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The Key is a British film of genre Drama directed by Carol Reed released in USA on 1 july 1958 with William Holden

The Key (1958)

The Key
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Released in USA 1 july 1958
Length 2h14
Directed by
Genres Drama,    War,    Romance
Rating66% 3.342973.342973.342973.342973.34297

The Key is a 1958 British war film set in 1941 during the Battle of the Atlantic. It was based on the 1951 novel The Distant Shore by Jan de Hartog, published in the UK under the title Stella, and was directed by Carol Reed. William Holden, Sophia Loren and Trevor Howard starred in the production.

The key to a flat in wartime England may auger bad luck for a series of tugboat captains of the Royal Navy whose task is to rescue crippled ships in "U-boat Alley." As each takes possession from his unfortunate predecessor, the flat's other occupant, a Swiss expatriate named Stella, apparently goes with it. The latest captain struggles with his conflicting fears and affection for its apparent jinx.

Synopsis

American David Ross (William Holden), a former tugboat captain now in the Canadian army, is hastily commissioned in the Royal Navy and assigned to rotating command of W88, a double-crewed rescue tug then in dry dock due to battle damage. His predecessor was a suicide. The slow, poorly armed tugboats bring in "lame ducks," freighters crippled near England by German attacks. The main danger is from U-boats and aircraft.

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