son finally did some good.
In addition to the pedestrian script which holds few surprises, the film is riddled with unintentional anachronisms (such as cars from the 50s and policeman talking on a police radio inside a patrol car—despite the fact that this is supposed to be 1938!).
I'm a great fan of Ray Milland, but this is clearly a vanity project in which an aging actor, almost past his prime, takes on a project that he should have never even considered.
In 'The Safecracker', Milland plays Colley Dawson, a locksmith in pre-World War II London, who specializes in making safes burglar-proof for his well-to-do employers. The movie is divided into two distinct halves. The first half focuses on Dawson's career as a locksmith turned burglar. He's resentful that he's not compensated for his talents and hooks up with a somewhat elderly antiques dealer who hires him to break into a safe belonging to a rich Londoner and steal an expensive heirloom. Meanwhile, Dawson fancies himself a ladies man but still lives at home with his mother. There's a rather long-winded scene where he takes a woman to a dog track but leaves her there after he suddenly becomes aware that he's being followed by the police. The first half of 'The Safecracker' concludes with a car chase, and Dawson's arrest and conviction for the burglary. During the car chase, his accomplice, the elderly antiques dealer, jumps out of the moving car and dies.
After serving two years of a ten year sentence, Dawson is approached by British military intelligence with a secret plan. In exchange for commutation of his sentence, Dawson, aided by a group of elite troops, will break into a château controlled by the Nazis in Belgium where he must crack a safe, allowing a photographer to snap pictures of a list of all the Nazi double agents in England. Dawson will re-set the tumblers on the safe so that the Nazis don't have a clue that something's amiss. It's sort of like the 'The Dirty Dozen' minus eleven of the dirty criminal crew. Only Dawson has a chequered past but unfortunately the rest of the crew are totally non-descript.
The rest of the second half involves Dawson and the squad parachuting out of a plane into enemy territory. The big twist is that Dawson gets lost after he falls into a marsh and is unable to hide his parachute (the water in the marsh holds it up). He's finally found by a member of the Belgian resistance, Irene, played by the lovely Jeanette Sterke. Somehow the Nazis aren't able to locate the hidden airmen even after finding Dawson's parachute in the marsh. Dawson is depicted as a hothead who can't follow orders and almost botches up the whole operation by getting into a serious conversation with the resistance girl, right before everyone is supposed to head off to the château.
The denouement is thoroughly implausible as Dawson and the crew are able to enter the château without being detected (the Nazis only have a large contingent of guards in the front since they reportedly don't want to call attention to the fact that this building is part of an espionage unit). Still, the crew has to strangle one guard to get in and then manage to get Dawson inside where he cracks open the safe, despite having some loud Germanic martial music being played over loudspeakers, interrupting his concentration. Dawson tarries too long by attempting to steal another priceless heirloom which he finds in a glass case, which gives one German officer enough time to shoot him, causing his death. The shot, you would think, would attract at least a dozen soldiers (or maybe twice that amount) rushing to the scene, but somehow it takes quite a bit of time before any of the Germans rush to the spot where Dawson has been shot. That gives the Brits enough time to easily make an escape without being detected. Still, would the Nazis be stupid enough to believe that Dawson was there merely to burglarize the joint? They already found his parachute, so would a burglar fly all the way from England, break into a top secret Nazi facility, simply to steal a chachka?
In the end, Dawson is redeemed when the head of British espionage unit pays a visit to Dawson's mother. She's told he sacrificed his life for his country and she can now go to her grave with the knowledge that her son finally did some good.
In addition to the pedestrian script which holds few surprises, the film is riddled with unintentional anachronisms (such as cars from the 50s and policeman talking on a police radio inside a patrol car—despite the fact that this is supposed to be 1938!).
I'm a great fan of Ray Milland, but this is clearly a vanity project in which an aging actor, almost past his prime, takes on a project that he should have never even considered.
