Trapped by Television

Trapped by Television equates to a bit more than most 30's cinematic potboilers. It may include a number of the tropes that genre films from that decade usually have but it is distinct in that it is quite historically interesting. The reason for this is that it depicts a 30's view of television – a technology that hadn't actually happened at that point in time yet. Interestingly, the film speculates that these devices would not only be able to receive signals but to transmit them as well. To this end we have an inventor devise an elaborate art deco TV that can do just this. The plot-line surrounding this has him needing financial backing and going to a shady businessman, while a gang of criminals gets involved seeing this new invention as a potentially massive money-maker.

It's actually quite a decent premise for one of these flicks, given that, as we all know perfectly well, television would soon go on to be perhaps the most successful and influential technological development of the 20th century and the depiction of how it could work in this movie is charming and entertainingly quaint. Aside from all this, the plot-line still has the usual requisite elements seen in umpteen films from the period such as a male/female duo, a comedy-relief character – in this case a science-loving debt collector and dastardly villains. And to top it all off, it rounds off with a satisfying extended fight sequence and there's really nothing wrong with that either.

I tuned in because of the intriguing title. I didn't even know the TV idea was around in the 1930's, so the plot came as a revelation. The movie itself, except for the TV premise, is fairly standard gangster boilerplate. A pseudo-respectable businessman uses his gangster underlings to sabotage inventor Dennis's new-fangled TV camera. Instead, he wants a collaborator's technology to get the expected market.

Columbia produced, so production values are respectable, especially the elaborate TV camera. All in all, the narrative is lively if not exactly gripping. But then the acting is better than the boilerplate, especially Astor in her pre-Maltese Falcon (1941) days. Also, scrawny Marc Lawrence is convincing as heck as the lead gangster, and might have stolen the film with more screen time. Talbot may not seem the inventor type, but he does show why he became a professional nice guy on TV's Ozzie & Harriet, and Bob Cummings Show, while muscle-man Pendleton ingratiates as comedic relief. From what I see here, I'm guessing that except for a disruptive WWII, TV would have gotten an earlier start as a mass medium. Apparently the technology was pretty much in place. Be that as it may, the movie's definitely a worthwhile curiosity and okay as entertainment.

This film tries to blend comedy with drama, and the result is an uneasy tossed salad rather than a smooth pudding. Lyle Talbot is so stalwart and large it is difficult to feature him as a TV inventor -- but he more than makes up for this in the fight scene, where, with his usual technique, he just beats the dickens out of the other actors for five or ten minutes. Nat Pendelton is wonderful as the dim-witted bill collector turned science hobbyist. Mary Astor, playing closer to her "Thin Man" arch smile than to her "Maltese Falcon" dramatic style, is a scheming but lovable promoter of potato peelers who decides to back this newfangled thing called television. All in all, this makes a better comedy than a drama, but the direction pulls it both ways, and thus it fails to satisfy either audience altogether.

Kudos to the prop department for building the most amazingly art deco television camera and receiver in the history of film -- complete with a flat screen monitor! Great stuff, that!

Anyway, it's a fun film, won't put you to sleep, and might give you a few laughs until Lyle Talbot swings into action and starts the fight scene that you knew was headed your way the minute you saw his name in the credits and his broad shoulders in that unconvincing scientist's get-up.

The inventor of an improved form of TV battles crooks and crooked broadcasters to remain alive and remain in control of his invention.

That sounds much more exciting than it is. This is a well made, well acted story that has a weird mix of humor and thrills. You have the crooks trying to steal the invention which is very good, and then you have things like the character of the dopey bill collector who seems to come from a very good broad comedy. The problem is that the two styles don't really blend and you end up with a movie thats neither, as well as being just sort of okay. Its a bland affair that never really held my attention.

Worth trying if you run across it, but probably not worth running out to get.

...Trapped by Television, whenever they're running an Agnes Moorehead or Shirley Temple film festival, But this is a yarn about the race to corner the television market, before the WWII delay. Lyle Talbot is the idealistic young inventor, Janet Gaynor is the hapless entrepreneur who sees the potential to steal his work, but, you guessed it, she falls for the mug, his optimistic enthusiasm a contrast to her worldly cynicism.. Nat Pendleton and Joyce Compton play the leads' respective sidekicks with comic gusto. Bubbly little comedy from the Golden Age.