The Rabbit Trap

Adapted from a '50s TV drama, this United Artists release stars Ernest Borgnine, at the height of his Everyman abilities, as a family man torn between home and work responsibilities. His boss (David Brian, good) is a slave driver who knows how to exploit his cooperativeness, and his wife (Bethel Leslie, also good) keeps talking sense to him, knowing he's disinclined to listen. When he's called back to work prematurely from vacation and forgets to dismantle the rabbit trap he and his young son set up, the son worries about the suffering rabbit and tries to travel back to the lake on his own. Yes, the movie's really that small. There's a subplot about a va-va-voom but nice secretary who's having an affair with the boss and feels guilty about it, and there's a happy ending that really isn't very happy. And there's annoying, TV-sounding music throughout, and some dull shots of L.A. and environs in 1958. It's well intentioned and reasonably well executed, but also prosaic and up to its neck in the Everyday Problems of Normal People. That's generally not a recipe for exciting cinema.

I saw this movie decades ago but, like Little Kidnappers, it made it big impression. Leacock was an affecting film director with a distinguished early career and I don't understand why so much of his later work was as a journeyman on television shows. I hope he was well paid.

A family that just has started their vacation, must return home because the father (Ernest Borgnine) is required by his boss. When they arrive, realize that they forgotten a harmless rabbit trap ready. Because of the insistence of his son, he try to convince his boss to let him go to the vacation spot to check whether any rabbit has been caught, and so release him from a slow death agony. He must choose between his job, or give a good example of compassion and love to all creatures to his son. The Ernest Borgnine acting is at his best. I love this film.

I normally only write reviews for the very top 5% or the bottom 5%, movies so far outside the average stuff, that I feel compelled to write. My compulsion here, come from my reaction to another review. To wit,

"The story completely misses the point that in forgetting the rabbit trap, it is Eddie who has the problem and wants to make it his bosses problem. Private companies are not like governments. They are not in business to provide jobs for people and they are not run by bosses who enjoy making life miserable for their employees. Unlike government departments, they have competitors and if they don't do it better and or cheaper, they lose market share and eventually go out of business. "

Wow. Where to start. Sure the sons point of view is simplistic, failing to see the company's profit and loss structure, but is an individual caring about the possible suffering of one of gods creatures all that insignificant? For all the fathers exposing children to hunting, decking them out in size 3 or 4 cameo's, and doing all but buying them child sized shotguns so they can get a jump on their killing odyssey, wouldn't the world be a bit nicer, a slightly better balance if more fathers would skip a day at work, just in case their child might have positioned a small animal for an awful death?

in my life, between being a combat medic, then a special forces medical instructor, and finally med school, internship and residency, I've seen a great deal of cruelty. Perhaps its why I see a need for more compassion, kindness and awareness of suffering of both humans and animals.

Ernest Borginine superb acting is on display here, playing an average joe far removed from his usual sadistic heavies or his broad comic McHale's Navy character.

The story completely misses the point that in forgetting the rabbit trap, it is Eddie who has the problem and wants to make it his bosses problem.

Private companies are not like governments. They are not in business to provide jobs for people and they are not run by bosses who enjoy making life miserable for their employees. Unlike government departments, they have competitors and if they don't do it better and or cheaper, they lose market share and eventually go out of business. Despite popular belief going back to Charles Dickens, a company boss/owner only cares about the bottom line not out of evil, but because the bottom line dictates whether or not the entire company survives.

Lets see it from a different angle. What if it was the boss who'd forgotten the rabbit trap and decided to take time off his job to go back for it. What if as a result a crucial decision was not made and the company went out of business? Should the entire company suffer for the bosses personal problems? What if Eddie was your brain surgeon. Would it be OK with you if he got someone else to fill in for him or delayed your surgery to go back for a rabbit trap that he forgot?