TRAPPED BY TELEVISION
US, 1936, 64 minutes, Black and white.
Mary Astor, Lyle Talbot, Nat Pendleton, Joyce Compton, Thurston Hall, Marc Lawrence.
Directed by Del Lord.
This is a historical curiosity kind of film. It is a thriller with romance from the mid-1930s, a small-budget supporting feature. However, it is the television that is of interest.
Audiences who take television for granted may not give a second thought to its origins. While television did not develop as much as anticipated because of World War II, it emerged in the mid 1930s and later 1940s and spread throughout the world.
This is a film about an inventor, in need of money, but skilled, who gets the opportunity to promote his equipment to a broadcaster. While this seems a fairly bland kind of story, it is enhanced by some villainous shenanigans in the background. One of the officials of the company is in league with criminals who want to institute a different deal. They have abducted the inventor from the company and a ruthless killer, (Marc Lawrence in an early villainous role which was he was to continue throughout his career) shoots him. There are also further complications with the villains trying to commandeer the invention.
The film opens with the focus on Nat Pendleton doing his familiar shtick, this time quite engagingly, a debt collector who continually tells us that his hobby is science and who takes the inventor under his wing to help him. He also has to collect debts from a business woman, played in her tough style by Mary Astor (with some romantic moments) and her associate Mae, Joyce Compton. They decide to be the agents for the inventor with the company.
The inventor gradually succeeds, the debt collector always promising his landlady that he would pay his rent. The crooks sabotage the demonstration at a football match, smashing his cathode ray. Unbeknownst to him, his agent sells her coat and buys him a new ray. They trick the board into watching a demonstration which turns out to be the fight between the inventor and the crooks, leading to a car chase, arrests, happy owner of the company, happy romance – plus one with the debt collector and the agency associate!
An entertaining short feature – but a reminder of the early development of television.
