Trapped

Ordinarily you'd expect Lloyd Bridges to be tracking down perennial villain John Hoyt. But here the usual roles are reversed-- Hoyt's the government agent and Bridges the small time hood. The movie itself is pretty typical of the docu-dramas of the period. It's the Treasury Department's turn to get the Hollywood treatment with the usual glowing introduction and stentorian narration. Though, like the stellar docu-drama T-Men (1947), the docu part soon gives way to big city noir. However, this film lacks importantly the former's grotesque air of nerve-wracking suspense.

Director Fleischer and the writers manage a couple of nice twists, particularly at the beginning. Nonetheless, the script makes a basic error in switching the action from Stewart (Bridges) to Sylvester (James Todd) in the climactic part. (Was Bridges taken ill or otherwise made unavailable.) Unfortunately, Todd simply lacks the screen presence to intimidate an audience or make us loathe him, whereas Bridges can snarl and menace with the best of them. Thus the last third fails to generate the kind of mounting dread required of an A-grade suspenser. Then too, Hoyt's basically cold demeanor and cruel looks don't arouse much natural sympathy that would encourage you to identify with him. Thus, the suspense is further weakened by what should be an emotional interest in the treasury agent's fate. The casting here really is a departure from the expected and to the movie's detriment.

Note how the culminating shootout takes place at an industrial site-- the overnight barn for LA's late, lamented trolley system, where we get a look at what could have eased LA's horrendous traffic problem. Actually, industrial sites crop up in the climax of a number of crime dramas of the period-- White Heat (1949), 7-11 Ocean Drive (1950), Union Station (1950), et al. I guess producers of the time figured running around big machines and shooting at each other would make for colorful audience excitement. Of course, the movie's also notable for the presence of notorious Hollywood bad-girl Barbara Payton, who was involved in several tawdry Hollywood scrapes and apparently ended her brief life as something of a cut-rate call girl ("Hollywood Babylon"). Whatever the direction of her private life, she's quite good here as Bridges' shapely blonde moll.

Anyway, for its type, the movie's average at best.

This is a fine, dark, nasty little movie. It's very well directed by Richard Fleischer. It takes place in a scary night town version of San Francisco.

Lloyd Bridges plays a character with the unusual first name Tris. Short for Tristan, I suppose. Real-life bad-girl Barbara Payton is no Isolde. Payton is good as his romantic interest, though.

The film begins with a scene in which someone is discovered to have counterfeit money. Bridges is in prison but is tapped by the Feds to help break up the counterfeiting ring. And it takes off from there.

There are double-crosses, confused identities. The supporting cast is excellent. Crime may not pay but we have some pretty interesting criminals in this story.

The opening of the film is a prolonged ode to the US Treasury in all its offices but particularly its role in the issuing of bank notes and prevention of counterfeit dosh. Then off we go with our hero released from jail (for counterfeiting) so he can help find who is now using his marvellous plates. This is no great noir but it is interesting enough and has its moments on the streets of LA. The finale in a tram shed containing LA electric street cars is effective and there are other set pieces making this worth a view. Bridges is most effective and Barbara Payton does well as the good looking moll. Predictable in parts but the action switches enough to maintain attention.

Counterfeiting obviously exercised the authories greatly during the postwar period, since it's here the subject of yet another crime film. Director Richard Fleischer further enhanced his burgeoning career with this astringent, sometimes eye-wateringly violent little potboiler dramatising the problem extensively shot on location in the days when Lloyd Bridges was playing "cheap, penny-antsy grifters".

This neat little thriller was directed by Richard Fleischer at the beginning of his "noir" period. He got better at it after this one--the terrific "Narrow Margin" and "Armored Car Robbery"--but this is still a good one, if a bit too slow at times.

Lloyd Bridges is a convicted counterfeiter serving time when he cuts a deal with the Treasury Department. It seems that when he was nabbed, his partner kept the plates and now almost flawless counterfeit currency is flooding Los Angeles. The feds believe it's Bridges' partner, and they'll cut his sentence in exchange for letting him out to find his partner and retrieve the plates. Once he gets out, however, he double-crosses them and plans to get the plates himself. As it turns out, Bridges isn't quite as slick as he thinks he is, and things start to go south rather quickly. Although not quite as fast-paced as Fleischer's better-known thrillers, it benefits tremendously from Bridges' presence. He's very tightly wound in this one, and quite a bit more brutal than you would expect him to be, even playing a bad guy. Tragic figure Barbara Payton actually does quite well as his floozy girlfriend, and the sinister John Hoyt does an excellent job as a somewhat enigmatic character who turns out to be not quite what he seems.

Good atmosphere and some neat plot--and other--twists make this a good companion piece to Fleischer's later noirs, and definitely worth a watch.