Review of Trapped (1949) by Doug C — 07 Feb 2011

A nice B-noir starring Lloyd Bridges and Barbara Payton as an escaped counterfeiter and his girl trying to make a deal for $250,000 in counterfeit money so they can flee the country. Bridges first makes a fake escape from prison after U.

S. Treasury agents offer him a deal to help them track down the counterfeit plates he used to make his counterfeit money, then makes what he thinks is a real escape from the Treasury, though they anticipate his every move keep him under constant surveillance as he makes a deal that leads them to the plates.

Bridgesâ(TM) acting in this film is terrific and Payton is stunning, perhaps at her most beautiful in her short career before the tragic decline that followed. The fatality that marked Payton's later life seems to add a haunting irony to this film, for as the title suggests, the film is marked by a strong theme of fatalism as Bridges and Payton seek to escape while the viewer knows they are trapped by the inevitable success of the Treasury agents.

While the film quality is grainy and the film at times seems like a bit too much like a propagandistic recruitment film for the Treasury, overall the plot and acting are gripping and this is a very good film.