TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. et is Richard Fleischer’s Trapped (1949) with Lloyd Bridges, John Hoyt, Barbara Payton and James Todd

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. et is Richard Fleischer’s Trapped (1949) with Lloyd Bridges, John Hoyt, Barbara Payton and James Todd
By David in TN
thursday, november 21, 2024 at 9:20:00 p.m. est

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. et is Richard Fleischer’s Trapped (1949) with Lloyd Bridges, John Hoyt, Barbara Payton and James Todd.

Film Noir Guide: “Convict Bridges, serving time for counterfeiting, is set free to help the Secret Service find the gang that’s using his old counterfeit plates. Bridges escapes the T-men, foolishly thinking he’s pulled a fast one, but it’s all part of the agents’ plan, as is their surveillance of his girlfriend (Payton).

“Hoyt, who was usually typecast as a gangster or an evil Nazi, is the Treasury agent who goes undercover to gain Bridges’ trust and to nab Todd, the head of the ring. Bridges was always terrific as a bad guy, and though he’s not quite as despicable here as in Try and Get Me, he still elicits his share of hisses.

“Despite its similarities to T-Men, Trapped stands on its own as a suspenseful and well-plotted noir.

David in TN: On Friday night beginning at 8 p.m. ET TCM shows several Noir films, all from the year 1944. The first is Double Indemnity, followed by Laura, Murder My Sweet, Phantom Lady and The Mask of Demetrios.

N.S. As David is fond of pointing out, Richard Fleischer (1917-2006) could pack action into a 67-minute B-movie like nobody’s business. And late in his career, with bigger budgets and longer running times to work with, he helmed some classic movies: Fantastic Voyage (1966), The Boston Strangler (1968), and Soylent Green (1973). He also was guilty of making blaxploitation trash (Mandingo, 1975, which Quentin Tarantino studied for his Ph.D. in black history).