La télévision révélatrice

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.

This public-domain film is often said to be a Science Fiction film because of the title. In reality it is a B drama/comedy, and there is nothing Sci-Fi about it.

Inventor Lyle Talbot has invented a TV camera and TV monitor. He is trying to finish it despite being broke and having bill collectors like Nat Pendleton breathing down his neck. When a scientist working on his own television format vanishes and is held by gangsters, a crooked radio executive thinks he has a way to gain more money from his company.

This is a interesting film for the time. TV was still in developmental stages at this point, and it is interesting to see what set designers thought a TV of the time would look like (big screens!).

The acting is good, Lyle Talbot was a staple in B-Films, as was supporting players Marc Lawrence, Joyce Compton and Nat Pendleton. Mary Astor, again wonderful and natural, would eventually graduate from B-Films to become an under appreciated A-list star.

This is NOT just an ordinary 30s' 'semi-sci-fi' about some revolutionary invention, throwing in some pseudo-scientific terms, and otherwise concentrating on the battle about the patent rights. This is - apart from being a very lively, entertaining and well-acted story of poor inventors, poor bill collectors, and poor product promoters (none less than Mary Astor!) on the one side, and ruthless crooks wanting to get rich with a stolen invention on the other side - a VERY realistic depiction of the 'battle' that was ACTUALLY going on at the time for the development and patent rights of television - a device that has literally changed the world.

And it's no phony, either: the names of the components for the device Fred Dennis (Lyle Talbot) is developing are well-researched - the cathode ray tube, which is so expensive and vital for the machine to work that Dennis initially can't afford to buy it was IN FACT the 'heart' of the first television sets that were really able to broadcast clear moving pictures! So this suspenseful as well as entertaining movie today is a TRUE time document - and you'll enjoy and cherish it even more if you try to watch it the way the astonished audience must have watched it back then; and say, agreeing with Dennis' friend, bill collector Rocky (Nat Pendleton): "Gee, ain't science great?!"

This film has more hackneyed characters and cliches than most thirties films, but has one redeeming value; it has an original product: television. TV was virtually unknown in 1936, the year this film was made. It was still in experimental stages, and people's imaginations ran wild with the possibilities of the new phenomenon. The acting, if you could call it that, is way over the top, but the most fascinating part of the film is the technology. It is relatively accurate, and I found it extremely interesting on how the medium was handled at the corporate level. The nefarious bad guy complication was obviously a Hollywood studio insertion to try and make the film more precarious, but the struggle of the engineer who invented a prototype is far more interesting that any phony Hollywood subplot. Watchable for the tech aspect.

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.