Trapped (1949)

A young hoodlum (Lloyd Bridges) is doing time in prison for counterfeiting. He agrees to cooperate with Federal authorities in exposing a counterfeiting ring and they release him but he has his own plans on making big money and it doesn't include playing stool pigeon for the Feds. Directed by Richard Fleischer (20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA), this low budget crime programmer is shot in semi-documentary style and on the streets of Los Angeles rather than studio soundstages. While it gives the movie some authenticity, I still found it rather ordinary although there's a small cult of noir enthusiasts who are trying to make a case for it as something special. It's not! Although Bridges is top billed (he disappears from the movie's last twenty minutes), the film belongs to John Hoyt. It's a rare chance to see Hoyt, who usually plays villains and/or less than stellar characters, play the closest thing to a hero that the movie has. As an undercover Secret Service agent, Hoyt is essentially playing two characters. The true blue government agent that he is and the sleazy hood persona he adapts to get the counterfeiters' trust. As for Bridges, he snarls and throws punches but he's never truly convincing as a hood. It's the kind of part that cries out for a Lawrence Tierney. With Barbara Payton, Tommy Noonan and James Todd.