The Money Trap

Glenn Ford and Ricardo Montalban are good policemen gone bad who fall into "The Money Trap," a 1965 noir directed by Burt Kennedy. Ford plays Joe Baron, married to beautiful Lisa (Elke Sommer) who is no longer getting dividends from her father's company. Downsizing and some yard sales would seem to be in order, but instead, Joe has his eye on a mob doctor's (Joseph Cotten) safe that's filled with money. Montalban, as his partner Pete, wants in. One man has already been killed cracking the safe, and there are some surprises in store.

This film is just okay, kind of depressing, but it's notable for the performance of Rita Hayworth as the widow of the dead burglar. She looks pretty used up as her character should, but she's still a stunning woman with true star charisma and great chemistry with Ford, her old co-star. And, as someone else mentioned, how many 50-year-old women playing character roles get to shack up with the lead in a movie? Well, if anyone could, it's Rita.

Ford was an appealing star without a huge range; this character could have been mined for more depth, but he's fine in the role. Montalban is very good as his money-obsessed partner.

Worth it for Rita.

Was the world ever really like this?

Pure 1965 black and white, this time machine of a crime drama takes you back to when Elkie Sommer was young, and Joseph Cotten was'nt dead. No profanity, blood or sex on the screen, but everywhere in the painlessly stereotypical screenplay. Predictable to a fault, you seem not to care it's all one big cleche. The jazzy, pre-groovy background music, a totally orignal score by Hal Schaffer, makes this crime-like thing a nostalgic romp of flat-foot flick.

Great cast. Might be interesting. Hmmmm.... Well, it starts with a brassy, obnoxious jazz theme, followed oddly by bongo music. Our first scene is Ford as a detective at the scene of a crime wherein a woman was hung in a whore house by her husband. Next scene we have Elke Sommer undressing to go to bed with husband Ford. This film wastes no time! But then it goes on and on with crummy characters played by William Campbell, Ricardo Montalban, Hayworth and Cotten. Dreary all the way to the bitter conclusion. The post-'Gilda' reteaming of Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford is a sad spectacle. Ford's haircut is so bad his ears look bat-like. Hayworth, admittedly is not playing a glamour part, but her degradation is not pleasant to watch. Together they appear dissipated, like their careers at this point. Ford really seems bored and uncomfortable throughout. And Cotten is as dull as usual. But Montalban does show some energy as fellow cop, and Elke Sommer has never looked better and plays the most likable (maybe only likable) character in the film. If that valium is making you feel too good, bring yourself down with this movie.

Lionel White's novel becomes an adequate time-filler from rote director Burt Kennedy. Big city cop Glenn Ford, anxious to hold on to luscious wife Elke Sommer, turns to crime; his partner of six years, Ricardo Montalban, wants in on the action. Familiar swindling and safe-cracking yarn goosed by Hal Schaefer's beatnik music, Paul Vogel's gorgeously bleak black-and-white cinematography, and interesting performances from an agreeable cast. Glenn Ford doesn't try hard to flesh out this complicated character, yet his smaller moments (like stroking Sommer's forearm in bed) go a long way to making a connection with the audience; Rita Hayworth (despite a corny send-off) is excellent as an alcoholic, and Montalban simmers with cat-like heat and paranoia. The dialogue is amusingly gritty ("I'm worried!" ... "Then worry with your mouth shut!") and the locales are vividly captured, however the M-G-M studio streets and back alleys look as phony as ever. **1/2 from ****

For this Post-Noir, which didn't seem aware that Film Noirs had ended, It takes former THE BIG HEAT actor Glenn Ford to make what could be an average, by-the-numbers programmer an intriguing glimpse into a planned heist of a crooked doctor's mansion wall-safe...

A man who, in Ford's opinion, murdered a thief that broke in... Part of the ingredients that makes THE MONEY TRAP a nice little page-turner with a touch of mystery, despite knowing whodunit from the get-go... Although it's never quite clear why the cops, including Ford's desperate partner Ricardo Montalban, would take such a risk, other than a payoff, each scene flows into the next in an eclectic hybrid of Noir and Soapy Melodrama...

The latter involving Ford's trophy wife, who is second billed over his once-famous GILDA co-starlet Rita Hayworth as a waitress sharing a past with the veteran cop, and she's a widow to the dead thief...

Too bad sexy blonde Elke Sommer doesn't veer into edgy moll or nefarious dame territory, or something other than a reason to provoke the main character into crossing the line: she's basically a plot-point with a perfect body. Meanwhile, Hayworth and Ford share a few scenes that could have been played by anyone; yet it's nice seeing both of them together in this B&W time-filler that's worth an idyllic afternoon viewing...

And safe seat gentleman Joseph Cotten's henchman Tom Reese is the most intriguing throughout. With a face looking like it'd been through a blender with a crocodile, he alone provides the real threat since, after all, the criminals here are the law.