TIME LOCK
UK, 1957, 72 minutes, Black and white.
Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty Mc Dowell, Vincent Winter, Sean Connery.
Directed by Gerald Rogers.
Time Lock is a brief thriller based on a play by Arthur Haley before he became famous as a popular novelist. It is set in Toronto, but is a small-budget British production.
Robert Beatty had appeared in a lot of films in the UK, Vincent Winter was the young boy in The Kidnappers and Greyfriars Bobby. Sean Connery appears down the list of credits but appears as one of the welders trying to get the little boy out of the vault which was closed for the weekend by a time lock mechanism. The drama is about a young boy who wanders into the vault and is accidentally locked in. The collaboration of the various interests from the bank, the police, builders is very strong - though, in 1957, everybody is exceedingly well-mannered, the parents are not hysterical, everyone collaborates, and many are wearing coats and ties. Another world.
The film works well as a short thriller. It was produced by Peter Rogers and directed by Gerald Thomas. Within a year, surprisingly in view of this film, they began the long Carry On series.
1. An entertaining brief thriller? Credible? Audiences identifying with the family, the bank workers, those trying to free the boy?
2. The title, the opening credits, the explanation of the time lock, its effectiveness? The effectiveness of the vault? Welders trying to break through, the engineer trying to find a way of getting in? A community effort to rescue the boy?
3. British production, the creation of the atmosphere of Toronto, the bank, the locations? The claustrophobic aspect of the vault? Musical score?
4. The situation, credible? Friday afternoon, the bank closing, the distraction with the car siren outside the bank? The boy, his birthday, getting the torch? Playing, wandering into the vault and being closed in?
5. The reaction of the parents, their concern, the father and the PA system trying to explain things to his son? The boy, relationship to his parents, calling out to his father, trying to do what his father said, standing on the books but falling? Going unconscious?
6. The bank manager, his concern, the phone calls, using ingenuity? The supervisors arriving? The use of the media to track down the engineering expert? The helicopter and his return? The welders and their injuries, trying to get through the vault door? The police and their assistance? The crowds assembling outside the bank?
7. The time issue, measuring the air within the vault? Trying to break through with the welding? The air gun? The role of the engineer, his getting volunteers?
8. The final breakthrough, the parents reunited with their child, first aid and his not breathing, gradually breathing because of the adrenalin?
9. An effective short drama - of interest to families because of the possibility of this kind of accident?