3 movies in 1 - all average
johnbmoore-1715 January 2022
This was fairly entertaining, but odd. It is like three distinct movies - a crime film followed by a light comedy and closed out with a war picture. There are several plot points that were not well developed and that leave you filling in some gaps yourself - and not in the "I'm glad they didn't just spoon feed it to me" way, but in the "wait - what the heck just happened there?" way. The story was interesting enough but it all stayed pretty superficial. Wasn't a waste of time but won't watch it again.
Review
peter-abbott29 August 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Quite a good film, although I agree Milland was too old for the part. His mother had a cockney accent but Milland had a much more polished voice which did not seem to fit in their working class surroundings. Did anyone notice that the four engine Lancaster plane they were taking off in on the mission suddenly changed in the next shot to a smaller two engine plane.
What seemed funny was when their commanding Officer said in the briefing that they would be picked up by a small plane to return to England. A small plane to hold 10 men, show me one !!!! Another thing that got me thinking was that the underground was able to get a German lorry and uniforms and were able to speak German when challenged. Other than that I enjoyed the film.
What seemed funny was when their commanding Officer said in the briefing that they would be picked up by a small plane to return to England. A small plane to hold 10 men, show me one !!!! Another thing that got me thinking was that the underground was able to get a German lorry and uniforms and were able to speak German when challenged. Other than that I enjoyed the film.
All talents, including those against the law, will be used in efforts to win the war.
mark.waltz11 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Certainly if you're able to have ways of preventing safe from being broken into, you are able to figure out a way to make that system not work. That's what Ray Milland gets into trouble for, given a ten year sentence, which after two is interrupted so he can use his law breaking past to get into a safe over in Nazi controlled Belgium. The first half of the film surrounds his criminal activities, and the second part deals with a war espionage subplot. Seems like two unrelated stories, but the way it plays out gels both parts together.
The first part of the movie is dominated by an excellent performance by veteran character actor Barry Jones as an antique dealer who uses Milland's abilities to break the law, but unwilling to pay for his part in the crimes taking the desperate way out. The chase sequence of the police following Milland and Jones is very intense, with a truly gruesome conclusion. Jones gives a scene stealing performance that was a combination of light comedy and pathos, and the audience certainly doesn't forget about his character just because he's not in the second half of the film.
That begins with Milland being pulled out of prison, trained with younger men for his assignment (flinching the idea of being pulled in a parachute down a free fall), then heading to Belgium where things don't go as planned. So it's sort of a combination of Raffles and James Bond with Milland (who also directed) having one of his best later parts before he started doing campy horror films. Jeanette Sterke is pretty but bland as a member of the British resistance who Milland encounters and is lectured by in the importance of his mission which up until then he had been flippant about. Not a bad film, but slow at times. The exciting moments outweigh those however, so it's enjoyable if not great.
The first part of the movie is dominated by an excellent performance by veteran character actor Barry Jones as an antique dealer who uses Milland's abilities to break the law, but unwilling to pay for his part in the crimes taking the desperate way out. The chase sequence of the police following Milland and Jones is very intense, with a truly gruesome conclusion. Jones gives a scene stealing performance that was a combination of light comedy and pathos, and the audience certainly doesn't forget about his character just because he's not in the second half of the film.
That begins with Milland being pulled out of prison, trained with younger men for his assignment (flinching the idea of being pulled in a parachute down a free fall), then heading to Belgium where things don't go as planned. So it's sort of a combination of Raffles and James Bond with Milland (who also directed) having one of his best later parts before he started doing campy horror films. Jeanette Sterke is pretty but bland as a member of the British resistance who Milland encounters and is lectured by in the importance of his mission which up until then he had been flippant about. Not a bad film, but slow at times. The exciting moments outweigh those however, so it's enjoyable if not great.
