Trapped

press release: USA | 1949 | 35mm | 78 min.

Director: Richard Fleischer

Cast: Lloyd Bridges, Barbara Payton, John Hoyt

This well-paced noir melodrama from veteran director Fleischer (The Narrow Margin, Violent Saturday) focuses on the Secret Service’s pursuit of counterfeiting mobsters. Trapped is particularly notable for the breakout lead performance of 22-year-old Barbara Payton who was notorious for her brief and tempestuous Hollywood career as well as her tragic and highly publicized death at the age of 39. Cinematographer Guy Roe expertly utilizes light and shadows to highlight the film’s atmospheric and claustrophobic spaces, while visually enhancing the film’s themes of subterfuge and entrapment. The cinematography is particularly effective in the film’s climax that takes place in a Downtown Los Angeles Red Car barn. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preserved from a 35mm acetate print. Laboratory services by Fotokem, Roundabout Entertainment, Audio Mechanics, Simon Daniel Sound, DJ Audio Inc. Special thanks to Harvard Film Archive, Eric Spilker.

UCLA Festival of Preservation on Tour: One of the world’s leaders in the efforts to preserve our motion picture heritage, the UCLA Film & Television Archive has arranged their biennial tour of restored 35mm prints and DCPs of selected titles from the most recent edition of their annual Festival of Preservation. The selection highlights features and shorts including silent-era rediscoveries, landmark American Independent movies, poverty row gems, remarkable documentaries, and more! The screenings will be presented both at our regular Vilas Hall venue and every Sunday in February at the Chazen Museum of Art.