THE TENDER TRAP
US, 1955, 111 minutes, Colour.
Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, Celeste Holm, Lola Albright, Carolyn Jones, Howard St John, Tom Helmore.
Directed by Charles Walters.
The Tender Trap is a romantic comedy, 50s style. Frank Sinatra who had a reboost of his career with his Oscar for From Here to Eternity and playing in such films as Suddenly, is an almost forty-years-old theatrical agent. He is a womaniser (with several of the women in the cast list. However, he meets an aspiring actress played by Debbie Reynolds who was only twenty-two at the time. She had shown verve in such films as Singin’ in the Rain and does so here.
David Wayne also appears as someone with a mid-life crisis, wanting to emulate Sinatra’s career. However, he comes to realise what a chauvinist Sinatra’s character is – and Sinatra, of course, has something of a conversion experience. The title song by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy van Heusen was nominated for an Oscar, has become a perennial Sinatra favourite – and is sung at the end by the main cast with the chorus of ladies. It is an entertaining end to a frothy film.
The film was directed by Charles Walters, a choreographer who directed a number of MGM musicals in the 1940s including Good News, Easter Parade and The Barkleys of Broadway. He made a number of smaller films at MGM but also a number of musicals in the 50s including Torch Song, Easy to Love and The Glass Slipper. After this he made High Society ….
1. How enjoyable was this film? The musical background, the comedy style, the gloss and glamour?
2. The use of Cinemascope, colour, the initial song, the reprise at the end, the American faree and comedy style?
3. How obvious was it that this was a film of the fifties? In style, in treatment of themes?
4. How important were the stars? the impact of Frank Sinatra, of Debbie Reynolds? The film's comedy about men? The irony of the title? The presuppositions about men in light American comedy? Their attitudes towards themselves, their superiority, their relationship to women? Charlie as casual? The women doing everything for him? Joe as the married man facinated by Charlie's life and style? The comedy in this, the irony and disillusionment? The film's stance on traditional values?
5. The light touch of comedy about women? Women and glamour, beauty and charm? Their eagreness for marriage? The 50s ideal of the woman being married? how convincing was this, in recent experience? The irony and comedy in the procession of girls who attended Charlie? The rather sharp satire in their final rejection of him?
6. How attractive a heroine was Julie? her verve, disillusionment, falling in love? An attractive heroine? how conventional?
7. Silvia as a contrast with Julie? Silvia's aims, her wise-cracking personality, her emphasis on her age, her relationship with Joe, her fascination with Charlie, the disillusionment of the double engagement, the happy ending for her? The charm of the career girl seeking marriage?
8. The film's use of farcical elements: mix-up of identity, double engagements etc?
9. How appropriate was the happy ending for the marriage, Joe reconciled to marriage, the man in the lift and Silvia's marriage?
10. Was the film a successful example of the 1950s light comedy genre?
