Watch The Love Trap For Free

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The plot of this deceptively overlooked little trifle is the usual nonsense about a sweet young lass whose path crosses that of one of those personable young millionaires with entirely honourable intentions you find behind every corner in the silents, only to be entirely falsely suspected of being a gold-digging little hussy by his disapproving family. But 'The Love Trap' proves fascinating historically both as a relic of the "part-talkie" era and for its adroit staging by the up-and-coming young William Wyler feeling his way towards his mature style.The first two thirds of this fluff has attractive performances in the leads by Laura La Plante and Neil Hamilton, while Wyler is already visibly attempting to find ways of extending the boundaries of the cinema screen through frequent use of pans and attempts at composition in depth. In his talkies Wyler abandoned the pans, which tend to jar at times, but with the great Gregg Toland behind the camera eventually came second only to Orson Welles as the 1940s' master of deep focus composition in 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946), which veteran cameraman Gilbert Warrenton had done his best to achieve in 'The Love Trap' with the limited resources then at his disposal.Then suddenly everybody starts talking! The early scenes had all carried a Vitaphone soundtrack, and 'The Love Trap' had evidently started life as a silent, since there are scenes in which people speak dialogue which the makers haven't bothered to caption, as they'd presumably decided the film was going to go into release as a part-talkie and thus elected to keep titles to the minimum in scenes where the audience would be able to get the gist without them.At this point the film seems on the verge of turning all serious on us, but happily opts instead for saucy pre-Code farce, in which Miss La Plante - mostly dressed only in her scanties - effortlessly and charmingly leaps the daunting hurdle of suddenly starring in a talkie.

Pleasant concoction is a story as old as the hills of a family of snobs thinking the true blue girl their son marries on a whim is a no good gold-digger until proved wrong. A bit of an odd viewing experience since half way through the film it switches from silent to sound but Wyler's sure handed direction keeps it from being too jarring. It is interesting how in the silent portion the tone is set by shadows and the mood of a scene but after the dialog becomes the agent of explanation. It must have been a disconcerting balancing act for the actors involved but they handle it pretty well. Laura La Plante is enjoyable in the lead, a big star in silents who did make a successful transition to sound but moved to England shortly after this made a few films there and retired.

To my surprise, I really liked this film. From the title, I thought it'd be mundane, even dull, but it really wasn't! The whole cast was great. This movie is a part talkie and, like I guess in most part-talkies, the talking part hits you all of a sudden. Also, it strikes me a bit odd when Neil Hamilton enters the home he grew up in and calls the butler "Butler", but, other than that I really don't have any complaints. Laura LaPlante stars as a chorus girl who really isn't up to snuff, so she's fired and a "friend" (I'm not sure she's that much of a friend due to her actions) invites her to a party where women are basically professional escorts. She gets hit on pretty heavily by a couple of men (one you'll see later) and ends up in the rain in the street with her possessions. That when she meets Neil Hamilton, who is riding in a cab and comes to her rescue. He comes from "money". They get married and Mom and Sis come to meet her. The impression is less-than-stellar when it's discovered that Laura had been a chorus girl. It's not even that good when one of the men who hit on her (Neil Hamilton's uncle, played by the ill-fated Norman Trevor) discover her. The uncle thinks she's a not-very-nice girl morally. (Of course, he's a fine one to talk!) Neil invites Mom, Sis and Unc over to dinner. They don't show up. Neil calls to find out why and is informed by their butler that his mother is sick. Laura knows what's really going on, but Neil chastises her for her attitude and goes to see his sick mother. Laura is feeling a little sad and her "friend" calls. Laura asks her to come see her. The "friend", who is at a party, gets the bright idea to bring the whole aggregation over to see her. (With friends like that...) Neil finds out rather quickly that his mother was lying. He convinces her and her uncle to come see his wife, who he assumes is there alone. This is after the uncle gives his opinion and gets slapped in the face! They get there and there's all these people. That doesn't set well with any of them. The uncle advised Neil to take his mother home and decides to bribe Laura out of marrying his nephew. Laura, however, manages to trick the uncle and get Neil back on her side. I'll let you see how.

Along with "Directed by William Wyler," was this rare half silent, half talkie starring Laura La Plante and Neil Hamilton. I liked Laura from "The Cat and the Canary" and "Showboat," and she proved that she could be a good little comedienne in this one.The first part, and the best in my opinion, is silent. The constraints of early sound made the second half stiff and contrived. The voices were out of sync in places. Laura is a wide-eyed little chorus girl who improbably meets wealthy and handsome Neil as she has been thrown out of her room with all her belongings, and is sitting on the curb. Of course it begins to rain! His taxi passes by, splashes her with muddy water, and he falls for her right then and there. Now that happens every day! But in these fluffy little movies, it did in fact happen every day! It was all in good fun! Laura had a very expressive face that was made for silents, and she's proved her "acting chops" in the three movies that I've seen her in. Neil Hamilton was quite attractive, and had good chemistry with her.During the second and sound half, Paul's (Hamilton's) uncle recognizes Evelyn (La Plante) from a wild party, and tries to sabotage their marriage. She sets a trap for him to vindicate herself with Paul, and show the uncle's hypocrisy. He had been at the party, a place that he shouldn't have been, but because he's an aristocrat and she's just a poor little chorus girl, he feels she isn't good enough for his nephew. Plus he's misconstrued an incident that happened at the party.Sound like a familiar scenario? Of course there's the typical happy ending. But I enjoyed the first half of the movie where all the real acting takes place, and it was interesting to see this early Wyler effort. But I can only give it a 6 out of 10. They should have included a better Wyler endeavor in this package.