The White Trap

Last updated
The White Trap
The White Trap (1959 film).jpg
British theatrical poster
Directed by Sidney Hayers
Screenplay by Peter Barnes
Produced by Julian Wintle
Leslie Parkyn
Starring Lee Patterson
Conrad Phillips
Cinematography Eric Cross
Edited byTristam Cones
Music by Franz Reizenstein
Production
company
Distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
  • August 1959 (1959-08)(UK)
Running time
58 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The White Trap is a 1959 British second feature thriller film directed by Sidney Hayers and starring Lee Patterson. [1] [2] The screenplay is by playwright Peter Barnes, who went on to write the cult stage and film comedy The Ruling Class (1972); and the Oscar nominated screenplay for Enchanted April (1991). [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

Escaped convict Paul Langley tries to reach his wife who is about to have a baby.

Cast

Critical reception

TV Guide wrote "The suspense builds up towards the end, but the plot is unrelentingly downbeat" [5] whereas Classic Movie Ramblings called it "a very well-crafted thriller...really an excellent little movie"; [6]  and Noirish noted "one of those unexpected gems that occasionally bring joy to the B-feature watcher’s heart." [7]

Home media release

The film is available as a Special Feature on Edgar Wallace Mysteries volume 2, released by Network DVD in 2012. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Weir</span> Australian filmmaker (born 1944)

Peter Lindsay Weir is an Australian retired film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations, ultimately being awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 2022 for his lifetime achievement career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Wallace</span> British writer (1875-1932)

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was a British writer of sensational detective, gangster, adventure and sci-fi novels, plays and stories.

Ernest Paul Lehman was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was nominated six times for Academy Awards for his screenplays during his career, but did not win. At the 73rd Academy Awards in 2001, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his achievements and his influential works for the screen. He was the first screenwriter to receive that honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Barnes (playwright)</span> English playwright and screenwriter (1931–2004)

Peter Barnes was an English Olivier Award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His best known work is the play The Ruling Class, which was made into a 1972 film for which Peter O'Toole received an Oscar nomination.

William Condon is an American director and screenwriter. Condon is known for writing and/or directing numerous successful and acclaimed films including Gods and Monsters, Chicago, Kinsey, Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, and Beauty and the Beast. He has received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Gods and Monsters and Chicago, winning for the former.

Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for his screenplay for In the Heat of the Night, for which he won an Academy Award in 1967, and for creating the television series Naked City, Perry Mason, and Route 66. Other features as screenwriter include the Irwin Allen productions The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finlay Currie</span> Scottish actor (1878–1968)

William Finlay Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television. He received great acclaim for his roles as Abel Magwitch in the British film Great Expectations (1946) and as Balthazar in the American film Ben-Hur (1959).

<i>Night Monster</i> 1942 film by Ford Beebe

Night Monster is a 1942 American black-and-white horror film featuring Bela Lugosi and produced and distributed by Universal Pictures Company. The movie uses an original story and screenplay by Clarence Upson Young and was produced and directed by Ford Beebe. For box office value, star billing was given to Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill, but the lead roles were played by Ralph Morgan, Irene Hervey and Don Porter, with Atwill in a character role as a pompous doctor who becomes a victim to the title character, and Lugosi in a small part as a butler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">40th Academy Awards</span> Award ceremony for films of 1967

The 40th Academy Awards were held on April 10, 1968, to honor film achievements of 1967. Originally scheduled for April 8, the awards were postponed to two days later due to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Bob Hope was once again the host of the ceremony.

<i>Edgar Wallace Mysteries</i>

The Edgar Wallace Mysteries is a British second-feature film series mainly produced at Merton Park Studios for Anglo-Amalgamated. There were 48 films in the series, which were released between 1960 and 1965. The series was screened as The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre on television in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Johnson (producer)</span> American producer (born 1945)

Mark Johnson is an American film and television producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the 1988 film Rain Man.

Pamela Wallace is an American screenwriter and author. She won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay for the movie Witness. Wallace has also written 25 romance novels, under her own name and the pseudonyms Pamela Simpson and Dianne King.

<i>The Case of the Frightened Lady</i> (film) 1940 British film

The Case of the Frightened Lady is a 1940 British, black-and-white, crime, drama, mystery thriller, directed by George King and starring Marius Goring as Lord Lebanon, Helen Haye as Lady Lebanon, Penelope Dudley Ward as Isla Crane, George Merritt (actor) as Detective Inspector Tanner, Ronald Shiner as Detective Sergeant Totty and Felix Aylmer as Dr Amersham. It was produced by Pennant Picture Productions and presented by British Lion Film Corporation. The film is based on the 1931 play by Edgar Wallace.

<i>The Devils Daffodil</i> 1961 film

The Devil's Daffodil is a 1961 British-West German black-and-white crime film directed by Ákos Ráthonyi. The film was produced in an English and a German version, starring different actors in the lead roles but otherwise featuring an almost identical cast and crew. It starred William Lucas in the English version and Joachim Fuchsberger in the German one.

Paul Monash was an American television and film producer and screenwriter.

<i>Mystery Liner</i> 1934 film by William Nigh

Mystery Liner is a 1934 American Pre-Code film directed by William Nigh, starring Noah Beery, Sr., and based on an Edgar Wallace story originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1924. The film was entered as a feature attraction at the 1934 International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art in Venice, Italy, the forerunner of the Venice Film Festival.

<i>The Terror</i> (1928 film) 1928 American horror film

The Terror is a 1928 American pre-Code horror film written by Harvey Gates and directed by Roy Del Ruth, based on the 1927 play of the same name by Edgar Wallace. It was the second "all-talking" motion picture released by Warner Bros., following Lights of New York. It was also the first all-talking horror film, made using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.

<i>White Face</i> 1932 film

White Face is a 1932 British crime film directed by T. Hayes Hunter and starring Hugh Williams, Gordon Harker and Renee Gadd. The film is based on a play by Edgar Wallace.

<i>The Sinister Man</i> 1961 British film

The Sinister Man is a 1961 British crime drama film directed by Clive Donner and starring Patrick Allen and John Bentley. It was one of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries, British second-features, produced at Merton Park Studios in the 1960s.

<i>Before Dawn</i> (film) 1933 film

Before Dawn is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by Irving Pichel and written by Garrett Fort. The film stars Stuart Erwin, Dorothy Wilson, Warner Oland, Dudley Digges and Gertrude Hoffman. It is one of the few Oland films from this period in which he does not play an Asian character. The film was released on August 4, 1933, by RKO Pictures.

References

  1. THE WHITE TRAP (Anglo-Amalgamated) Picture Show; London (Oct 10, 1959): 13.
  2. WHITE TRAP, The Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 26, Iss. 300, (Jan 1, 1959): 140.
  3. Elley, Derek (November 2, 2001). "The Ruling Class".
  4. "The 65th Academy Awards | 1993". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
  5. "The White Trap | TV Guide". TVGuide.com.
  6. "Classic Movie Ramblings: The White Trap (1959)". March 4, 2017.
  7. "White Trap, The (1959)". April 22, 2014.
  8. "The Edgar Wallace Mysteries - Volume 2". www.dvdbeaver.com.