The Gentle Trap

Are we sure that Ed Wood somehow didn't directed this? The movie's style and storytelling is just as bad as in an Ed Wood movie sadly.

The movie was released in 1960 but I've seen movies that were made 30 years earlier that style had a better and more professional looking visual style. Sadly London, in this movie ain't got such an atmosphere as for instance New York or Chicago do in movies from the same genre.

This is really one of those movies that makes you wonder; why did I even watched this in the first place? It's a pointless movie with a pointless literal and figural, black and white story. The acting is bad and the fights are over the top and hilarious to watch for the wrong reason.

It's hard to say anything about this movie. It's short and the story is way too weak to say any thing thought-full about.

Really not worth your time.

3/10

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A cheapo crime thriller from the prolific Butcher's Film Service. These films were a dime a dozen in the early '60s and THE GENTLE TRAP has a poor title and a plot that could be interchangeable with at least a dozen others. The film has an arresting opening in which a couple of thieves are betrayed by a rival gang but soon descends into tedium with a long-winded, who-can-you-trust style storyline.

One of the few good things this has going for it is a very short running time. It clocks in at just 59 minutes in length but you feel every minute of it. Some of the supporting do quite well in their clichéd roles, like the alluring femme fatale and the tough criminal bosses, but even so this is cheap stuff indeed and of interest only to fans of the era.

British director Charles Saunders churned out B-movie after B-movie for a period of some twenty years between the early 1940s and early 1960s. He made the occasional nudie film (NUDIST PARADISE) and horror flick (WOMAN EATER) but for the most part delivered second-rate thrillers like this and DANGER BY MY SIDE. I don't know much about leading man Spencer Teakle except he also appeared in COVER GIRL KILLER and FIRST MAN INTO SPACE and had a great name to boot.

Spencer Teakle is a young man who has just qualified as a lock smith. but he's got a girl and ambitions, so he decides to get into a related line of business, and assists an older man with a burglary. When his partner is run down, Teakle finds himself on the run from the police, asking sketchy acquaintances for help. They're willing, for half the take. His problem is they don't see any reason to split with him.

Like many of Charles Saunders' later films, this quota quickie has a nice story, some decent actors, and a budget that doesn't allow much in the way of cinematic frills. With Martin Benson -- best remembered from GOLDFINGER -- as the chief bad guy, it runs through its paces quickly and efficiently enough to never pall, despite an annoying score by William Davies.

I taped The Gentle Trap recently when BBC2 screened it during the early hours and despite reading bad reviews, I thought I'd see what it was like.

A pair of burglars break into a jewellery shop and pinch some diamonds but as they are making their getaway, some gangsters ambush them. One of the pair goes on the run from the police and gang leader. He stays with two sisters and when one of them reports him, he goes on the run once again with the other sister, with the police on their trail. They catch up with them on a farm and he is caught after a shoot out at the end.

The cast is lead by Spencer Teakle and he is joined by Felicity Young and Martin Benson.

Though certainly not brilliant, The Gentle Trap is watchable. The UK made quite a few of these low budget crime dramas in the 1950's and 1960's.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

Butcher's Film releases tend to be denigrated but for the budgets and time the producers had, their films had a interesting style. I especially like them and the Edgar Wallace Mysteries for the attractive and capable actresses that populated the casts, more enjoyable to watch than any number of contemporary actresses working today. The writer does blow it with a poor climax about a bungling safecracker sidetracked with sexy girl problems, notably three of them (tart Dorinda Stevens, nice girl Felicity Young, cheater Dawn Brooks). Martin Benson is the nervous nightclub owner/mobster looking to steal Spencer Teakle's swag. Benson was the friendly alien in Cosmic Monsters and the unfortunate Mr. Solo in Goldfinger. He always brought gravitas to the films he did.