The Trap

This is well acted and directed. The mood is set right from the beginning, and Tula is no town for the faint of heart. Widmark and Cobb are terrific, and the supporting cast matches them every step of the way. Toward the end, some plot holes become apparent under close examination, but the ride is worth taking.

Prodigal son (Widmark) must get top gangster (Cobb) across desert to justice despite opposition from gang and family rivalries.

Pretty good suspenser if you can get past that over-long, over-done early scene where Widmark and Louise make moon-calf eyes at each other. After that the narrative settles into a decent contest of wits. One thing for sure—they didn't have to build many sets. There's a huge swath of desolate California desert the cars get to roll across, while I'm thirsty just watching this.

There're maybe more family convolutions than the story needs. I expect much of that is to build up Tina Louise's part. And what a dish she is, several years before Gilligan's Island. I will say they wisely de-glamorized her for the rustic part here. It's a good cast, though the 46-year old Widmark is a little long-in-the-tooth for his role; plus, the great Lee J. Cobb has less to do than I would expect.

Nonetheless, the premise plays out nicely in the abandoned diner and in that final twist that I didn't see coming. There's nothing special here, just an entertaining 90-minutes with a good cast and a big part of California that sure ain't Hollywood.

The Trap grafts a dysfunctional-family drama onto a glorified road-chase movie; it also grafts the shoot-from-the-hip conventions and sun-parched look of the Western onto a late-fifties crime drama. These various components, all vying for our attention, give birth to a hybrid that lacks any individuality.

Prodigal son Richard Widmark turns up in his hometown of Tula, out in the California desert, after a decade's absence. The old homestead, seething with tensions, houses his father (Carl Benton Reid), the town sheriff; his drunken wastrel of a brother (Earl Holliman); and the brother's wife (Tina Louise), an old flame of Widmark's. It seems that Widmark works for the mob as a mouthpiece, come home to persuade his law-and-order dad to call off the police guarding an airfield where crime kingpin Lee J. Cobb will make a break for Mexico. In the ensuing chaos, after his dad gets killed, Widmark decides to bring Cobb to justice himself. Unfortunately, he needs the help of his resentful brother, who in turn needs the cash Cobb offers him....

The trek through the desert to the nearest big town proves a fiendish obstacle course: What with snipers and double-dealings and radiators gone dry, it's just one damn thing after another. The relentless heat and blazing sun suck out much of the movie's juices, too; watching it becomes an endurance contest like being stranded in the desert. Widmark and Cobb walk through their roles with expected professionalism, but do nothing unexpected, either. Holliman telegraphs his vacillating weakness loud and clear, while Tina Louise doesn't bring much to the party (but then again, director Norman Panama didn't ask her to bring much). Once it's over, The Trap just sort of dries up and blows away.

Despite its exceptional quality and the presence of genre hero Richard Widmark, "The Trap" has mostly eluded noir enthusiasts. It's hard to see why: coming in at barely 85 minutes, the script is taut as a piano wire and immediately hits you with its vitality and tension. Widmark plays a mafia lawyer forced to use family law enforcement connections to help mob boss Lee J. Cobb escape from an oppressively hot desert town. Chaotic action and dark family tension erupt as the hour of Cobb's departure approaches.

Earl Holliman gives one of his best performances as Widmark's brother, the local deputy. Holliman is a barely functioning alcoholic with serious daddy issue who is quickly losing the affection of wife Tina Louise and the respect of his father, the sheriff. His rapid moral collapse, occurring while Widmark starts to gain backbone, provides the core tension of the film. It's wonderful to see Tina Louise in a starring role: she is excellent in these thrillers (see also "Day of the Outlaw") and should have been a much bigger star. The movie climaxes with a splendid action sequence on a plane runway that's beautifully executed given the film's limited budget.

A romance, a crime drama, and a family feud all rolled into one - and starring Richard Widmark. Yes, please! Dick has been estranged from his family for years, and his dad Carl Benton Reid is ashamed of his career: working as a lawyer who represents mob boss Lee J. Cobb. The unreliable brother, Earl Holliman, has taken his place in his dad's heart. Carl is the sheriff in town, and Earl is the deputy, despite his drunkenness and incompetence.

Earl has also taken his place in another way: he married Dick's old girlfriend Tina Louise. There's still a smoldering chemistry between them, though, so when he comes back to town the sparks really fly. Dick has a reason for coming back: to ask his dad to break the law and allow Lee to cross the border before his trial date. Do you think his favor will be granted?

The Trap is pretty entertaining, even though parts of it are predictable. I'll watch anything with cutie-pie Richard Widmark in it, and I always like seeing him as a romantic lead since he so often played villains. Lee. J. Cobb isn't given anything to do besides be a mafioso, so if you're looking for a range of acting in this movie, you probably won't find it. You will find a tense small town meets big mafia drama with the time ticking away at every moment.