Good Thief, Bad Thief, ahh all for the prize.
mamalv20 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This is a neat little movie with a morality story to boot. Colley is an unabashed thief, who is recruited to go on a commando mission. Patriotism is not his cup of tea, but to get out of prison, he agrees. No one, especially Colley is crazy about him going along. Film was starred in and directed by, Ray Milland. Those who thought he was too old for the part, I think miss the plot. He is a man working in a dull job for many years, opening and setting safes in ritzy homes. Thereby he would be older. Of course he is still a striking presence on the screen, handsome and cunning. Colley gets the goods but can not resist stopping to steal a prized statue on the way out. Of course that was his mistake, and his demise. Ray Milland despite some critics is the perfect Colley. Can't see anyone else in the part.
What would one concede to pay to acquire an object of real beauty?
skimari1 February 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I just watched this film, which surely has not any pretensions to be a major spy or war or even police story, and for this reason the mistakes about the types of cars or planes etc that have been mentioned, do not affect me personally. I would not be able to spot them,anyway, my attention was concentrated elsewhere. This film seemed to me as an interlude rather than a musical symphony, a short chapter than a full book, some verses from a longer poem... Despite the smaller scale, though, the film touched a sensitive cord for some of its viewers! I suspect, moreover, that its intention was not to be touching: Very abstractedly, almost like a play by Albert Camus, it relates how this man lost his freedom first, and then his very life, not because he was greedy for money or power, but because of his love for beauty, wherever it may be found, fine art, a car, a woman... This love, implanted in him quite unaccountably, and in direct contrast to his average social background and financial situation, alienated him from everyone, and so he kept silent about it. While others who could afford it, paid huge sums of money with utter nonchalance,(but without any personal risk), to illegally possess a rare art object, he had to steal it, risk his freedom for it. This became an obsession, he could not stop, so he was finally caught, and put to prison. When British intelligence requested his skills as a Safecracker to snatch military secrets from the enemy, he accepted, but not out of patriotism.He was totally indifferent to war, arm service, ranks, heroism, discipline and such notions. He just wanted to be liberated from prison, so he went along with the project, but with his mind elsewhere... And when the mission was accomplished, he delayed there, to steal a last piece of fine art, and was shot by a German. No matter, he was happy to die holding that "beauty" in his hands ... Equally happy was his mother, when she was informed of his "heroism" by the army officials... Neither she, nor them, were ever able to understand him! Ray Milland is excellent in the role of this dreamer, creating a fine portrait of the rather complex hero, while never over-dramatizing. The film was shot on 1958, Ray was 51 years old then, always very handsome and impressive, more so than many of much younger age. As he has said himself, he was obliged to play the lead in the films he wanted to direct, and I would not have it any other way! As a director, he once again keeps a perfect pace,very easy to follow, not too quick, not too slow, like narrating a charming story, and he does this in such an unaffected way! It is a special film,a little out of the ordinary, difficult to put a label to or file it in a genre , but 100% worth seeing, so I recommend it to all lovers of beauty and to all fans of beautiful films! I only deduct 1 point from it, for not paying full attention to car and plane models...
Great Jokes
swojtak8 January 2022
The safecracker is in the Army. He looks at the bed and complains about the thin mattress. The soldier asks him what did he sleep on before. Safecracker says, "on a double bed with a double mattress". Soldier says, "you must have been in the American Army". To the British, "Yanks are Over Sexed, Over Paid, and Over Here".
the safecracker
mossgrymk28 January 2023
I am considerably more enthusiastic about this film than the majority of my fellow IMDBers below. Indeed, had the action scenes, especially the night time parachute drop and the climactic burglary, been better handled I would have assigned it a nine or a ten. I was especially taken with Milland's crisp, fast paced directorial style, unusual for an actor who decides to move behind the camera, where the scenes tend to favor the dramatic players rather than the drama. I also liked that this cheerfully cynical tale stayed true to itself and did not "redeem" Milland's title character in the name of English patriotism. Give it a B plus.
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