Posted: Fri., Dec. 31, 1965, 11:00pm PT

The Money Trap

By Variety Staff

M-G-M. Director Burt Kennedy; Producer Max E. Youngstein, David Karr; Screenplay Walter Bernstein; Camera Paul C. Vogel; Editor John McSweeney; Music Hal Schaefer; Art Director George W. Davis, Carl Anderson

Glenn Ford Elke Sommer Rita Hayworth Ricardo Montalban Joseph Cotten Tom Reese

A story of a policeman-turned-thief, The Money Trap is aptly named # but only as far as production coin is concerned. A cliche-plotted, tritely written script that is not to be believed could not be salvaged even by far better direction and performances.

Walter Bernstein's adaptation of a Lionel White novel has the kernel of a good drama about a contemporary problem, that of an underpaid gumshoe dazzled into dishonesty by the riches of the criminals whom he encounters. Nearly all interest in this angle is snuffed out by extraneous, unbelievable subplots.

Specifically, Glenn Ford is the cop, husband of Elke Sommer. They live in a splashy pad made possible by her father's will and stocks. When the latter pass a divvy, hard times loom. Wife's idea to economize: fire the servants.

Add Joseph Cotten, a medic who supposedly works for the Syndicate. When he kills a junkie accomplice and reports it as self-defense from a supposed burglary, Ford gets the theft idea, keeps it from Ricardo Montalban (his partner, who later finds out and wants in).

(B&W) Widescreen. Extract of a review from 1966. Running time: 91 MIN.