Movies - Pitfall

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	Movies - Pitfall

Pitfall is a black-and-white 1948 film directed by André De Toth. The film was based on a novel of the same name by Jay Dratler.

This film noir, set in Los Angeles, tells the story of a bored man working for an insurance company. The middle-class married man craves excitement in his day-to-day life. He gets his wish when he begins investigating an embezzlement case and meets model Mona Stevens (Scott). John Forbes is tasked with getting a hold of some expensive gifts given to a girlfriend by an embezzler who's serving time in prison. Insurance agent Forbes ends up spending the day on a boat with the sultry blonde, appropriately named "Tempest", and a romance begins brewing. Forbes, attracted to the blonde, fudges the reports so he won't have to take the boat away from her. The couple finds themselves being stalked and threatened by a jealous, and suspicious, ex-cop (Burr). As the ex-policeman's sadistic obsession grows, and the day of the dangerous prisoners release from prison approaches, Mona fears for her safety and Johnny longs for the days before he got involved in all this trouble. Things finally go too far when he turns to murder.

Critical reaction

Writer Eddie Muller calls the film "terrific" while Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward's book Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style writes the work "...is the key film noir detailing the fall of the errant husband from the grace of bourgeois respectability."

Cast

Dick Powell
as John Forbes
Lizabeth Scott
as Mona Stevens
Jane Wyatt
as Sue Forbes
Raymond Burr
as MacDonald
John Litel
as District Attorney

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