During the 20-minute, no-holds-barred car chase that opens the thriller, it seems that Barry Newman is still carrying on the duel with death that he started in his previous film, Vanishing Point. In the event, Fear is the Key proves to be a cleverly-plotted, helter-skelter, Alistair MacLean thriller, ideally suited to Newman's own high pressure, short-fuse style of acting. Here he's cast as a man out for revenge on those who killed his wife, child and brother, and his hard-driving portrayal of the obsessed Talbot carries the film excitingly through to an equally thrilling climax, 400 feet down on the seabed. In the featured cast, watch out for Ben Kingsley who, 10 years later, hit top stardom in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.

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