Die Menschenfalle

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.