A tense jolting thrilling Paramount all talking picture
1929-09-28
N/A
82 min
In Woman Trap, Hal Skelly is hard-bitten police sergeant Dan Malone, whose mission in life is to rid his community of gangsters. The revelation that Dan's own brother Ray is the secret head of all local criminal activities does not weaken Dan's resolve in the least. The barely relevant title is a reference to "heroine" Kitty Evans, the wife of a minor gang functionary. Screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz, presumably on a dare, makes a brief appearance as a crime reporter.
William Wellman is clearly still trying to push this fairly new "talkie" style of movie as far as he can with the limited budget and opportunities the script offers him with this B-thriller. To a certain extent, he succeeds in presenting us with quite a tightly paced triple header with Hal Skelly as the tough, community cop "Dan Malone" who is on the trail of his miscreant brother "Ray" (Chester Morris) after some shenanigans at the home of his ex-girlfriend "Kitty" (Evelyn Brent) really sets the cat amongst the pigeons. This focusses "Dan" to become a pretty unforgiving law enforcement officer and though that is not without it's promotions, it also serves to alienate folks some too. It's also an early example of quite effective pyrotechnics and has plenty of shoot 'em up action scenes to keep the thing moving along quickly. The dialogue leaves loads to be desired, and I've got to say that the overly ditzy Brent added little to the smouldering dynamic between the opposing siblings. There is a decent amount of suspense before the ending that though unimaginative, just about works. Skelly cut his teeth on the stage, and at times his performance here reminds us of that - he is not a natural in from of the camera (indeed you can almost see a weariness in his eyes suggesting that many takes may have been required?) , but Morris is - and although maybe his role could have been a bit meatier, he contributes amiably and well to a film that is worth an hour of your time.
