The Trap *** (1959, Richard Widmark, Lee J Cobb, Tina Louise, Earl Holliman) – Classic Movie Review 9016

Co-writer/ co-producer/ director Norman Panama’s 1959 action crime thriller The Trap [The Baited Trap] stars Lee J Cobb as low-life law-breaker Victor Massonetti, a wanted mobster who is attempting to hide from the cops before escaping from the US.

Massonetti terrorises the quiet remote Californian desert backwater town of Tula, and is helped by the well-intentioned but confused lawyer Ralph Anderson, played by top-billed star Richard Widmark. Anderson arranges for Massonetti to flee America out of a small airstrip, but Sheriff Lloyd Anderson (Carl Benton Reid), the lawyer’s estranged father, has other ideas.

Daniel L Fapp’s good location cinematography, shot on Southern Californian locations, brings realism, tension and excitement to the movie, and gives the town a splendid feeling of isolation. And it almost goes without saying that Widmark and Cobb are first rate. It runs a swift-moving, short 84 minutes.

It is an unusual film for the Melvin Frank and Norman Panama production team, normally more at home with comedy. But it proves a good change of pace for them.

Also in the cast are Earl Holliman, Tina Louise, Carl Benton Reid, Lorne Greene, Peter Baldwin, Chuck Wassil, Richard Shannon, Carl Milletaire and Walter Coy.

The Trap [The Baited Trap] is directed by Norman Panama, runs 84 minutes, is made by Heath Productions, Paramount Pictures and Parkwood Enterprises, is released by Paramount, is written by Richard Alan Simmons and Norman Panama, is shot in Technicolor by Daniel L Fapp, is produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, is scored by Irvin Talbot (music supervisor), and is designed by Henry Bumstead and Hal Pereira.

The desert town scenes are shot in Southern California, and the studio work is filmed at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9016

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