The Tender Trap
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DVD details
Actor: Debbie Reynolds, Frank SinatraBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Actors: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, Celeste Holm, Jarma Lewis.
- Format: DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC.
- Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1). Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese.
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
- Not Rated. Run Time: 111 minutes.
DVD Reviews of The Tender Trap
DVD Review: "You are the softest girl."
Summary: 4 Stars
- Julie Gillis to Charlie Reader (responding to his offer of dinner): "Well, I've only known you a few minutes, but you seem fairly nice. You're even attractive in a...offbeat, beat-up sort of way."
- Charlie: "Thanks a lot."
- Julie: "But I can't have dinner with every nice, attractive man I meet. It's not part of my plan."
- Charlie: "How's that plan again?"
- Julie: "My marriage plan."
Frank Sinatra plays New York theater agent and swingin' bachelor Charlie Y. Reader, whose tryst with a hottie is interrupted by his sarcastic, longtime pal Joe from Indianapolis, who pays him a visit and then becomes a house guest (he'd just left his wife, Ethel, you see?). When Joe marvels at the series of beautiful dames Frank sees ("Where do all these tomatoes come from?"), Frank tells him, "Sure, it's fun. But let's face it...I would be happy to trade this rat race for your set-up in two seconds." Turns out Frank is weary of the fast lane and longs for domesticated bliss - if only he could find the right girl. One candidate seems to be Sylvia Crewes (Celeste Holm), a sexy, sophisticated fiddle-player.
But, then, in comes 21-year-old aspiring actress Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds), with whom Charlie is instantly attracted. But Julie is uptight, rigid and exacting, with definite, long-conceived plans for marriage. And, no, she doesn't at all buy what Charlie's selling. That is, until, he sings a song. Then, of course, she's butter.
So Charlie and Julie start keeping company, with Sylvia then being perenially stood up and Joe going out with her as Charlie's stand-in. Anyway, for Charlie and Julie, the usual events unfold, a bit of wooing followed by a big spat, leading up to a traumatized Charlie somehow proposing marriage to both Julie and Sylvia on the same night.
Oh, yes. Meanwhile, the still-married Joe has fallen hard for Sylvia. How ever do these wacky things happen?
Put me down as someone who finds THE TENDER TRAP a charming and enjoyable movie. It's a breezy, lightweight, metropolitan sex comedy, for all that it's rated PG (but, yes, this is very tame stuff compared to today's films). I've always liked how this film started, with Ol' Blue Eyes as a tiny figure on the horizon, casually strolling towards the camera and singing the title song as only he can ("You see a pair of laughing eyes..."). MGM released THE TENDER TRAP in 1955, and it turned out to be one of the first films to revamp Frank's screen image from a perenially shy crooner who loved his love from afar to a hip ladies' man who doesn't waste time getting close to his dames.
The cast is very nice. We all know Frank Sinatra and what he brings to the table; he's so relaxed and cool that he makes me want to be a womanizing heel (and armed with Charlie Reader's favorite come-on line - "You are the softest girl" - how can I lose?). Frank gets a good sidekick in David Wayne, who's very good as the level-headed Joe McCall (even if Joe's going thru a mid-life crisis). Wayne drops his share of one-liners and even makes a serious bid for one of Frank's girls.
Pretty Debbie Reynolds was personally riding high around this time, about to marry warbler Eddie Fisher. As Julie, she really makes that prim and proper act work, while showing glimpses of a softer, more vulnerable side. But I couldn't help but root for Celeste Holm's character, who is pragmatic yet wistful, mature yet ever so sexy. Her Sylvia may be a suave and cosmopolitan career woman, but, deep down, she wants the same things that Julie wants, which is a family of her own. Her bittersweet speech to David Wayne (about the lean prospects of a woman of 33) may just have been the best acting moment in this movie. For those who may have pulled for Sylvia and Charlie to get together, no worries. They kind of do, even if it's in another film (High Society). But even in this movie, Celeste ends up doing pretty well, successfully pulling off her own "tender trap."
For those expecting a bunch of songs, well, don't. THE TENDER TRAP is very much a comedy, and not a musical. But if you like the title song, then the good news is that it's reprised five times, with Frank doing the opening honors and then performing it again halfway thru (in the second version, his talent for phrasing really shines thru). Debbie does a breezy version and then, later, sings it with more feeling. And the four stars sing a brief rendition at the end. It's a good song, so no surprise that "The Tender Trap" would become a standard and a fixture in Frank's song repertoire.
I say, three and a half stars for THE TENDER TRAP. The sexual mores may be dated, and the jargon not so hip anymore, but the movie's still very much worth checking out. As a fan of Frank, I definitely feel that his presence elevates the picture, although the contributions of the other actors shouldn't be discounted.
You know, on second thought, I think I'll pass on that one pick-up line. I think only someone like Frank can pull off something as cheesy as "You're the softest girl."
Description of The Tender Trap
The future is no mystery to Julie Gillis. She has her life mapped out in details that fall just shy of where the wedding portrait will hang and the number of goldfish swimming in the bowl. Julie even knows she?ll be married next March 12. She just doesn?t know to whom. But it?s a cinch he?ll have blue eyes. Frank Sinatra headlines this ring-a-ding-ding delight with the title tune that became a Sinatra standard. Debbie Reynolds plays Julie, who sets her marital sights on a Manhattan talent agent (Sinatra) dedicated to life, liberty and the happiness of pursuit. Love is indeed The Tender Trap. And with Sinatra, Reynolds and comedy experts Celeste Holm, David Wayne and Carolyn Jones on call, it?s an entertainment gotcha!It's the total ring-a-ding lifestyle: hep Manhattan pad, fishbowl-sized martini pitcher, and a long list of female companions. Then swinging bachelor Frank Sinatra has his style cramped by a chaste and very organized young Debbie Reynolds. Her detailed blueprint for courtship and marriage forms The Tender Trap's supposedly comic premise, although the results are fairly tepid. Even those expert supporting players David Wayne and Celeste Holm, as Frank's best buddy and most loyal girlfriend, don't have their usual zing. The stage origins of the material are all too evident, with much of the action set in Sinatra's enormous apartment (which is worth a look for future archivists trying to re-create an era). There's the Oscar®-nominated title song, of course, which is still a dandy--and you'll hear it about five times, including a pre-credits sequence with Sinatra (apparently as himself, not his character) crooning to the camera. --Robert Horton
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