The Tender Trap...makes a convenient time capsule for the fifties, and at its best it's an amusing romp.
The dialogue in "The Tender Trap" is snappy, the pace of the first third is zippy, the characters are clichéd, the middle of the story sags, and the main setting in Charlie's apartment (a carry-over from the stage play) becomes static. So, you take the good with the bad. The show begins and ends with Sinatra singing the title tune (by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen), which he and Reynolds do yet again in the story itself, and it went on to become one of Sinatra's standards.
If there's anything really odd about the film, though, it's Julie's attitude toward sex. Understand, the filmmakers were working under the constraints of a tight, self-imposed censorship board in those days, where a script might imply sex but never show it. One assumes that Charlie spends very few nights alone, yet we never see him do anything but kiss a girl. When Julie falls for Charlie, she invites him to her place, offers him a drink, agrees to necking on the couch, and then stops things right there. He seems frustrated, and she doesn't seem to understand why. So, how old is this girl? She's a college graduate?
Anyway, when Charlie begins to have serious feelings for Julie, he becomes conflicted because, you know, marriage might interfere with his swinging lifestyle. Eventually, the movie gets around to its point: Most men are boys, with childish, sexist dreams; they crave the freedom of many female relationships on the one hand and the security of one woman on the other. The movie never fully resolves the conflict, however, not for the viewer in any case, except to suggest that most folks get what they deserve.
Trivia: the play's co-writer, Max Shulman, also wrote the Dobie Gillis stories. Could Julie's last name indicate she's related to Dobie? The movie never mentions the connection.
More trivia: A few years after Sinatra made "The Tender Trap," Haley Mills made "The Parent Trap," also a romantic comedy with a catchy tune. For the record, I prefer "The Parent Trap."
Video:
As usual with Warner Bros. releases, these films look great, cleaned and refurbished and appearing almost spanking new. They're all in widescreen, but "The Tender Trap" is the widest of all and among the best-looking, presented here in all its CinemaScope glory, with a 2.55:1 original aspect ratio and a fine anamorphic transfer. Yes, 2.55:1 is quite wide, back when widescreen really meant something. There is noticeable grain in the opening title tune, but it clears up well enough as the film goes on. The image, though, is fairly soft, its only major weakness. Beyond that, expect strong, realistic colors, solid black levels for deep contrasting hues, and no age spots, lines, or scratches whatever.
Audio:
The sound varies in the five movies. In three of them it's ordinary 1.0 monaural. On "None But the Brave" it's 2.0 stereo. Best of all, WB audio engineers remastered the soundtrack for "The Tender Trap" in Dolby Digital 5.1, and while it can't compete with more modern 5.1 tracks, it holds its own. Although there is not much information fed to the rear speakers, when it does find its way back there, it helps create a pleasant ambient bloom for the occasional musical numbers and the background score. Other than that, there is a bit of hardness to the midrange and an unexpectedly low volume output. Fortunately, the backgrounds are silent, and other than a slight brightness on vocals, the rest of the frequency spectrum comes across smoothly and agreeably.
Extras:
Most of the films in the box contain new featurettes, remastered soundtracks, ample scene selections, and theatrical trailers, with English as the only spoken language and English, French, and Portuguese subtitles. In particular, "The Tender Trap" contains a widescreen trailer and a fifteen-minute, 2008 featurette called "Frank in the Fifties" that includes comments from film historians and music critics on the man's career and the communicativeness of his acting and singing.
Parting Thoughts:
Of all the films in the set, "The Man With the Golden Arm" is probably the highlight. However, "The Tender Trap" has charms of its own, not the least being its totally different tone from the former movie. The two films show the two opposite sides of the actor and musician, the one dark and serious, the other light and bubbly. Yet you shouldn't think of "The Tender Trap" as simply fluff; at the very least it makes a convenient time capsule for the fifties, and at its best it's an amusing romp.
On a related note: Concurrent with this and other Sinatra movies, Warner Home Video are releasing (separately) their 1992, Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning TV miniseries "Sinatra." It's in a two-disc set, 238 minutes, divided into two parts, with 41 and 26 chapters respectively. The film stars Philip Casnoff as Sinatra, with Olympia Dukakis, Joe Santos, Gina Gershon, Nina Siemaszko, and Marcia Gay Harden in supporting roles, and it covers Sinatra's life from his youth through his return from retirement in 1974. The best part: hearing Sinatra's voice again in original recordings. The two discs present the picture in its 1.33:1 television aspect ratio and in quite good color, with English 2.0 stereo sound and English captions for the hearing impaired.
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[release]23659[/release]