Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

a666333 The cast and quality black-and-white camera work would seem to destine this film for something great but we don't get there. The problem seems to be the storyline/script which is just too familiar and predictable. Glen Ford plays a fairly well-to-do cop who feels pressured by his barbie doll young wife, Elke Sommer, to deliver even more affluence. His partner, Montalban, is more directly avaricious. Cotten is a corrupt doctor and a very used looking Rita Hayworth is Ford's ex-girlfriend from years ago. Ford as usual, underplays but nevertheless makes you feel the cold emptiness and disillusionment of the character. Everyone else delivers well but I think we have all seen these characters, motivations and situations a hundred times before and the script does not give any room for interesting angles or surprises. We get a very dark (literally and figuratively) and gritty film but not something that is likely to grow on you. If this had been made in 1932, it would have been a far more significant film. By the mid 60s, it was tired formula.

timscanit-792-49398 They were looking pretty tired in this. It was the characters they played but they didn't have to stretch much for the part. I see why my wife has a poor opinion of Ford. I always liked him but I had never seen this movie before. I want to know more about the house that Ford and Elke lived in. The design of the pool was very unique. Did anyone notice when Ford was riding in the ambulance (a Buick conversion) talking to the dying burglary suspect, that the car next to them was pacing and passing a code 3 ambulance with its siren on? The camera was set up to shoot the scene but there was normal traffic flowing next to it, so when Ford signals to the driver that the suspect is dead and he can slow down, nothing changed in the street scene outside the window. Loved the white 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible that Ford drove. That model has a value these days of $15K to $20K.

misswestergaard I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It has smooth, stylish, black & white photography; a peppy but brooding jazz soundtrack and charismatic actors. It's a simplistic but compelling morality play in glamorous film noir clothing. Glenn Ford is sexy (in a vulnerable tough guy past his prime sort of way), Rita Hayworth is lovely and sympathetic, Elke Somer is adorable, Ricardo Montalban is stupid and greedy, Joseph Cotten is sleazy and everyone is degraded. The men suffer from their lack of faith in others; the women through their misguided dependence on virility (they count on men to provide emotional and worldly sustenance). It's worth seeing just for the glossy cinematography and the early 60's architecture and settings.It is not a film for those who venerate realism or seek a highly original screenplay, nevertheless it is far more slick, attractive and entertaining than a large percentage of current Hollywood film or television. Like a song sung by Amy Winehouse, you wouldn't use it to tell you how to live, but it sure feels good when you turn it up loud and surrender for a little while.

bkoganbing The Money Trap for me has the distinction of being one of the last B features I ever saw on the big screen as part of a double bill. It is a film way past its prime as a noir picture.Noir as a genre essentially died little by little as more televisions were in American homes. The kind of stories that noir does best were now being shown on television every night. Movies were getting bigger and splashier to compete with TV and films like the Money Trap were just not being made for theaters any more. Watching it yesterday on TCM, I was struck by the ludicrousness of a letter box version for a black and white noir. By the way, in 1965 television was about to go full color and black and white feature films were getting rarer each year.But even as a noir film, The Money Trap has no people you really care about. Glenn Ford is married to a wealthy woman and lives in a lifestyle beyond his cop's salary. But then wife Elke Sommer gets a letter saying her late Daddy's stock won't be paying any dividends. Well golly gee, we should all have such problems. It never occurs to Glenn Ford to tell Elke to tone down her extravagant ways, maybe even move out of that luxurious home they have to something more modest. Ford's kind of into the good life also.During a homicide investigation involving a wealthy doctor played by Joseph Cotten who allegedly surprised a burglar in his home, Ford and partner Ricardo Montalban suspect something dicey. Before expiring in the ambulance, the burglar gives Ford the safe combination.Now knowing something is amiss here. Ford and Montalban decide on a robbery. Of course the doctor is smarter than the both of them put together. The whole thing ends in one bloody mess and the viewer doesn't really care.A few years later The Money Trap would have been strictly a made for TV feature if it got made at all. Probably MGM was busy trying to get rid of long time contractual obligations to Ford and Montalban. Both of them have sure done better work.But the saddest thing of all is that this is the last feature film partnership of Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth. Rita's the best thing in this film, playing a very worn out forty something ex-girlfriend of Ford's and widow of the burglar Cotten shot. A great acting job and not anything a former reigning sex goddess ever did before.But it ain't enough to save The Money Trap.