If life and caper movies have taught us anything it is that even the most meticulously planned robberies can have a thousand chance things go wrong and usually do. That is most gloriously shown in a much lighter film than The Steel Trap, The Lavender Hill Mob.
Joseph Cotten who toils for wages at a bank dreams of taking a ton of money and going to a place with no extradition. A little research shows him that Brazil is such a place so he plans a robbery made somewhat easier in that he's a Vice President of the branch. He surprises wife Teresa Wright by saying they're going on a surprise trip to Rio DeJaneiro where Cotten is allegedly going on bank business. Well that's not quite a lie.
Alec Guinness's Henry Holland could have sympathized with Cotten as everything goes wrong for him. And the more they go wrong the more attention this guy brings to himself. The idea is to do the crime on Friday and be safe out of the country in Brazil by the time the bank opens on Monday. Couldn't Cotten have at least waited for a three day weekend, four day in some places with Thanksgiving.
Cotten and Wright do fine in the roles and Wright is particularly good after she figures just what is up and why her husband is going through such changes.
What is the outcome of it all? Well the only lesson you can draw from The Steel Trap is that capers are left best to professionals.
Joseph Cotten who toils for wages at a bank dreams of taking a ton of money and going to a place with no extradition. A little research shows him that Brazil is such a place so he plans a robbery made somewhat easier in that he's a Vice President of the branch. He surprises wife Teresa Wright by saying they're going on a surprise trip to Rio DeJaneiro where Cotten is allegedly going on bank business. Well that's not quite a lie.
Alec Guinness's Henry Holland could have sympathized with Cotten as everything goes wrong for him. And the more they go wrong the more attention this guy brings to himself. The idea is to do the crime on Friday and be safe out of the country in Brazil by the time the bank opens on Monday. Couldn't Cotten have at least waited for a three day weekend, four day in some places with Thanksgiving.
Cotten and Wright do fine in the roles and Wright is particularly good after she figures just what is up and why her husband is going through such changes.
What is the outcome of it all? Well the only lesson you can draw from The Steel Trap is that capers are left best to professionals.