The deadly trap
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The deadly trap |
| Original title | Blind date |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joseph Losey |
| script |
Ben Barzman Millard Lampell based on the novel "Blind Date" by Leigh Howard |
| production | David German |
| music | Richard Rodney Bennett |
| camera | Christopher Challis |
| cut | Reginald Mills |
| occupation | |
| |
The Deadly Trap is a 1959 British crime film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Hardy Krüger .
action
The young painter Jan van Rooyer , who comes from Eindhoven , walks lively through London. He has a date with a somewhat older lady, the urbane French dancer Jacqueline Cousteau, who is eagerly waiting for him in her apartment. Jan is in a good mood, almost cocky and cheeky, but when he arrives at her apartment, a nasty surprise awaits him. He carelessly throws away his coat, which lands on a woman's corpse. Then, to his amazement, he sees about £ 1,000 lying on the floor and tries to pick it up. Suddenly the police are in the door. The body is discovered and the investigating Scotland Yard inspector Morgan has a thousand questions. Van Rooyer suspects bad things: should he have been lured into a deadly trap? Because a mysterious telephone call called the police in Jacqueline's apartment. The young Dutchman is now a highly suspected murderer and has great difficulty in proving his innocence.
With tenacity and the greatest tenacity, Morgan asks his counterpart about his relationship with the dead woman, both of whom they first met in an art gallery, any money problems and his alibi. Jan also has to provide intimate details from his rendezvous with Madame in his small artist studio. In several flashbacks you get an impression of the character of this love affair between the youngster and the experienced and serene lady of the world. Meanwhile, the autopsy found that Jacqueline Cousteau was believed to have been suffocated. A second interrogator soon joins the determined and tough but thoroughly fair Inspector Morgan. But unlike his colleague, Inspector Westover is quite an ambitious who wants to convict van Rooyer as quickly as possible. For a long time it seemed as if van Rooyer could not credibly assert his innocence, but soon the first doubts emerged.
The murder case becomes more and more mysterious and obscure when suddenly Assistant Commissioner Sir Brian Lewis takes Morgen aside and provides him with information that puts the matter in a completely different light. The unmarried French woman had a secret affair with the high-ranking British Sir Howard Fenton, a high-ranking animal from the British Foreign Office, but Sir Brian's instructions said that his name must be kept out of the investigation. Fenton is currently on a mission abroad and Germany and is expected back today. Without further ado, Morgan van Rooyer, whom he instinctively begins to believe more and more, takes him to London Airport to confront Fenton with van Rooyer. Fenton arrives, accompanied by Lady Fenton. Jan doesn't believe he can believe his eyes: Lady Fenton is his Jacqueline! Morgan confronts “Lady Fenton” aka Jacqueline with Jan van Rooyer; however, she stiffly states that she has never seen this young man before. But Lady Fenton's lie does not last long. At the police headquarters it turns out that Lady Fenton had temporarily slipped into the role of the real Jacqueline Cousteau, her husband's lover, and also posed as Jacqueline to van Rooyer. When Milady had to fear that her diplomatic husband would leave her for the real Jacqueline, she killed her rival without further ado. Jan, who fell in love with her, turned out to be an ideal pawn victim by his appearance, who was therefore suspected of murder.
Production notes
The Deadly Trap was the third and, for the time being, the last film that Hardy Krüger had shot in quick succession during his brief “British phase” (1957–1959). The production celebrated its world premiere in London in August 1959 and opened in Germany on October 1, 1959. In Austria you could see Blind Date from November 27, 1959 under the title The mysterious meeting point . In the GDR, the strip was awarded in 1961 under the title Everything speaks against van Rooyen . In the USA, the crime thriller was awarded the title Chance Meeting and was critically discussed. The first German television broadcast took place on July 6, 1964 on ZDF .
Harry Pottle and Edward Carrick were responsible for building the film.
Hardy Krüger's character in the English original is a Dutchman, but in a German dubbed version he becomes German. The year before (1958) Krüger had in Germany in a similarly constructed film called Confess You, Dr. Corda! also embodies a young man who is suspected of murder.
Reviews
“Moviegoers with fond memories of British melodramas may complain that Mr. Losey lacks the wit of Alfred Hitchcock or the restraint of Carol Reed , but no one is likely to deny his knack for visual movement, his nice sense of pace, or the incisive cynicism in his approach to an over-represented film genre. (...) The director has used a tight scenario that was edited by Ben Barzman and Mallard Lampell based on Leigh Howard's novel Blind Date and given him a fresh and ironic treatment in the form of a flashback mystery crime, the outcome of which is quite comparable to that noteworthy film Laura . (…) Hardy Krüger is excellent as the painter in search of a patroness, Stanley Baker cleverly characterizes the unrestrained Scotland Yard representative, and Micheline Presle is the society lady who is described by her lover as "as if set in ice" and who eloquently proves that ice can not only freeze but also burn. "
In the lexicon of international films it says: "A captivatingly staged, psychologically appealing criminal mystery piece with a socially critical tendency."
The Movie & Video Guide wrote: “Amazing little puzzle game that gets chatty. Loses the initial momentum. "
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: “Passable, comparatively ingenious murder puzzle. Pretty bleak looking, but the content keeps the interest in it. "
German critics called Joseph Losey's socially critical confusion crime thriller (1959) "Blasiert".
Paimann's film lists summed up: "... despite initial stretching, intentionally opaque and. Staged full of atmosphere, with - like Krüger in particular - carefully designed actors ... "
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Deadly Trap. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 17, 2015 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 214
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 118
- ↑ The mysterious meeting point in Paimann's film lists ( memento of the original from October 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- The deadly trap in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Blind Date (Chance Meeting) in the New York Times