The Tender Trap (1955)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Charles Walters

Writers:

Julius J. Epstein (screenplay)
Max Shulman (play) ...
(more)

Release Date:

4 November 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Tagline:

Add SPICE to your life!

Plot:

Charlie Reader is a successful theater agent. He is also successful with young ladies. One day he is visited by his old friend Joe...

Plot Keywords:

Agent | Love | Theater | Bachelor | Womanizer

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Frank Sinatra	...	Charlie Y. Reader
Debbie Reynolds	...	Julie Gillis
David Wayne	...	Joe McCall
Celeste Holm	...	Sylvia Crewes
Jarma Lewis	...	Jessica Collins
Lola Albright	...	Poppy Masters
Carolyn Jones	...	Helen
Howard St. John	...	Mr. Sayers
Joey Faye	...	Sol Z. Steiner
Tom Helmore	...	Mr. Loughran
Willard Sage	...	Director
Marc Wilder	...	Ballet-Actor
Jack Boyle	...	Audition Dancer
James Drury	...	Eddie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bette Arlen	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Bill Baldwin	...	TV Host (uncredited) (voice)
Madge Blake	...	Society Reporter (uncredited)
Leonard Bremen	...	Cab Driver (uncredited)
John Bromfield	...	Actor in Film on TV (clip from 'Easy to Love') (uncredited) (archive footage)
Herbert Butterfield	...	Minister (voice) (uncredited)
Hal Floyd	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Hugo Haas	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Gil Harman	...	TV Announcer (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Extra at Home Show (uncredited)
Stuart Holmes	...	Nightclub Table Extra (uncredited)
Michael Kostrick	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Gustave Lax	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Don Lynch	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
George Peters	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Max Power	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Dan Quigg	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Gordon Richards	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Benny Rubin	...	Mr. Wilson (uncredited)
Erin Selwyn	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Reginald Simpson	...	Stage Manager (uncredited)
Frank Sully	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Hal Taggart	...	Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Phil Tead	...	Wendell (voice) (uncredited)
Dave White	...	Cab Driver (uncredited)
Esther Williams	...	Actress in Film on TV (clip from 'Easy to Love') (uncredited) (archive footage)
Wilson Wood	...	George, Elevator Boy (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Walters

Writing credits
Julius J. Epstein		(screenplay) (as Julius Epstein)
Max Shulman		(play) and
Robert Paul Smith		(play)

Produced by
Lawrence Weingarten	....	producer

Original Music by
Jeff Alexander

Cinematography by
Paul Vogel		(director of photography) (as Paul C. Vogel)

Film Editing by
John D. Dunning		(as John Dunning)

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons
Arthur Lonergan

Set Decoration by
Jack D. Moore
Edwin B. Willis

Costume Design by
Helen Rose

Makeup Department
Sydney Guilaroff	....	hair stylist
William Tuttle	....	makeup designer

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joel Freeman	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Wesley C. Miller	....	recording supervisor (as Dr. Wesley C. Miller)

Editorial Department
Charles K. Hagedon	....	color consultant

Music Department
Jeff Alexander	....	conductor
Will Beitel	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Clinton Wilder	....	stage presenter

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1980) (USA) (TV) (network premiere) (pan/scan)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) | 4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G (TV rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | USA:Approved (certificate #17672)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "The Tender Trap" by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith opened at the Longacre Theater on October 13, 1954 and ran for 102 performances. The original cast included Robert Preston and Kim Hunter.

Quotes:

Sylvia Crewes: Joe, do you have any idea what's available to a woman of 33? Married men. Drunks. Pretty boys looking for someone to support them. Lunatics looking for their fifth divorce! It's quite a list, isn't it?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Phil Hartman/Gin Blossoms (#21.16)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

(Love Is) The Tender Trap

Not perfect, but what movie is?

The tender trap is a Sinatra film, a fifties time capsule. As such, it comes fully loaded with a swinger versus good girl mentality. The woman always wants the picket fence and the man always wants the ultimate bachelor lifestyle (in Sinatra's case, complete with sexy dog-walkers and cheese delivery). So with this sort of fluffy 50's movie, it's easy to scoff and call it outdated and campy, and neglect to consider the fact that perhaps there lingers in it the tragedy of the era. My apologies for melodrama. But in the character of Sylvie (the unforgettable Celeste Holmes) is there encompassed a certain element of poignance that is strange to find in such a film as this.

In the midst of the predictable plot and romantic mayhem sorted out so simply, perhaps by fate, perhaps by unimaginative writing. But in Celeste Holmes is there contained something deeper. A regret, hopelessness, I'll-settle-for-anything quality of the middle-aged (or thereabouts) successful career woman who didn't go for a family right away, and thus finds herself condemned to either "Married men. Drunks. Pretty boys looking for someone to support them. Lunatics looking for their fifth divorce!" or a Sinatra. To see her sitting at a table across from Debbie Reynolds, 21, with all her plan figured out beforehand, claiming that without such precautions a woman runs the risk of spinsterhood. You can't help but feel for the spinster herself as she gazes with quiet desperation at Sinatra. Her last hope.

Yes The Tender Trap had quite a few weaknesses, but in all, I can't help but find it strange and lovely to find such fluff encrusted poignance. Sinatra and Debbie were cute, but when it came down to it, Celeste Holmes was magnificent.