Trap [Blu-ray] [Standard]

After a ten-year hiatus, lawyer Ralph Anderson (Richard Widmark) returns to his hometown of Tula, California, where his father Lloyd (Carl Benton Reid) and brother Tippy (Earl Holliman) serve as the towns sheriff and deputy. Forced to represent a mob boss, Victor Massonetti (Lee J. Cobb), Ralph asks his father to look the other way while a local airfield is used to enable Massonetti to flee the country. A disgusted Lloyd agrees to help, but Tippy decides to go after the big cash reward. The stellar cast includes Tina Louise (GILLIGAN'S ISLAND) as Tippys beautiful wife, Linda, who once was the love of Ralphs life and Lorne Greene (BONANZA) as Davis, Massonettis right hand man. Art direction by the legendary Henry Bumstead (VERTIGO), Cinematography by the great Daniel L. Fapp (WEST SIDE STORY) and beautifully directed by Norman Panama (KNOCK ON WOOD).

Before making Hollywood epics such as Tora! Tora! Tora! And 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, director Richard Fleischer started his career with a series of low-budget B-features, often taking ripped-from-the-headlines tales of crime stories and spinning them into noir gold... of which an exquisite example is 1949's endlessly entertaining Trapped. A young Lloyd Bridges stars as hardboiled hood Tris Stewart, a convicted counterfeiter doing time in the Atlanta pen. When a fresh batch of fake bills starts circulating, treasury agents bail Stewart out to help lead them to the maker of the fake plates. But Tris double-crosses the Feds, hooking up with his gun-moll sweetie (22-year-old Barbara Payton in her breakout role). They plan to heist the plates and hightail it across the border. With the Feds closing in and the double-crosses piling up, Stewart finds himself between a rock and a hard place... and this time, he may be trapped for good! Although long sought by the Film Noir Foundation, Trapped was believed to have suffered the unfortunate fate of many B-films of the era-oblivion. But when a private collector deposited a 35mm acetate print at the Harvard Film Archive, the Film Noir Foundation and UCLA Film & Television Archive (with support from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust [The HFPA Trust]) sprang into action, restoring the film. The result, presented in a Blu-ray/DVD dual- edition by Flicker Alley, honors the pitch-perfect performances, assured direction, and gorgeous cinematography of this edge-of-your-seat, noir classic.

Trap [DVD]