Cinema Revisited: The Trap (1947)

The Trap is the first Charlie Chan film since The Black Camel (1931) to be shot mostly on location, this time Malibu Beach. It is also the final film appearance of Sidney Toler, who was suffering from intestinal cancer during filming and died six months after completing his scenes.

This one features a musical variety troupe that is filled with infighting among the performers. When a showgirl, Lois, is found strangled, two of the other troupe members, Adelade and San Toy, are among those accused. San Toy is a friend of Jimmy Chan, so she summons Charlie Chan to the case. As Charlie investigates with the help of Jimmy and Birmingham Brown, another troupe member, Marcia, is found washed up on the beach with a silk belt from a robe wrapped around her neck. Daniels, a press agent, is spotted burying the bathrobe, claiming to Charlie that it was planted on Cole King, the head of the troupe, to frame him. Another member of the troupe attacks San Hoy, and speeds away in a car with Charlie, Jimmy, and Birmingham in pursuit. The car crashes and the attacker confesses to the murders while dying.

Director Howard Bretherton, whose career dated back to silent movies and would continue into the television era, was something of an action specialist, so he knew how to mount an action mystery shot on location. With the opening scene, Bretherton makes good use of the location filming by presenting an establishing shot that shows a speeding car in the background and a curious traffic cop in the foreground. It is really nicely framed and gives the movie’s pacing an immediate shot of adrenaline that continues as the movie progresses. A scene on the beach that soon follows is significant in that it is shot on the actual Malibu location and not in the studio with back projection.

The first murder is also impressively shot. Lois is bullied by Marcia into searching Adelaide’s trunk. As she starts to search, the tempo of the background music increases to maintain the brisk pace of the movie that the director has established. Bretherton then cuts to a shot of the killer holding the silk rope, and then back to the face of Lois begging for her life. The murderer’s approach crosses over the lens of the camera. It is really quite effectively shot, and sets the tone for the mystery portion of the movie.

The first comical moment happens when San Toy phones Chan and yells “Jimmy, Jimmy, it’s murder.” Birmingham, who has answered the phone, misunderstands and thinks Jimmy Chan was murdered. He and Charlie hurry to the scene, and are relieved at the misunderstanding. Jimmy joins them soon afterward, sneaking in a window and almost getting shot by police. It is a typical entrance for the Jimmy Chan character, and this energy helps continue the pace that has been set.

Sadly, though he anchors the narrative, Sidney Toler is much weaker in this film due to his illness. His gait is slower, and his line delivery is a bit sluggish. Fortunately, the dynamic between Victor Sen Yung and Mantan Moreland is enough to carry the scenes in which they appear, allowing the ailing Toler less screen time. Mantan Moreland’s obligatory scene where he is walking alone, and scared, in a darkened area, comes much earlier in this movie than in others (he even gets startled by his own reflection in the mirror and then, upon realizing, giggles, waves at the image, and says, “that’s me!”). When he walks into a mesh net and starts yelling for help, it is Jimmy who comes to his rescue alone, not Charlie.

While he has less screen time overall, Sidney Toler’s scenes are carefully edited throughout the film to give the appearance of his being more predominant. He works hard to command the scenes in which he appears, but his presence is discernibly diminished by his illness. Nearly 25 minutes, close to half the film’s running time, has gone by before Charlie Chan makes his first appearance.

One of the real highlights is when Charlie is trying to figure out the method that the strangler used. As he is doing so with Jimmy’s help, Birmingham walks in. He sees Jimmy lying on the ground and Charlie standing over him with the silk rope, and states, “Oh Mr. Chan, I figured this would happen some day!”

There are longer scenes in which Charlie Chan is figuring out the logistics of the case, questioning the suspects, and delving further in his investigation, but these scenes are separated by long stretches containing the girls in the troupe, or Jimmy and Birmingham. When one of the girls drives off, it is a cop with a tangential role who goes after her, not Charlie Chan. It is this cop who searches rooms, without the others. Eventually Jimmy is seen doing the same. Charlie is absent from the entire sequence. Even in the climactic sequence when the Chans and Birmingham have to hurry to catch a speeding car, Charlie slowly walks to his vehicle, with no sense of urgency. The actor was unable to run the few steps to do the scene.

One of the positives of The Trap is the fact that Jimmy and Birmingham are very much a part of the investigation. Their antics are not separate from the narrative. Mantan Moreland recalled during a 1971 interview with the author, ”Mr. Toler couldn’t stand for very long and had to rest a lot. I told him he should be in a hospital. And he said to me, ‘Manny, if I quit the picture I’ll put all these people out of work.’”

The supporting cast is filled with talented veterans, helping bolster the film nicely. Larry Blake offers a strong role as the press agent, and Minerva Urecal has a delightfully creepy presence as a rather obvious red herring. Movie serial Superman Kirk Alyn does a good turn as the cop. Tanis Chandler, Anne Nagel, Helen Gerard, and Jan Bryant are cute and disarming as the girls in the troupe. Barbara Jean Wong, as San Toy, had already appeared in The Red Dragon as artist Iris Ling (under the screen name Jean Wong) and would appear in other Charlie Chan films. Years earlier as a child actress, she was once called “the Chinese Shirley Temple” and was a regular on radio’s “Amos N Andy” show as Amos’s daughter, Arbedella. The only ringer among the women is Rita Quigley, who spends most of the movie screaming and crying over the proceedings.

Larry Blake was not particularly proud of this movie, or the experience of making it. According to his son, author and makeup artist Michael Blake, Larry was not fond of Kirk Alyn, and didn’t like that Howard Bretherton didn’t give the actors much direction. Michael stated, “even though Sidney was very ill, my dad did enjoy his company.” Apparently Toler realized the movie’s success rested on him, so despite his illness, he maintained a friendly and jovial presence on the set, even though he was easily fatigued and rested a lot. But Blake stated that his father was so fed up as the production was concluding he just wanted it to be over. In later years he would rarely talk about the movie, dismissing it as “crap.”

After filming The Trap, Sidney Toler retired to his home and died on February 12, 1947. His funeral was held two days later. Mantan Moreland recalled, “If he lived another 50 years I couldn’t repay him for all he did for my career.” Moreland’s stage bookings had increased so much due to his appearance in these popular movies,

The passing of Sidney Toler resulted in another search for an actor to assume the role in the popular series. Eventually, Roland Winters was cast. It was a full year after the completion of The Trap before the next Charlie Chan movie, The Chinese Ring went into production.