La trampa del secuestrador

Incredibly cheap production values and lousy direction prevent me from giving this film a higher rating. But there was a nice chemistry between father and son Bing Russell and Billy Hughes that smooth over a lot of the cheap.

Bing Russell plays an ex-convict who snatches his son Billy Hughes from an orphanage in San Antonio. He was oil driller who robbed a payroll when he desperately needed money and paid for it. He'd like to go straight, but no one will give him a chance.

When oilman Bill Hale does hire him under an alias, he fires him when someone rats him out. So this model father together with a pair of his running buddies kidnaps his employer's son for $100,000.00 dollar ransom. That particular crime doesn't compute with Russell's relationship with Hughes.

Stakeout was a Hughes family project and young Billy did have a short and good career as a child actor. All his subsequent work was with project on the big and small screen with far bigger budgets.

And it's a tribute to him that he even had a career after this one.