Customer Reviews

Pitfall [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Pitfall" is the bleak, beautiful tragedy of a man who makes one mistake, and watches his life spiral out of control as a consequence. I'll forgo a plot synopsis (earlier reviewers have that covered) and merely note that the print-on-demand Synergy Entertainment DVD is a lousy transfer of a terrific movie. The image on this disc is faded and slightly blurred from beginning to end -- for viewers of a certain age, it's like catching this picture, with uncertain reception, on a local TV station's late, late show (back when there were things on late night TV besides infomercials). The sound, though, seems fine.

In the absence of any other available DVD transfers of this movie, this disc will do. It'll have to.

Although she appeared in over twenty films before her career was abruptly halted because of rumors surrounding her lesbian private life, Lizabeth Scott is best remembered for her steamy roles in noir films. Scott hits the mark in the 1948 picture Pitfall as Mona Stevens, a seductive siren who charms a conservative insurance investigator ( Dick Powell) into an affair. Powell as John Forbes, the married suburbanite bored with the restricting bonds of middle class conformity, is drawn into a web of deception that begins when he alters an insurance report benefitting Mona. Forbes then begins an affair with Mona. The affair for Forbes serves as a sexual escape from his regimented life as husband, father, and loyal employee. For Mona, the affair might bring her happiness as a future wife and mother. Mona only has convict Bill Smiley ( Byron Barr) to wait for as his parole date draws near. To compound her problems, a psychotic, overweight, private investigator ( Raymond Burr) is stalking her. Forbes and Mona's lives cross for a brief interlude, but the events that emerge as a result of their dalliance shape into classic noir cinema. Deception, revenge, murder-all frequent vistors to the frames of noir, appear as lessons to those that dare play with fire. Pitfall is a solid film that warrants attention.

Before he became TV's teddy-bear Perry Mason, Raymond Burr played the heaviest of heavies (and, as was the case with Laird Cregar, his heft led him to be cast in swinish parts in bitter films; The Blue Gardenia and Rear Window are examples). He becomes the nemesis of Dick Powell, a happily married insurance functionary who falls hard for Lizabeth Scott when he repossesses goodies her jailbird boyfriend wooed her with. Unfortunately, Burr, as an investigator retained by Powell's firm, falls for Scott even harder -- he's what we now call a stalker -- and finds out about the illicit dalliance. Great nastiness ensues. By no stretch of the imagination is this film a ringing defense of the institution of marriage; its supposedly "happy" ending is congealed in irony. Director Andre DeToth (who did only one other film noir, Crime Wave in 1954) shows a real flair for the style and narrative of the cycle. The Pitfall is an overlooked and underrated film.

Now here is a serious noir film! The cast features Dick Powell, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr and Lizabeth Scott. Powell is an L.A. insurance man, slowly becoming bored with his predictable suburban lifestyle. His wife is Jane Wyatt, the perfect 40s/50s homemaker. Trouble brews when Powell hires a smarmy P.I. (Burr) to investigate a theft of property. This is long before his role of Perry Mason. Burr gets the perpetrator (Byron Barr) arrested. Powell visits Barr s girlfriend to wrap things up and reclaim the remaining goods. But this is no ordinary lady! This is the classic noir good girl/bad girl-Lizabeth Scott. The two have the requisite noir affair, even though Barr is her supposed boyfriend! The plot thickener is that P.I. Burr also is interested in Scott, leaving the 3 male leads pining for the same girl! The by now obvious villain, Burr, visits boyfriend Barr in the slammer, teasing him with tales of Powell and Scott. Matters intensify more when Burr pays Barr's bail and gets him drunk enough to try to kill Powell. Good girl Scott phones Powell to warn him. In the deadly showdown, Powell kills the boyfriend. LAPD presses no charges. This reviewer won t reveal the resolution of The Pitfall but at this point Burr and Scott are still standing. Most viewers may side with Scott but fate does not exactly smile on either. There is one more dead body and one more live one on the way to San Quentin. The film fades out after Powell has confessed all to the wife. She stands by him in the true 40s/50s tradition but allows that things will never be the same again. One doesn t know who to feel sorriest for, the dead characters, the one on the way to the Big House or Powell-who will have to face his wife every morning for the rest of his life while still trapped in his hum drum middle class life. While working at an insurance company, no less! A staple of noir films is the essentially good but basically weak human caught in a maelstrom set in place by others more devious than (s)he. That is an apt capsule description of Pitfall and it has an excellent film wrapped around it. It may be short of those murky night shots, dark streets and strange camera angles of other noir classics. Pitfall remains a wonderful 40s/50s showcase, with a large dab of middle class malaise tossed in- all in a run time of 86 minutes! Highly recommended!

This DVD-R of a solid Dick Powell noir film is of such low contrast and soft focus that I returned the disk as unwatchable. Certainly not worth the almost $10.00 unless you're desperate.

At first you could say that Pitfall's main theme is the most politically and morally correct theme possible for a film shot in the late 40's. A married man is bored of his everyday-life, meets a sexy woman, cheats on his wife, feels terribly guilty about it, is punished by the Divine justice (which is totally in line with the Code Hays by the way) and finally implores his wife to take him back. Now, if I tell you that his mistress is NOT your typicable bad girl but feels sorry for the cheating husband, you'll understand why Pitfall is considered, by the rare ones who've seen this little pearl, as one of the best film noir ever released. Highly recommended.

Solid acting and excellent writing.

My only question: why would a character married to the stunning Wyatt risk it all for the exceedingly average Scott?

No accounting for taste. I guess. ;)

this is a very good movie that i really enjoyed.the acting was excellent and the story is also excellent. dick powell is very good in suspence movies.