Man Trap (1961)

Stuck in an unhappy marriage to a shrewish, boozed up nymphomaniac (Stella Stevens), a housing developer (Jeffrey Hunter) receives a visit from an old Korean war buddy (David Janssen) who lures him into helping rob a South American dictator of three million dollars. But they're both amateurs, dangerously out of their element and, of course, everything goes horribly wrong. Based on the novel TAINT OF THE TIGER by John D. MacDonald (CAPE FEAR) and directed by the actor Edmond O'Brien (THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA). This should be better than it is. It has all the elements of a classic film noir but O'Brien can't seem to combine all the ingredients into a satisfying whole. It has an almost surreal quality to it like Hunter's neighborhood which seems populated entirely of alcoholic wife swappers. I kept waiting for the twist ending. Surely a film like this has a killer of a twist, right? No, it doesn't. It just winds down predictably. To be fair, some of the problems may be inherent in the source material but I haven't read the novel it's based on. It doesn't help that potentially complex characters are played by such uninteresting actors as Hunter (who's weaker than usual) and Janssen which leaves Stevens' slut to take center stage. The film is nicely shot in wide screen B&W by Loyal Griggs (SHANE). With Elaine Devry, Bob Crane, Virginia Gregg, Frank Albertson, Perry Lopez and Dorothy Green.