6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Lawyer Ralph Anderson arrives in Tula, an amazingly remote town in the desert, as reluctant emissary of mob chief Victor Massonetti...
Starring: Richard Widmark, Earl Holliman, Tina Louise, Lee J. Cobb, Carl Benton ReidCrime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Melvin Frank and Norman Panama were one of the oddest couples in Hollywood history in terms of their writing and producing (and occasionally directing) efforts. Not for any purported strangeness between the two men, mind you. They were evidently virtually lifelong friends who managed to forge a long and incredibly successful career through several decades of the maelstrom that is known as filmmaking. But the projects they chose were a rather bizarre assortment, at least when taken as a whole. The biggest bulk of Frank – Panama films were light comedies, including several Bob Hope vehicles, among them a couple of the comedian’s famous Road pictures with Bing Crosby. They partnered on a couple of Danny Kaye comedies as well, the beloved by many The Court Jester as well as the less kindly recalled Knock on Wood, and even essayed the occasional musical, like their fun film adaptation of the Broadway hit Li’l Abner. But tucked into their oeuvre are a handful of straight dramatic films, often quite peculiar little dramatic films at that, including Above and Beyond, the supposed biography of the man who piloted the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, The Jayhawkers, a 1959 Western also released by Olive Films on Blu-ray which is perhaps most notable for its Jerome Moross score, part of which was later recycled into the long running television series Wagon Train, and another 1959 opus, The Trap, a lurching melodrama which explores some simmering family dysfunction which surrounds another kind of family—namely, The Mob.
Olive has gone an unusual route with their release of The Trap, offering it in both a 1.78:1 and a 1.34:1 aspect ratio, both evidently culled from the same source materials. (I tried to duplicate screenshots at more or less the same moments from both versions.) Both framings look rather good, although there's an awful lot of headroom at times on the 1.34:1 version. The color here has weathered the intervening decades since the film's release very well for the most part, although flesh tones are just slightly brown at times. The film has a lot of rear projection and some of those elements look fairly ragged and soft, as do a couple of second unit shots that capture such things as cars moving across a deserted landscape. Close-ups reveal nice fine detail, and contrast remains strong throughout this enterprise. As with most Olive releases, no digital tweaking appears to have been done on The Trap, and it retains a very natural and healthy layer of grain. There is some occasional very slight age related wear and tear in the form of tiny scratches or other blemishes, but it's not very much of an issue.
Quick! Name a film with a score by Bernard Herrmann, Alex North, Miklox Rozsa, Franz Wxxman and Victor Young (just to name a few). That's right, it's The Trap (at least according to IMDb, which has a pretty good track record with these sorts of credits). The music here is awfully hodgepodge, which tends to support the thesis that it's culled from some anonymous music library (as is the fact that no composer is credited in the film, only "music supervisor" Irvin Talbot). All of it sounds quite good delivered via the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track featured on this disc, however, especially some dissonant brass cues that act as harbingers for various nefarious goings on. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, though there are a couple of instances of synch issues with some scenes that look like they were done on location and were probably post looped. Fidelity is very good, and dynamic range is appealingly wide, especially in the thunderous climax.
No supplements of any kind are included on this disc.
Melvin Frank and Norman Panama were perhaps better suited for comedic Road pictures than for overly melodramatic ones like The Trap. There are some interesting elements here, but things never really gel into a completely satisfying entertainment. The best thing about The Trap is the chance to see Earl Holliman in a really nicely shaded performance that allows him to show quite a bit of range, something his career sadly didn't let him do very often. Widmark and Cobb are inherently watchable, but Louise, while lovely, seems to be an escapee from a nearby community college acting class. (Keep your eyes out for Bonanza's "Pa", Lorne Greene, as one of Cobb's henchmen.) The film has a few moments of excitement, but they're brief interruptions in an otherwise pretty turgid journey.
1997
1947
1951
1989
1953
Warner Archive Collection
1949
1958
Warner Archive Collection
1964
1949
Warner Archive Collection
1951
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Warner Archive Collection
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1958
Warner Archive Collection
1931
2014
1967