Pitfall **** (1948, Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Raymond Burr, Jane Wyatt) – Classic Movie Review 2167

Co-writer/director André de Toth’s impressive 1948 film noir crime thriller Pitfall pairs Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott, both in their prime, along with Jane Wyatt and Raymond Burr. It is based on the novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler.

Powell stars as insurance company executive and family man John Forbes, who is married to a nice dull wife called Sue (Jane Wyatt), and is hemmed in by his humdrum suburban life and his boring routine working for the Olympic Mutual Insurance Company in central Los Angeles. That all changes when he finds he has to investigate an insurance case involving irresistible femme fatale Mona Stevens (the alluring Lizabeth Scott), whom he falls for, even though she too is already hitched, with a boyfriend, Bill Smiley (Byron Barr).

The boyfriend is in jail after embezzling from a store insured by Forbes’s company and using much of the money on gifts to Mona, which Forbes comes to collect. Raymond Burr stars too as the deliciously slimy and sweaty private eye J B MacDonald, who is also on Mona’s case, both professionally and romantically. With the boyfriend about to be freed, MacDonald sets him against Forbes.

Engrossingly acted, atmospheric and compelling, Pitfall is a compelling, neatly handled little film noir gem. Ideally cast Powell, Scott and Burr are all at their very estimable best. Also in the cast are John Litel as the District Attorney, Byron Barr as Bill Smiley, Jimmy Hunt as Tommy Forbes, Ann Doran as Maggie, Selmer Jackson as Ed Brawley, Margaret Wells as Terry, and Dick Wessel as Desk Sergeant. The stylish cinematography is by Harry J Wild.

The screenplay by Karl Kamb, André de Toth (uncredited) and William Bowers (uncredited) is based on the 1947 novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler, who wrote six novels, won an Oscar for Call Northside 777, and was nominated for the 1944 film noir Laura.

The cynical screenplay got into trouble with the Hays Code, so de Toth met two of its married members and revealed he knew they had mistresses, and the film’s problems vanished.

Lizabeth Scott (1922 – 2015).

Lizabeth Scott, who was born Emma Matzo in 1922, made her last film Pulp in 1972. After that, she was engaged in real estate development and volunteer work for various charities, such as Project HOPE and the Ancient Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Scott suffered heart failure at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and died on January 31 2015, aged 92.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2167

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