Watch Trapped For Free

Too much of everything

Great Film overall

Don't Believe the Hype

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

"Trapped" has the darkness of both cinematography and spirit that distinguishes film noir. A story of thieves and counterfeiters and undercover cops, it grabs attention and holds it until the surprising and violent end. The script is tight and believable. One of the best things the film has going for it is that it was the first large role for the very talented but tragically doomed Barbara Payton. In "Trapped" she is the girlfriend of counterfeiter/thief Tris Stewart. The character Payton plays is Meg Dixon who calls herself Laurie Fredericks. Unlike the typical film noir femme fatale, the strikingly beautiful blonde is not so much nasty and cold-blooded as foolishly devoted to her criminal boyfriend. She adopts a criminal lifestyle out of love for him. Played by the handsome Lloyd Bridges, Tris Stewart is an utterly amoral psychopath motivated by sheer greed along with his own love for Meg/Laurie. Perhaps the only weak link in the film is John Hoyt as undercover cop John Downey. We should sympathize with Downey as the chief representative of the law but Hoyt's character appears so cold and calculating that he does not seem much better than the crooks he is trying to catch. However, this is a minor flaw in a fine film.

Money counterfeiting is the subject of this enjoyable, if predictable, crime drama where a convicted counterfeiter (Lloyd Bridges in a very serious role) is offered the possibility of early parole if he helps the Department of the Treasury capture and convict those who have continued Bridges' counterfeiting racket while he's been behind bars. Of course, Bridges isn't on the up and up as he utilizes this plan to escape from prison and reconcile with his former girlfriend (the gorgeous Barbara Payton) who has divided loyalties of her own.Practically every government bureau has been a part of a documentary style crime drama or film noir where it is obvious that the writers are showing that "You can't get away with it", and here, that is obvious from the start as to the theme of the movie. The film starts off with the plight of a struggling restaurant owner who discovers that the $20 bill she took in earlier was a fake and how that money could make or break her. It is obvious that when the feds confront Bridges in prison to bargain with him that he won't follow through with his agreement and that adds a sense of falsehood to the plot.There's a few exciting chase sequences and some wonderful moments of dialog between Bridges and the bleach-blonde Payton, some tense moments where the undercover fed's cover is blown, and a stunningly violent conclusion. This makes the film overall acceptable, but it has been done many times before and since, and much better.

This was a good movie. Considering that it was probably made on a shoestring budget, it was a very good movie. Personally, I enjoy a good plot and storyline and this picture had it; it was interesting and absorbing throughout. Pacing was good and the picture moved along at a brisk pace. There was very little if any padding material.Good job by Lloyd Bridges, who had not yet made it big. It had a good cast of dependable character actors. I did not know the sad story of Barbara Payton until I read it on the website, and she was very good as Bridges' girlfriend. It must have been Director Richard Fleischer's first solid hit, as he went on to have a pretty distinguished career in Hollywood.If it ever comes on one of the movie channels do yourself a favor and see it, even if you're not a cops-and-robbers fan.

Lloyd Bridges had a face made for the camera, full of smooth, bony planes, a clean forehead, all dominated by a couple of deep-set eyes that seemed to glimmer in the shadows of his brows. And he had, throughout his career, the quick, nervous energy of a small predator, maybe a ferret. Even in the ripeness of his age, in the Hot Shot movies where he was a comic admiral.He made some decent movies but never achieved major stardom. Even here, in a relatively low-budget drama about counterfeiting and the Secret Service, he is a central figure but only a quasi-star.The police deliberately allow Bridges to escape from the slams in hopes that he will lead the Secret Service, personified mostly by John Hoyt, to the people who now are beginning to grind out money that is "queer" on plates that Bridges used to own. The escape was engineered because the Secret Service knows that Bridges has no place to go except to his ex girl friend in L.A. They have accordingly bugged her apartment and insinuated an undercover agent into her life. Hoyt is the undercover agent who allows himself to be sucked into funding a plan to produce the queer money. The specific idea to to capture Bridges and his accomplices the moment the money changes hands.That may be a little confusing, I know, but the plot is a little complicated. And besides, my mind couldn't quite wrap itself around John Hoyt as a serious undercover agent of social control. I kept seeing him as the three-armed Martian in a "Twilight Zone" episode. That image sometimes became a bit blurry and Hoyt would appear in a toga as one of the conspiratorial Senators from MGM's "Julius Caesar." Anyway, the plot zooms forward as if self propelled. There are fist fights, shoot outs. Before the end, Bridges is back in the slams. Hoyt tells the desk sergeant, "Let's keep this quiet. Book him under another name." Desk Sergeant: "How does 'Briggs' sound"? Hoyt: "As good as any." Desk Sergeant: "It's my mother-in-law's name. I just wanted to see what it looks like on a police blotter." That's about the only example of witty dialog in the movie. Almost all the rest is spare and functional, along the lines of Bridges', "If anybody gets hurt, it ain't gonna be me cause I got the gun. Just remember to get this heap started when you see me comin'." It's not a bad movie, just a routine one. Richard Fleischer directed a number of small-budget dramas like this before going on to bigger and better things like "Doctor Doolittle." Well -- bigger, anyway.Want to see a funny movie about counterfeiting? Try "Mister 880." A more sophisticated movie about counterfeiting? "To Live and Die in L.A."