While it may not be the grittiest, nor most memorable, film noir, Pitfall is a film that you won't forget too quickly, especially after you spend some of the last few minutes of the movie feeling as if you've been directly spoken to by a character who goes on about trusting the police to resolve matters that have gotten out of hand due to some extra-marital activities.
John Forbes (played by Dick Powell) is the married insurance adjuster who finds his world collapsing around him when he takes a bit of a shine to pretty Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott). Forbes isn't the only one to be smitten though. There's also the big and gruff MacDonald (Raymond Burr). Forbes is asking for trouble, especially when he already has himself what seems to be a happy and stable marriage to Sue (Jane Wyatt).
With a screenplay credited to Karl Kamb and direction from the very capable André De Toth, Pitfall is an amusing diversion that somehow doesn't feel overlong, despite clocking in at 86 minutes (which seems like far more time than the premise requires). There are some crimes that occur, but the main object of the film seems to be a couple of important moral lessons. One, don't even think about having an affair. Two, always call the police at the first sign of things creeping into dangerous territory.
Powell is quite the dependable everyday Joe he needs to be in the main role. He's certainly not someone to be viewed as particularly good, but he's far from the scheming and manipulative characters seen in so many harder noirs. The same could be said for Scott, who is an object of desire without spending every minute of her screentime trying to wind everyone around her little finger. The only one who really feels as if he could have been placed in any other noir film of the period is Barry, who is suitably mean and menacing, and does what he can to cause the problems that come to a head in time for the final scenes. Bryon Barr is also a menace, especially when jealous of the attention that "his woman" is receiving from another man, but he's only present for a few minutes of screentime. Wyatt is a very level-headed and loving wife, Jimmy Hunt is a child actor who manages not to be too irritating, a talent that helped him maintain a run of decent supporting roles that kept him employed between the late 1940s to the early 1950s (hey, not the longest run for the peak years of his career, but one of those films he starred in was the classic Invaders From Mars).
De Toth may not do anything to lift up the material, but he's happy enough to rely on the characters and the acting to keep viewers hooked, and that's absolutely fine. This zips along nicely. It would have been nice to have some more danger throughout the runtime, but there's enough at stake to make everything uncomfortable for Forbes before the end credits roll. The only mis-step is the aforementioned lecture delivered near the closing moments of the film, but it's something you just have to accept in some of these films that explored subject matter frowned upon by censors and those determined to rail against the moral decline of "modern society".
6/10
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