User reviews

MAN-TRAP (1961) offers an unusual crime drama of a wounded Korean War vet who gets embroiled in a robbery caper with a war buddy whose life he'd once saved. It's got a trio of intriguing lead characters and a set of unpredictable twists and turns that never defy logic. Other than a couple of well-staged action scenes, the film avoids making concessions to genre conventions or established formula. The whole thing is character-driven and rarely do you feel the filmmakers pandering to the audiences' expectations. In fact, it plays like a faithful adaptation of a good crime novel and was indeed based on one, "Soft Touch," by John D. MacDonald ("Cape Fear").

The film opens with a Korean War scene (filmed rather cheaply on a California beach) in which Matt Jameson (Jeffrey Hunter) rescues Vince Biskay (David Janssen) from Chinese riflemen and gets shot in the head as a result. Vince promises Matt that, "If I ever make any money, a lotta money, half of it's gonna be yours." That one line handily and dramatically sets up the premise for the rest of the movie. Cut to eight years later. Matt has a silver plate in his head and is having serious marital and financial woes when Vince shows up out of the blue with a proposition. He's been working for a South American government and has been sent to the U. S. to intercept a cache of money earmarked to buy guns for rebels seeking to overthrow his employers. It's for a good cause, Vince insists, and Matt will be paid a half-million dollars if he acts as driver when Vince goes to San Francisco Airport, in disguise, to pick up the courier.

Once they get to the airport, of course, things go awry when the shooting starts, thanks to rebel representatives with ideas of their own. Matt soon finds himself caring for a seriously wounded Vince, while stashing the money, of which he now wants no part, and trying to stay one step ahead of pursuers. Things spiral from bad to worse when Matt's wife (Stella Stevens) freaks out in an alcoholic rage, with horrific results, and the rebels catch up with Matt. Matt's amnesia soon kicks in and the chance of a happy ending seems impossibly remote.

The airport confrontation is quite clever, especially since it coincides with the arrival of a teen pop star and crowds of teenage girls surrounding him. It's followed by an exciting car chase from the airport into San Francisco and through the streets of the city, a good seven years before BULLITT put San Francisco car chases on the map. (BULLITT also had a shootout at San Francisco Airport.)

It's an intricate tale of an innocent man caught up in a crime of opportunity when he's at his most financially vulnerable. Matt's an honorable man who tries to do the right thing at every stage, often at great cost to himself. But he's so uncomfortable and unhappy at all times that we kind of secretly wish he'd just lighten up, take the money and run off and start a new life. But the film doesn't make it easy for us. Janssen's Vince Biskay is quite a snaky character, charming and loquacious one moment, hard-bitten and dangerous the next. It's a side of Janssen we didn't often get to see. Nina, Matt's wife, is played by Stella Stevens as quite a wild number, given to hard drink at all hours of the day and flirtatious behavior whenever and with whomever she wants. She's so damned cute and sexy and has such an inviting smile, it's hard to dislike her, no matter how much of a lush and nymphomaniac she turns out to be. The film really perks up during her scenes, leading me to think that Stella just might outrank all her other hot kittenish blond contemporaries (Tuesday Weld, Connie Stevens, Ann-Margret). Elaine Devry co-stars as the helpful and understanding office secretary with whom Matt is having a rather chaste affair.

Matt's suburban neighbors are a noisy and intrusive bunch, given to parties and heavy drinking whenever we see them. Future "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane is one of them. They play a naughty game called "Braille," in which the wives lie on floors covered in sheets and the husbands have to use "braille" to determine which covered figure on the floor is their wife. This was pretty hot stuff for 1961.

The film was directed by actor Edmond O'Brien (D. O. A.) who does not appear in the film at all. O'Brien also co-directed SHIELD FOR MURDER (1954), a gritty thriller in which he starred as a corrupt cop. I saw both films practically back-to-back. I'm impressed. There are some scenes in MAN-TRAP that have way too much dialogue and are a bit overwrought, but, overall, I like the way the film mixes urban crime drama, caper film, international politics, marital dysfunction, suburban decadence and a lone hero's moral dilemma all in one enticing package. Now I need to track down the novel.

