blanche-2 "Trapped" is a typical late '40s B movie. This one concerns a sting organized by the Treasury Department in order to track down some counterfeit plates.The beginning is told in documentary style, which was done quite a bit during that period. In the story, the Department enables Tris Stewart (Lloyd Bridges) to escape from prison to lead them to counterfeit plates, funny money which has again surfaced after a period of several years. They bug the apartment of his old girlfriend Meg (Barbara Payton) and ultimately send in an agent (John Hoyt) who is supposed to be one of the gang. He's established an identity in the club where Meg works. Once Stewart tracks down the plates, he learns they've been sold, and it will cost him $25,000 to buy them back.It's fun to see the actors driving around old Los Angeles, though this is a fairly routine drama with very over the top music. When Bridges makes his entrance, it's almost Superman music. He was certainly a hunky young man as well as a handsome older one.Barbara Payton, whose career at this time was actually on the way up, does a good job as Meg. A few years later, she hit the skids, due to a series of unfortunate romances. She was juggling the abusive Tom Neal and Franchot Tone at the same time; Neal and Tone got into a huge fight during which Tone was badly injured and hospitalized. This hurt her reputation, and the rest is a sad story of abuse at the hands of Neal, drunkenness, prostitution, and bad checks.Despite this being formulaic, it will hold your interest.

evening1 An excellent thriller on the slimy subject of counterfeiting.Lloyd Bridges, 36 at the time, is as sexy as he is scary in the role of a violent, gum-chewing con who thinks he's two steps ahead of the feds while being drawn into their clutches. Barbara Payton is gorgeous as Tris's cigarette-girl moll in her first leading film role. I looked Payton up on Wikipedia and was surprised to learn she wound up as a prostitute who had to sleep on park benches. What a fall from glory...This taut drama takes us back to the days when $20 was considered a large bill and people played the rumba on their phonographs. The film crackles with hard-bitten dialog, and, with Kansas City as its sometime locale, features a lovely jazz soundtrack.The stentorian, documentary-like voice-over's a little trite, but this film is quite gripping. ----------------------------------------------- "These are my old-age pension: The only thing better than money are the plates that make 'em!"

GManfred This was a good movie. Considering that it was probably made on a shoestring budget, it was a very good movie. Personally, I enjoy a good plot and storyline and this picture had it; it was interesting and absorbing throughout. Pacing was good and the picture moved along at a brisk pace. There was very little if any padding material.Good job by Lloyd Bridges, who had not yet made it big. It had a good cast of dependable character actors. I did not know the sad story of Barbara Payton until I read it on the website, and she was very good as Bridges' girlfriend. It must have been Director Richard Fleischer's first solid hit, as he went on to have a pretty distinguished career in Hollywood.If it ever comes on one of the movie channels do yourself a favor and see it, even if you're not a cops-and-robbers fan.

SanRafReefer TRAPPED is a very good example of the documentary- styled noir film. Lloyd Bridges gives an energetic performance as a greedy and cunning counterfeiter whose brains are not equal to his ambitions. The film also features tragic sex bomb Barbara Payton in her first major role and she also scores as a somewhat naive, yet ruthless, partner to Bridges. Richard Fleischer directs with his usual stylishness and the look of the film will satisfy the diehard noir fan. Very enjoyable.