Pitfall

5/19/2019

In a rut and it's six feet deep. Pitfall is directed by Andre De Toth and adapted to screenplay by Karl Kamb and William Bowers from the novel written by Jay Dratler. It stars Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt and Raymond Burr. Music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by Harry Wild. Married insurance adjuster John Forbes (Powell) falls for femme fatale model Mona Stevens (Scott) while her boyfriend (Byron Barr) is in jail. And with Private Investigator J.B. MacDonald (Burr) fiercely attracted to Mona the consequences for everyone could well be critical. The reluctant fatales! Not for the fist time I wandered into a film directed by Andre De Toth and came out feeling invigorated by the under valued director. Pitfall falls under the film noir banner but actually subverts

3/12/2025

So, first there’s insurance man “Forbes” (Dick Powell) who occasionally hires private investigator “Mac” (Raymond Burr) when he needs some prying done. It’s this latter fellow who discovers that “Mona” (Lizabeth Scott) has received a load of gifts from her now incarcerated boyfriend “Bill” (Byron Barr) and so he sets off to reclaim their property. When he arrives, though, he takes quite a shine to “Mona” and despite being happily, if maybe a bit stagnantly, married to “Sue” (Jane Wyatt) they begin to have a bit of a dalliance. This is all to the chagrin of the envious PI, who is also a bit keen on her and, of course, to the locked up boyfriend who is a bit narked that he did all of this for a woman who will jump ship quite so readily whilst he is behind bars. Next thing, relationships beco