There are a few distinctions to this film, one being that it is the only movie ever to have been directed by Edmond O'Brien, the 1940s leading man who, a decade later, put on a great deal of weight and turned into a top character actor, even winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Once was enough as a director, though, for this crime thriller appears to be an imitation of the film noirs that O'Brien starred in (most notably, D.O.A.) earlier in his career, and that genre had all but disappeared from the screen by the early 1960s, only to be revived again toward the end of the century and at the beginning of the next, via neo-noir - which even included a disastrous remake of DOA with Dennis Quaid. But I digress . . . one of the other distinctions is the re-teaming of Jeffrey Hunter and David Janssen, who had worked together very well a year and a half earlier in a far better and more ambitious film, Hell to Eternity, a big scale WWII action flick. In between, Hunter had played the part of Jesus in King of Kings and, after that, he seemed desperate to do anything to try and distance himself from the image of purity he incarnated there. That included second rate 'programmers' (as studio B movies used to be called) in which, at the very least, he could remind audiences of the differing roles he was capable of playing. Hunter blew his last big chance for success, incidentally, when a few years later he listened to the lady in his life when she told him NOT to do Star Trek! Anyway, the third reason to take a look at this flick (don't go out of your way, mind you) is to catch Stella Stevens displaying her range of talents and reminding us that, in addition to a ditzy-glitzy blonde in comedy roles, she could do a femme fatale just fine. She may have third billing behind the boys, but this is her show all the way, and whenever she's on screen, sparks fly - as they do nowhere else in this minor movie.

This is a black and white film noir that focuses on a relationship between two wartime buddies. Matt Jameson (played by Jeffrey Hunter) is a true war hero who risked his own life to save Vince Biskay (played by David Janssen) who was lying wounded on a beachfront with his hand partially shot off. Vince promises his hero Matt that if they make it back to the U.S.A. and if he ever gets rich he will split his wealth with his savior Matt 50/50.

The two wartime buddies do make it back after the war is over and our hero Matt marries his bosses daughter Nina Jameson (played by Stella Stevens). Over the next few years Matt realizes that his wife Nina is a tramp who drinks all day long and sleeps around on him. Matt also comes to realize that his father-in-law encouraged Matt marry his daughter Nina so that he and his daughter could bask in her marrying a true war hero. Unfortunately both Nina and her father are unscrupulous users of anyone and everyone, especially when it comes to using and abusing Matt.

Now Matt has fallen for his secretary Liz Addams (played by Elaine Devry) but because his wife has put him into so much debt with her reckless spending and non-stop boozing Matt believes he is stuck in a loveless marriage with his father-in-law hanging his unpaid debt to him over his head to stay in his loveless marriage.

In walks Matt's old wartime buddy Vince Biskay with a questionable scheme that will make the two wartime buddies a half million dollars each for just a couple of hours work by picking up a diplomat at the airport who happens to be carrying a steel suitcase with $3.5 million dollars. Now Matt has his reservations about getting involved with his buddy Vince and his plan but Vince assures him it is on the up and up and there will be no gun play. Matt's girlfriend Liz Addams pleads with Matt not to proceed with the plan and just leave the city with her although Matt is broke but with his dignity still intact.

Matt decides out of desperation in Vince's plan that will see him be financially stable enough to leave his wife Nina and move on with a new life with his girlfriend Liz. The film does get very interesting in the latter half of the story and the audience will be able to guess what happens next, but it is not easy to predict what happens to the four main characters in this story. Two characters who are nothing but users and liars, Nina and Vince, and two characters with a moral compass that knows right from wrong in Matt and Liz.

There are twists and turns in this film to keep your attention in this film noir classic. I do wish it would have provided a more enticing and suspenseful musical score but sometimes we can't have it all. I give it a 7 out of 10 rating.

A strange film with a good cast and excellent San Francisco locations, circa 1961. Somehow, during the Korean War, Matt, a soldier played by Jeffrey Hunter saved the life of Vince another soldier, played by David Janssen. Matt has pretty much forgotten the incident--maybe due to a metal plate now in his head. So he's shocked when one day Vince turns up at his door, wanting to rekindle their wartime camaraderie. Things appear to start on the wrong foot, when Vince flirts openly (and mutually) with Matt's wife Nina (Stella Stevens). But Matt hardly minds, since he's had it with materialistic, alcoholic, verbally abusive nymphomaniac Nina. So, when she insists that Vince stay in their guest room, we can assume adulterous hanky-panky is in the future. Matt really doesn't mind too much--he's having an affair with the office secretary.

