When I was in school, I cheated twice. The first time, I was in the fourth grade. I had a multiplication quiz and I panicked. I wrote the six times table starting from six (6×6, 6×7… to 6×12) on the palm of my hand in red ink. I got through the quiz ok but later the school secretary was watching over our class and she saw that red ink from a mile away. I was not the swiftest nine-year old so my first excuse was that I was writing down someone’s telephone number. Horrible, I know. Naturally, I had to answer to the teacher and come clean. However, I was lucky because it was also my birthday. I garnered some sympathy points and got away with just a warning. Since this was my first offense, I felt guilty. When I went home that day, I confessed to my mother but she was so busy getting ready for my family birthday party that she wasn’t phased by my fall from grace. Score two for cheating on your birthday! My father tried to make me feel better and said that at the next PTA meeting they will go with red ink on their hands and say it’s hereditary. Gotta love Dads.
You would think I would have learned my lesson but I didn’t. Then next time I cheated I was in the fifth grade and it involved the Frank Sinatra movie, The Tender Trap.
The Tender Trap, originally a Broadway play, is what every 1950s movie should be. A light-hearted comedy shot in CinemaScope. Actors wearing fabulously tailored outfits. Debbie Reynolds playing America’s sweetheart. Frank Sinatra wearing his signature fedora while crooning a great opening theme song. It doesn’t get better than this….
Charlie Reader (Frank Sinatra), a theatrical agent, has a healthy social life dating various women in New York. His hometown friend Joe McCall (David Wayne) surprises him with a visit. They trade stories. Joe, a married man of ten years, is a little jealous of Charlie’s bachelor life. Charlie thinks Joe has it made being married. However, Charlie is all talk and is not close to walking down the aisle. He introduces Joe to Sylvia Crewes (Celeste Holm), a sophisticated violist, who knows that Charlie’s a cad but is willing to wait it out. The three meet Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds), a young actress who had just signed with Charlie’s agency. She got the lead in a new Broadway play but is not impressed by her new-found success. Julie explains to the three that acting is not long-term because she wants to be married with children. She hasn’t met her Prince Charming but she intends to keep to a strict timeline. Her traditional idealistic notions of marriage/family is mind-boggling, especially to old married Joe, but Julie has a naive confidence that leaves her unfazed by naysayers. Charlie is smitten by Julie and she eventually falls into his trap. He blows off Sylvia, which leads to her spending more time with Joe. You’ll have to watch the film to see how everything unfolds, especially when Julie finds out about Charlie’s other women. I will say this to entice you to watch…at one point Charlie ends up engaged to both Sylvia and Julie at the same time.
This film is fast-paced and funny. The charm lies with the quick-witted dialogue between Frank Sinatra, David Wayne, and Celeste Holm. Their banter is so enjoyable that you look forward to what they will say next. Debbie Reynolds also plays an amusing straight-woman to these three Musketeers. But to me, this movie begins and ends with David Wayne. He may be a supporting actor but he outshines the leads. He has the best lines in this movie and his comedic timing is perfection. Even when not speaking, he steals the show. There’s one scene where he wakes up with a hangover after a big bash and it’s hilarious to watch him adjust to the morning.
How did this movie influence me to cheat thirty years later? As I said, I was in the fifth grade. The school was holding a bookmark contest for the lower classes. Each student had to draw/color a bookmark and write a little story about the drawing on the back. I was not feeling the artistic inspiration that day (aka I was lazy). I had just seen The Tender Trap with my family and thought what a great idea. I mean who, besides me and my family, would even know about this movie. It was from 1955 and this was 1985. To my credit, I did use some of my creative juices. I drew my interpretation of The Tender Trap, which was a big bear trap chasing after a heart. I thought it was cute. Now, you would think after being caught just a year ago with red ink on my hand that I would be more discreet this time around. Not me. Like an idiot, I titled the bookmark “The Tender Trap” and I am pretty sure the story I wrote on the back of the bookmark was a brief ten year-old version of the movie. Yet, this time, I didn’t get caught. In fact, I actually won the contest for my class. There wasn’t a big prize or anything. I was acknowledged in front of the class and was able to get bookmark bragging rights for about two minutes.
As I look back, I am disappointed but not because I got away with it. It’s because I realize now that I went to school with people who were not movie fans. You would think that at least one of the old nuns in my Catholic school would have recognized the movie. Sinatra was their icon in their pre-nun days. There was one classmate that almost blew my cover. Out of earshot from the teacher but in front of other students, she said to me, “Wasn’t that a movie?” I responded to her by saying, “J’Accuse!!!!” Oh, how I wish. Actually, it came out more like and empathic, “NO!” I said it with such disgust and shock as to how she could even suggest that I cheated. I even added a sneer to make it more effective. It was enough to shut her up real quick. Today, I actually have respect for her because she had some remote knowledge of the film.
Fun Facts:
- Take an extra look at Charlie’s red-headed dog walker. It’s Carolyn Jones, who is more famously known as Morticia Addams from The Addams Family
- Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm were paired up in two films. This one and High Society, which was released the year after The Tender Trap, and it was directed by the same man, Charles Walters.
- Frank had a big weekend in 1955. The Tender Trap was released on November 4, 1955. Guys and Dolls was realized (in NY) on November 3, 1955. Both films were distributed by MGM.
Categories: Comedies, Romantic Comedies
ReelMemorable 