Pitfall (1948)

August 24, 1948, release date

Directed by André de Toth

Screenplay by Karl Kamb, André de Toth, and William Bowers

Based on the novel Pitfall by Jay Dratler

Music by Louis Forbes

Cinematography by Harry J. Wild

Dick Powell as John Forbes, aka Johnny

Lizabeth Scott as Mona Stevens

Jane Wyatt as Sue Forbes

Raymond Burr as MacDonald, aka Mac

John Litel as the district attorney

Byron Barr as Bill Smiley

Jimmy Hunt as Tommy Forbes

Ann Doran as Maggie

Selmer Jackson as Ed Brawley

Margaret Wells as Terry

Dick Wessel as the desk sergeant

Produced by Regal Films

Distributed by United Artists

I really enjoyed this film noir for the performances by the main actors: Dick Powell (Powell is a noir favorite of mine), Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, and Lizabeth Scott (another favorite). Raymond Burr’s performance as the slimy private detective J. B. MacDonald, also known as Mac, is creepy. He gives every justification he can think of for his infatuation with Mona Stevens and why he will continue to stalk her. Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, and Jane Wyatt don’t sugarcoat anything as three people caught in a situation that none of them asked for and fell into because of one or two indiscretions.

Mac first mentions Mona Stevens during his conversation with John Forbes on an insurance theft case, and his tone suggests that he’ll be trouble. When John Forbes shows up at Mona Stevens’s apartment to collect what her boyfriend stole, Mona says this about Mac: “He shouldn’t be let loose without a keeper.” Forbes’s secretary describes Mac as gruesome. The scene where Mac makes Mona pose for him while she’s modeling and on the job made me squirm.

(This blog post about Pitfall contains spoilers.)

Something is wrong in suburbia for John Forbes, his wife Sue, and their son Tommy—and it isn’t just John’s boredom and his brief infidelity that is causing discontent. Smiley (Mona’s jealous boyfriend) is coming to the Forbes residence and he’s got a gun. Before he arrives, the camera pans the first floor of the Forbes house in darkness. John knows Smiley is coming and has turned off all the lamps, and he’s outside in the dark lurking around his own home. The scene shows how things can go terribly wrong even in the postwar world, when everything is supposed to be right in the suburbs.

From this point on, John’s life spirals out of control, and he can’t seem to do anything to stop it. Smiley breaks a window and John kills him because he’s threatening to do the same to John. Sue comes downstairs when she hears the ruckus. John tells her, “Sue, you better call the police. I just killed a man.” The camera follows her from the back as she registers alarm and then goes to make the phone call. It’s a great shot: The lighting is dim and the medium shot of her from the back still registers her distress.

John confesses everything to Sue and wants a reaction from her before he confesses everything to the police. He doesn’t get the response that he (or I!) expected: “You lied once. It came easy enough for you then. You’ve got to lie now. I mean this, Johnny. If you drag this family through the dirt, I’ll never forgive you.” But John does talk to the district attorney, and the district attorney tells him that Mona shot Mac. He can’t charge John in Smiley’s death because his story about Smiley matches Mona’s: The facts in their stories match and Smiley was indeed a threat.

But the district attorney believes that the police have the wrong person: Forbes should pay for the whole sordid mess and Mona should go free. This conversation in the district attorney’s office gives the theme of the story in a nutshell. John Forbes started the events by cheating on his wife, but he won’t be the one to pay the price.

I think the story is even more complicated than the district attorney’s summation: Pitfall shows John and Mona to be caring people who make a mistake. Mac cannot leave Mona alone. He’s jealous of her feelings for both John and her boyfriend Smiley, and he plants the seeds of jealousy in Smiley while he’s still in prison serving time for insurance fraud. Without Mac, the brief affair between Mona and John might have ended quietly—and we never would have had a film noir.

Sue picks up John at the district attorney’s office, and they have a frank discussion about their options, including divorce. They talk about how their marriage might never be the same after the events that they have just experienced. Thus, the film ends without giving a decisive ending for John and Sue’s marriage or for Mona’s legal troubles. Mona could be charged with murder if Mac doesn’t survive his gunshot wound. But at least she got rid of Mac; I hope she gets a good lawyer!

Pitfall is very realistic. It’s true to its characters, all of whom (except Mac) come across as sympathetic in spite of their faults and mistakes. And the story holds up after more than sixty-five years.