Rent Trapped (1949)

Awful, unwatchable transfer - Trapped review by SC

I put this disc in the player to watch and had to turn it off almost immediately. I watch a lot of old films and don't expect everything to be perfect, but the state of this transfer is utterly dismall. I wish Cinema Paradiso would use some sort of QC on certain older titles from particular labels and weed out this kind of junk as this has happened to me before. It would be very helpful to members.

Terrible Transfer - Trapped review by Jo

This DVD is a terrible transfer of the film - can't judge the film itself because it was unwatchable!

Documentary Noir. - Trapped review by Steve

Another low budget documentary noir released after WWII, this time about the US government's treasury department. So it begins with a five minute presentation on their many responsibilities followed by a fictional case which assures the public that crime doesn't pay. In this case, the counterfeit currency racket.

The storyline is interesting rather than original. Lloyd Bridges is inside for manufacturing plates used to make illegal banknotes. So who is responsible for printing the greenbacks coming back into circulation, which look like his work? When the convict is released to assist in the investigation, he absconds and plans to buy his way to Mexico with a phoney bankroll.

He and his compliant moll (Barbara Payton) are pursued by an undercover operative (John Hoyt). We see the usual stakeouts and wiretaps. There's nothing new here. In fact, this is very similar territory to the superior T-Men, directed by Anthony Mann a couple of years earlier, with the same documentary approach.

Which is also a B-picture, but with better production. The crucial difference is this one is out of copyright and only severely damaged duplicates are available. While T-Men has luminous noir photography by John Alton, this is a fuzzy blur. With poor sound. It still just about works as entertainment, but there is probably a better film under the blizzard.