The Gentle Trap

As others have already said, this is a pretty average Butcher's B-movie from the time. A thin plot and average production values here, so don't watch it with any high expectations, because you will almost certainly be disappointed.

Looking at it now, it is a different (and mostly rather drab) world. Arguably the most exotic thing in the movie is the (most) bad guy's car which is (I think) a (Lincoln) Continental MkIII or MkIV from 1958 or 1959. Coming from the era in American car design when 'bigger was always better' this was one of the largest cars ever built. With the (optional) spare wheel holder at the back it would have been over twenty feet long! Probably it belonged to the producer or something and they used it to add glamour to the film; it needed all the help it could get, but it wasn't enough....

Spencer Teakle is a young man who has just qualified as a lock smith. but he's got a girl and ambitions, so he decides to get into a related line of business, and assists an older man with a burglary. When his partner is run down, Teakle finds himself on the run from the police, asking sketchy acquaintances for help. They're willing, for half the take. His problem is they don't see any reason to split with him.

Like many of Charles Saunders' later films, this quota quickie has a nice story, some decent actors, and a budget that doesn't allow much in the way of cinematic frills. With Martin Benson -- best remembered from GOLDFINGER -- as the chief bad guy, it runs through its paces quickly and efficiently enough to never pall, despite an annoying score by William Davies.

A cheapo crime thriller from the prolific Butcher's Film Service. These films were a dime a dozen in the early '60s and THE GENTLE TRAP has a poor title and a plot that could be interchangeable with at least a dozen others. The film has an arresting opening in which a couple of thieves are betrayed by a rival gang but soon descends into tedium with a long-winded, who-can-you-trust style storyline.

One of the few good things this has going for it is a very short running time. It clocks in at just 59 minutes in length but you feel every minute of it. Some of the supporting do quite well in their clichéd roles, like the alluring femme fatale and the tough criminal bosses, but even so this is cheap stuff indeed and of interest only to fans of the era.

British director Charles Saunders churned out B-movie after B-movie for a period of some twenty years between the early 1940s and early 1960s. He made the occasional nudie film (NUDIST PARADISE) and horror flick (WOMAN EATER) but for the most part delivered second-rate thrillers like this and DANGER BY MY SIDE. I don't know much about leading man Spencer Teakle except he also appeared in COVER GIRL KILLER and FIRST MAN INTO SPACE and had a great name to boot.

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.

I taped The Gentle Trap recently when BBC2 screened it during the early hours and despite reading bad reviews, I thought I'd see what it was like.

A pair of burglars break into a jewellery shop and pinch some diamonds but as they are making their getaway, some gangsters ambush them. One of the pair goes on the run from the police and gang leader. He stays with two sisters and when one of them reports him, he goes on the run once again with the other sister, with the police on their trail. They catch up with them on a farm and he is caught after a shoot out at the end.

The cast is lead by Spencer Teakle and he is joined by Felicity Young and Martin Benson.

Though certainly not brilliant, The Gentle Trap is watchable. The UK made quite a few of these low budget crime dramas in the 1950's and 1960's.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.