[MMM]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Based on a play by Max Shulman & Robert Paul Smith
Producer: Lawrence Weingarten
Director: Charles Walters
Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein
Music composed and conducted by Jeff Alexander
Title song written by James Van Heusen & Sammy Cahn*
Director of Photography: Paul C. Vogel

Cast
Frank Sinatra: Charlie Y. Reader
Debbie Reynolds: Julie Gillis
David Wayne: Joe McCall
Celeste Holm: Sylvia Crewes
Lola Albright: Poppy Matson
Carolyn Jones: Helen

(Notes transcribed from Nancy Sinatra's "Frank Sinatra: An Americal Legend" except for *)

"the tender trap" was a cute movie with a wonderful title song and a very young debbie reynolds. sinatra again co-stars with a very capable celeste holm.
frankie boy displays his favorite color "orange" in a couple of scenes wearing orange clothing. thanks, joe...

[Lourdes]

It's one of my favourites. I love to see it from times to times. It's a marvelous film!

[MMM]

Bump!

BUMP!!!

Martin,

Thank you so much for posting this information on The Tender Trap.

It's a wonderful movie and among my favorites.

I love the title song!

[Freni]

I haven't seen this in years! I want to buy it but am waiting for it to come out on DVD. Anyone have any news on that?

Of course, I may not be able to wait...Celeste Holm has a great line in it...something about girls coming to the big city to seek out fame, fortune, the glamorous life -- "head waiters know us by name...then one day we look around and we haven't got a man" -- or something like that. I remember being 13, watching this movie and thinking, "THAT'S the life I want!"

[christina]

The Tender Trap has to be one of my favorite movies that Frank Sinatra has stared in.

-Christina

Great film, funny and entertaining, just perfect for rainy afternoons indoors.

I think Sinatra plays the 'active' bachelor with great command and sense for self-irony, for sure at the time of this film his being interested in various women was no secret so it only adds to the fun of the movie. The scene where he tries to "teach" Debbie Reynolds "how to sing" is also kind of a self-quotation, nicely done. I also like the flat they had designed in the studio for the filming, very stylish.

They hardly make any such simply entertaining, no-big-message-carrying fun comedies any more today. Thank god for television and VHS recorders, and DVDs.

I don't know of a DVD release of "Tender Trap" but it has been released by MGM on VHS and also on Laserdisc.

Bernhard.

Did anyone watch The Tender Trap on Turner Classic Movies last night? I love this movie, then again which one don't I like?

Cute film. Debbie Reynolds was such a doll, and still is for that matter. It's worth having in your library!

I love Turner Classic Movie. I watched the Tender Trap and Singing In The Rain yesterday.

Emily

[Karyn]

On TCM this afternoon, I love this film. I especially love the scene when Frank and David Wayne (Joe) wake up with a hangover after the engagement party, it's priceless comedy without words - the best type, hilarious

I was at a flea market this morning and to my suprise i found two movies on DVD

( Till The Clouds Roll By)
and the real movie
( Oceans 11)

I have many more of Sinatra

"Will you listen to me, God's- gift- to- women!?" (Debbie in the Tender Trap)
I love it!!!!! Thye were so cute together!!

Hannah

[ARIES3032]

Debbie and Fran could really sing and dance. It was a great film. I really did enjoy it.

I just got my copy in the mail yesterday so I'm going to watch
it this week for the first time.
I love how Frank sings the song (Love Is) The Tender Trap.
It's on the Eee-O-Eleven CD which is one of my favorites.

Hi Suzanne,

there already is a thread for this movie here at this section:
http://www.sinatrafamily.com/forum/s...ht=Tender+Trap

Check it out and post your impressions there!

Bernhard.

[Adam]

I've merged the threads.

You can read what everyone else has said about the film now, Suzanne.

Adam

I guess you could say that I fell in love with this song before I fell in love with the movie (I didn’t know about the movie until later).

The line “You see a pair of laughing eyes” struck me immediately b/c the first thing I look for in a person is if they laugh with their eyes. To me, that’s the epitome of sexy. (Off the top of my head, four people who smile with their eyes are: Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin, Dean Martin, and Gene Kelly).

The opening credits are handled wonderfully: it’s beautiful on widescreen, with the tantalizing walk, the vocalizing after the title…

The opening scene is one of the greatest: with Sinatra’s orange shirt (and matching socks, I might add), his smoking the cigarette with the gal on top of him. With the production code in place, it makes it even more provocative, I think…b/c the only limit is your imagination.

But that’s also one of the funniest things about this movie: Charlie Reader’s sensuality. He’s having fun, is well aware of his drives, and makes sure they’re handled with care. In other words, he takes care not to hurt anyone. He’s like a mature not so “disposable-toned” Groucho Marx, if you will. (ie: in Julie’s apartment, he’s so salacious and yet the way Sinatra plays it, he’s funny in his lechery, not dirty --- again, like the Marx Brothers). What gets me is the way Sinatra does this over and over in many of his movies. It's brilliant and hilarious and really shows Sinatra’s comic skills.

Another example of Sinatra’s comic timing: when he turns into the kiss with Sylvia and shrugs his shoulders…gosh, how that reminded me of Charlie Chaplin! And how I laughed!

The scene when Charlie freaks out and goes looking for Julie --- whoa, talk about heart-wrenching in its sweetness. It’s such a good love scene … and Sinatra’s face when Julie yells at the taxi driver is priceless!

Debbie Reynolds as Julie never really loses the scene to Frank Sinatra, which I found interesting b/c usually he dominates simply b/c of his acting ability and presence. But she holds her own in the scenes (sometimes cloying so). And at times she’s actually sweet/cute in her naivete, which has got to be something that’s hard to pull off.

-Kendra