filmklassik Why are descriptions of this movie so damned inaccurate? Forget film noir. This is *not* film noir. What this is, really, is a stalker movie. One of the first ones ever. Dick Powell has a lovely family but he's bored, so he goes and has a brief but intense fling with Lizbeth Scott. Raymond Burr, who loves Scott, tries to scare him away, then he starts stalking her. Constantly. Then he befriends Scott's former boyfriend, a volatile ex-con, and fills his ears with poison so he'll murder Dick Powell. The guy doesn't succeed, but that doesn't mean things don't end tragically for all concerned. Hardy a perfect crime film, but still worth seeing.

Robert J. Maxwell Someone once said that the cure for boredom is curiosity, but that there is no cure for curiosity.Dick Powell as the bored insurance adjuster or whatever he is, is bored with his typical family and his typical work. Every day is the same, although his wife, the elegant Jane Wyatt, is conceivably livening up his nights.Raymond Burr is a private investigator working for the Global Inadequate Circumcisional Jupiter Atlas Mutual Insurance Company and Perloo Society, and he twigs Powell to the fact that some stolen goods can be recovered from an innocent recipient, Elizabeth Scott. "Some dish," drools the creepy Burr who blinks only once in the entire movie. (I counted.) Powell is as rude and dismissive of Burr as he is with his family and everyone else -- until he tumbles into the arms of Scott. The guy is wholly smitten. And who wouldn't be? Scott isn't a knockout or a very good actress but she flings herself around Powell, like an amoeba's pseudopod around a food particle, and practically consumes him. Observing all this from a distance is the macabre figure of the jealous Burr, who happens to be the most clever person in the entire movie.Well, it's a bad situation all right and Powell, who seems to have three pounds of feathers for a brain, tries to straighten it out but just makes it worse. But he's not alone in his stupidity. The ex boyfriend who gave Scott the stolen goods is in the slams, and Burr visits him and plants all sorts of suspicions about Scott's relationship with Powell.The boyfriend is Byron Barr and he can't act, but he still manages to project the character of the most stupid person in the movie. Barr is about to be released and Scott visits him, hoping they can start off again, clean. But Barr is fuming with jealousy. Scott has shown herself to be a sensitive and perceptive person so far, but when she presses her case with the outraged and glandular Barr she joins the ranks of the unspeakably dumb.The plot is from a mold similar to that of "Double Indemnity" but less gripping. The performances are professional enough, except for Byron Barr, and in fact Raymond Burr is pretty convincing.

seymourblack-1 The need for middle-class families to keep up appearances leads to certain tensions, anxieties and atmospheres being a normal feature of their lives and in this type of environment, it's often the children who suffer most. In one of the most poignant scenes in "Pitfall", a little boy has a terrifying nightmare which his father immediately rationalises by blaming the comic book that the boy had been reading immediately before going to sleep. The father is totally unaware of how profoundly his day to day behaviour has affected his son and that he's the real cause of his son's insecurities and fears.Despite having a family, a good job and a home in the suburbs, John Forbes (Dick Powell) is deeply dissatisfied and bitter about the suffocating routine that his daily life has become. He's irritable at home because he feels he's "in a rut six feet deep" and his patient wife responds to his sarcasm by reassuring him that what he does is worthwhile because he and others like him are "the backbone of the country".At the Olympic Mutual Insurance Company, Forbes is in charge of recovering a list of items that were bought with stolen money by an embezzler called Bill Smiley (Byron Barr) who's currently in prison. After private investigator "Mac" MacDonald (Raymond Burr), who also works for the company, discovers that Smiley had bought his girlfriend a number of expensive gifts, Forbes decides to visit Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott) to find out more. Mona is a glamorous fashion model and co-operates fully with Forbes' investigation. He's disappointed that she sees him as merely "a little man with a briefcase" and is easily persuaded to go with her for a ride in the speedboat she'd been given by Smiley. Dinner etc follows and Forbes doesn't get home until the early hours of the next morning.When MacDonald, who'd become infatuated by Mona, sees Forbes leaving her home, he becomes insanely jealous and savagely beats him up. Forbes' injuries prevent him from going to work and when Mona finds out, she goes to see him but is shocked to discover that he's married and so ends their affair. MacDonald threatens to tell Sue Forbes (Jane Wyatt) about the affair and after Forbes beats him up and Smiley is released from prison, MacDonald retaliates by telling Smiley everything, giving him a gun and encouraging him to take his revenge on Forbes. MacDonald then tries to force Mona into going away with him but understandably, she has other ideas. The mayhem that follows then leads to two of the main characters being gunned down and the others facing a very bleak future.Dick Powell brings real bite to Forbes' cynical outbursts and constant complaining as he displays the weakness and selfishness that leads his character to deceive Mona, betray his wife and his employers and damage his son's emotional and psychological development before ending up in a far worse situation than he started in. Raymond Burr is very intimidating as the manipulative villain of the piece who's unctuous, corrupt and extremely jealous and Lizabeth Scott is perfect in her role as the vulnerable blonde who, through no fault of her own, is treated very badly by Forbes, MacDonald and Smiley. Jane Wyatt and Jimmy Hunt also provide good supporting performances as Forbes' wife and son."Pitfall" is set in the period immediately after World War 11 and at the time of its release must've resonated strongly with many people who, for various reasons, would've been finding it difficult to adjust to the standards and expectations of suburban life at that time. It's a cautionary tale that warns of what can happen to anyone who doesn't conform and is also a very well made film that packs a lot of drama and incident into its relatively short running time.

utgard14 Potentially interesting film noir about a married man who falls for a sexy blonde is ruined by the miscast Lizabeth Scott. I'm not a fan of Scott's. I don't find her attractive or alluring and this role calls for both. When the movie's plot revolves around men going gaga over a lady, it's kind of important that lady be the type you could see men going gaga over. Like Lana Turner or Rita Hayworth. Not a woman with masculine bone structure and a voice like an emphysemic septuagenarian. So yeah I don't get it. I don't get the appeal of Lizabeth Scott and I fail to see how any man who has a young Jane Wyatt waiting at home would rather hang out with her. Beyond the sex appeal issue, Scott delivers her lines like she's reading them off cue cards. There are some noticeably punchy lines in this script that a better actress would have made work. But when Scott delivers them it's just dreadful.On the other hand we have Dick Powell and he's great. Unfortunately he has zero chemistry with Scott. Since that is a pivotal part of the plot, the whole thing falls apart. We also have Raymond Burr as a heavy who, quite bafflingly to me, is also enamored with Scott. Like I said I just don't get it. A better actress in this part with real sex appeal that I can buy men desiring and this movie becomes so much better. Obviously my opinion is in the minority. This film currently has a good rating on IMDb for a film this old. Clearly others don't have the issues with Lizabeth Scott that I do. So take that into account and decide for yourself whether this film is worth a shot or not.