The Gentle Trap

Charles Saunders directs yet another B pic, this time from quick release and fittingly named Butchers Distributors, who pretty much butchered acting, editing, stunts and all the small components that make for memorable cinema.

The screenplay by to me unknown Brock Williams seems to plagiarize all manner of other B pics of the time, but at least dialogue has its moments, especially when beautiful Dorinda Stevens appears on screen as Mary, all deception and unscrupulous desire to score a percentage of the heist's proceeds. Felicity Young plays her principled sister, who falls in love and ultimately gets her man, the locksmith turned robber at the beginning of the pic, a 3' 22" voiceless sequence that may have been inspired by France's RIFIFI, which had come out 5 years earlier, and which is easily the most accomplished and better finished part of this flick, with a great piece of music as background.

Sadly, the thieving locksmith, played by - I had never heard of him - one Spencer Teakle, failed to tickle me. The man cannot seem to get a meaningful expression, and over the course of this thankfully short movie keeps getting black eyes, and all manner of facial bruises. Well, at least he tickles the lovely Felicity, and together they tie up one of top villain Martin Benson's sidekicks in an unintentionally laughable sequence. The tying of hands and feet is so minimal that a child would have gotten out of it in a minute, and the gagging with a facial powder ball should have killed the man just with all particles that would have filled his throat.

Photography, apart from that remarkable initial sequence as the credits roll down, is run of the mill.

Average but 56' won't waste too much of your time.