Very shortly after arriving, Vince reveals his true reason for turning up out of the blue: he has a plan to get his hands on $3 million in a semi-honest scheme (not really), and he'll need Matt's help. Manipulative Vince convinces Matt to play along and things go very badly. There's some entertaining early 60s-style violence and a pretty decent car chase that serves as a partial tour of San Francisco, well shot in widescreen black-and-white. The problem with the film comes in when it tries to tie Matt's marital troubles with the criminal events. It just doesn't work very well. But there are some fun arguments between Matt and Nina (Ms Stevens doing well, delivering very choice dialog). Then there is that party crowd: a group of neighborhood swingers we see first at one of Nina's booze-soaked gatherings (featuring Martini-filled water pistols), and later when they burst into Matt and Nina's obviously looking for an orgy. It's all completely implausible, but it's hard not to keep watching. No spoilers here about other somewhat interesting plot developments. This was directed by accomplished actor Edmund O'Brien, and if he had reined things in it might have just been dull. So, odd as it is, this movie merits a look, especially for fans of the period.

This film noir isn't bad ... but it's based on a novel by John D. MacDonald, so it should be great. The first half of the film closely follows the novel, with some minor adjustments. The movie's second half swerves drunkenly all over the highway, ending up at a similar finale.

The novel depicts Jerry as a borderline nice guy with buried criminal tendencies. The movie portrays Matt (Jeffrey Hunter's renamed character) as a swell guy who keeps getting dragged deeper into the heist scheme - almost as if the screenplay was written by his defense attorney. The desire to portray the protagonist in the most sympathetic light dilutes the story's impact. Since the producers take liberties with the plot after the halfway mark, it no longer matters.

I read the first half of John D. MacDonald's SOFT TOUCH, put down the book and watched this film, then read the remainder of the novel. While the film aligns closely with the films in the beginning, I was surprised by the straightened plots twists and the discarded scenes in the second half.

You can watch this movie without spoiling the novel's surprises, although you may find yourself wishing they had stuck to the novel. Difficult to imagine how the producers could go wrong, when John D. MacDonald had mapped everything out.

I just saw "Mr Soft Touch" with Glen Ford which is a bizarre blend of noir crime and Capraesque comedy. And I found in this Man-trap another strange mix of political noir, friendship between 2 soldiers from Korea, and melodrama in Hunter's life with a boozy Stella Steven's. That blend of genres send the viewers in all directions. So it's certainly not a pure noir for me. This is the last movie directed by cult noir actor Edmond O'Brien, after 2 tvs and "Shield for murder" (co directed with Howard Koch). In this Man-trap, there is a scene in which Jansen disguises in a South American vip and raises his voice, well it recalled me "the Third Voice" directed one year later by Hubert Cornfield, Edmond O'Brien plays the Voice speaking loudly, quite nice tough film noir.

Jeffrey Hunter and David Janssen give excellent performances in this crime caper. The real standout is Stella Stevens as Hunter's nagging, nymphomaniac drunk who drinks martinis out if a water pistol. She makes this movie a standout.

I like most of David's movies, but in this he was really sleazy. Very unlikeable. And Stella Stevens, always seems to be type cast as a tramp. She was really horrible, and nasty. Hell I would have killed her. Jeffery, was a wuss, no one should have put up with that. The movie was great, so many vile people, the swinging neighbors, gross. Not surprised to see Bob crane as one of them. He lived that life style. Too bad it focuses more on Stevens,. It even starts showing at the beginning, she's no good. So, letting you know I don't have 61 more things to say. And you need to go back to the original format, A review should be a damn thesis.

The film begins in a hokey, low-budget manner, mostly to establish the debt David Janssen owes to Jeffrey Hunter for saving his life. Later, they do have some good dramatic scenes together, but it is Stella Stevens that breathes life into everything. She is seductive, cruel, ranting, crazed, and clearly bored out of her mind with her war hero husband (Hunter). The swinging couples that travel like a pack of boozed-up interlopers, completely insensitive to the strain in the young couple's marriage are a fascinating glimpse into one of the social strains of instant neighborhoods in suburbia. Times were changing in 1961 and these moments reveal the chasm between Hunter's and Stevens' definition of married life.

The domestic scenes and the crime/noir scenes don't really go together and I wish that the Stevens character had been included in the planning of the heist, the escape, or some other way that tied the suffocating marriage to the recklessness of Hunter. Maybe something that played up how Hunter was seduced by Janssen, Stevens, and even his secretary might have made that two halves of this story more cohesive.