The Steel Trap

Reuniting the stars of Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Andrew L. Stone’s The Steel Trap pairs Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright as a married couple in a race against the clock to leave the country with stolen loot, but only one of them knows anything about it. Bank manager Jim Osborne (Cotten) takes his shot at stealing a million dollars in cash from the vault after closing on Friday, his goal to fly to Brazil where there is no extradition law and enjoy a new life with his wife and daughter. He tells wife Laurie (Wright) that the trip is for bank business, but as flights are overbooked and connections are delayed, she notices her husband becoming anxious, aggressive, even desperate to get on that plane. Even after the initial theft, which is stretched out and crosscut for maximum suspense, Stone builds tension as the film progresses, each setback adding to the likelihood that the bank will find and report the theft before the Osbornes can flee. Wright doesn’t have much to do here, but Cotten performs well, alternating between private anxiety and external calm for his wife’s benefit, particularly when he treats her to New Orleans sightseeing and dinner during a layover, filmed on location.