MANTRAP (AKA MAN IN HIDING)

 

This is another of the many crime-mystery movies Terence Fisher directed for Hammer in the early 1950s. MANTRAP (known in the U.S. as MAN IN HIDING), released in 1953, has the advantage of a fine cast including Paul Henreid, Lois Maxwell, and Kay Kendall. 

The story literally begins with a man on the run, as one Mervyn Speight (Kieron Moore) escapes from prison and makes his way to London. Speight's wife Thelma (Lois Maxwell) fears that he's looking for her--after her husband was sent to prison for murder she changed her name and started a relationship with another man. An old friend of Speight's convinces lawyer Hugo Bishop (Paul Henreid) to look into the case. Intrigued, Hugo makes contact with Speight and Thelma, and decides to find out the truth. 

MANTRAP is somewhat livelier than the usual Hammer crime dramas made during this period. The notable cast helps, along with a storyline that has enough elements to keep the viewer interested (Terence Fisher was actually credited as co-screenwriter on this picture, along with Paul Tabori). 

Paul Henreid makes Hugo Bishop a breezy and urbane character--it's the type of role that would have been perfect for William Powell in the 1930s. Kay Kendall plays Hugo's secretary/girlfriend, and the two have such a rapport that you get the feeling that Terence Fisher would have been much happier to just focus on them. 

Lois Maxwell of course will always be remembered as the definitive Miss Moneypenny of the James Bond film series, but she was a very striking and talented actress who does very well with the role of Thelma, a woman constantly (and understandably) on edge. Kieron Moore, with his dark brooding looks, is perfect as a man on the run after being convicted for a crime he didn't commit. Hammer fanatics will be happy to know that MANTRAP happens to be the first film that Barbara Shelley appeared in for the company, although she's only onscreen for a few seconds, and she's billed in the credits under her birth name, Barbara Kowin. (She can be seen at the very beginning of a fashion show that Lois Maxwell is attending.) 

The interior scenes for MANTRAP were filmed at Bray Studios, but there's plenty of location shooting in London as well, opening up the story a bit. There's a number of red herrings in MANTRAP, but I did manage to pick out who was the real murderer, although that was more of a lucky guess than any insight on my part. 

MANTRAP is a better-than-average entry among the film noir-type productions made by Hammer and Terence Fisher before the company and the director went down the English Gothic route in the latter part of the 1950s.