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| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
In the last few months or so, Arrow Video has been
unearthing and re-releasing some highly underrated action thriller films from
the 1970s in deluxe limited edition blu-ray sets that have long been overlooked
if not forgotten to time. Among them
have been John Frankenheimer’s Black Sunday, Peter Yates’ Murphy’s
War and Michael Tuchner’s 1972 adaptation of Alistair MacLean’s Fear is
the Key. Coming off of the heels of Vanishing
Point also prominently starring Barry Newman and featuring elegantly staged
car chases from Carey Loftin of The French Connection, the film starts
out right away as a stunning actioner before shifting gears into a number of
unexpected thriller subgenres.
While sporting the screen debut of Ben Kingsley and unlikely
turns from Suzy Kendall and John Vernon, it proved to be a box office failure domestically
but nevertheless became a hit overseas.
Thanks to Arrow Video’s ongoing efforts to bring these hard to see
Paramount Pictures titles to filmgoers in digitally remastered collector’s
sets, modern audiences have a chance to experience one of the most underrated
and technically brilliant twisty-turning action-adventure thrillers of the early
1970s long overdue for cult reappraisal.
In small-town Louisiana an enigmatic drifter named John
Talbot (Barry Newman) is passing through town when he holds up a cheap restaurant
and gets himself arrested. On trial
where it is revealed there’s a longstanding warrant for a series of crimes
committed by Talbot, the feisty drifter springs to action by shooting a cop in
the courtroom and taking bystander Sarah Ruthven (Suzy Kendall) hostage in an
explosive extended car chase sequence.
However, not all is what it seems as further intrigue leads to sleazy
mercurial characters including but not limited to an oil tycoon, a murky
private detective and ruthless thugs all loosely tied to a downed plane in the
ocean deep with a grave secret.
Initially bursting onscreen as a kind of First Blood action
thriller where a seeming madman is triggered into violent escape before
shifting gears into a labyrinthine James Bond kind of thriller full of
double crossings, elaborate set pieces and wild villainy, Fear is the Key is
a taut, revelatory actioner shot beautifully by renowned Excalibur cinematographer
Alex Thomson and scored with jazzy cool by Get Carter composer Roy Budd. The film is cut with a whip by legendary 2001:
A Space Odyssey and Aliens editor Ray Lovejoy with the tense car
chases opening the film fueled by the razor-sharp editing.
It goes without saying much of the film rests on the
debonair cool of Barry Newman in a role that more or less gives him as much
driving to do as Vanishing Point.
Suzy Kendall from Thunderball and Torso initially comes
onscreen as an unassuming bystander but soon herself gets caught up in the
action. Fans of National Lampoon’s
Animal House will spot John Vernon playing an adversarial bigwig again
though the one that’ll really get filmgoers’ eyes lit is the early appearance
of a young Ben Kingsley as a bloodthirsty mad criminal enforcer with shades of
what would or wouldn’t become his psychotic gangster in Sexy Beast.
Though it flew under the radar of American filmgoers when it
first appeared in 1972 and its director Michael Tuchner only made a total of
six feature films after making a foray into television, the highly underrated,
criminally underseen Fear is the Key presented by Arrow Video is an
important piece of overlooked action-adventure thriller cinema with arresting
2.35:1 panoramic cinematography, incredible car chases and a tense yet cool
performance from Barry Newman.
While the
poster suggests a giallo thriller with a gloved hand going over a random woman’s
mouth followed by a skull underneath, the actual film is anything but gialli
influenced or related. It is however a
terrific little number just as deserving of a strong cult following as its predecessor
Vanishing Point as well as being one of the most surprising and
innovative action-adventure films since Runaway Train!
--Andrew Kotwicki
