The Trap

Similar to Don Siegel’s Edge of Eternity, another full-color noir set in the American desert and released in 1959, Norman Panama’s The Trap may have the look and feel of an old-fashioned western but involves contemporary gangsters demanding use of an airstrip to skip the country. It also involves the rivalry between two brothers: Tippy Anderson (Earl Holliman), the insecure one who works for his dad, has a drinking problem, and married the pretty girl they both dated, and Ralph Anderson (Richard Widmark), the ambitious one who left town to make his fortune and returns to learn the pretty girl has always loved him more. Ralph is actually back in town to ask their father, Sheriff Lloyd (Carl Benton Reid), to have his men look the other way so his associate, mob boss Victor Massonetti (Lee J. Cobb), the object of a police manhunt, can safely leave the country. Angry and disgusted, Lloyd reluctantly agrees, but Tippy has his eye on the reward money instead. Linda (Tina Louise), the pretty girl who got stuck with the weaker brother and has been rotting in a desert town, symbolizes noir’s deferred dreams and hollowed hearts. “I can’t feel anything!” she tells Ralph. “I can’t feel.”