Crappy film

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Despite some dated ideas about dating and relationships, the 1955 romantic comedy The Tender Trap is still sparkling adult entertainment thanks to a proved rom-com premise and some terrific performances.Charlie Y. Reader (Frank Sinatra) is a theatrical agent and confirmed bachelor who lives in an elegant Manhattan penthouse complete with hot and cold running women, parading in and out of the place 24/7 much to the shock and jealousy of Charlie's best friend, Joe (David Wayne), who has come to New York from Indianapolis after leaving his wife. Joe finds himself attracted to Sylvia (Celeste Holm), who only has eyes for Charlie.Enter Julie Gillis (Debbie Reyolds), a young wannabe actress who gets cast in a show that Charlie is involved in, but acting is just a time-filler for Julie. Julie wants to be a wife and a mother and knows exactly what kind of man she wants, how many children she wants, and where they will all live and won't even sign a run of the play contract for the show because she's afraid show business might interfere with her plan, but that's nothing compared to the fight she has to put up to keep Charlie at arm's length, who stands for everything that Julie is against.Adapted from a stage play by Max Schulman and Robert Paul Smith, Julius J. Epstein's screenplay does contain some dated elements, but the screenplay does offer some surprising adult touches I really didn't see coming...the fact that Joe falls in love with Sylvia and actually proposes to her, even though he technically is still married, had to be a bit of an eye-opener in 55, not to mention the fact that Charlie actually proposes to two different women in a 24 hour period. We see from the opening frames, that Charlie is a player and in the beginning he claims to hate it, even though it's clear that he doesn't. Charlie does slimy things during the course of the story, but one thing I noticed is that he never actually lies to anyone, which I found refreshing for a romantic comedy.Charlie is not in this alone though...none of these characters had time to polish their halos, they all make wrong moves at one point or another, causing some very tangled relationships, which has been the genesis for classic romantic comedy forever and though the characters do wrong, we see where it's coming from and we forgive.Sinatra has rarely been as charming and sexy as he was here and Reynolds proved to be a surprisingly solid leading lady for him, despite their difference in age, which is addressed in the screenplay and they get brilliant support from Holm and Wayne in the second leads. Carolyn Jones and Lola Albreight are decorative as members of Charlie's harem and the film features a fantastic title song by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Husen that received an Oscar nomination for Best Song. Lovers of classic romantic comedy don't have to look any further than here for some silly sexy fun.

"The Tender Trap" is a snapshot of the 1950s with the portrayal of the swinging bachelors and dreams of girls finding their man in the big city. At least, we saw that sort of thing portrayed somewhat in those days. And this film has a fine cast of players who are capable of putting out very good movies. But this is far from one. As several other reviewers to date have noted, the screenplay for this movie is lousy.So, the film comes off like a broken record with nearly identical scenes with different women played over and over again. It fast becomes boring. Even with the cast of stars it has, "The Tender Trap" is bland. The direction was terrible and the acting just came across like a high school reading for a play. The only performer who has any spark of life is Celeste Holm, and she was just slightly convincing. Frank Sinatra had some energy – of motion. He moved around a lot, and he talked a lot. But there was no heart or soul in his character. And there clearly was no spark between Sinatra's Charlie Reader and Julie Gillis, played by Debbie Reynolds.Others have noted that Sinatra was portraying the lifestyle he actually lived. That may have been part of the problem. His usual lifestyle could easily become bland after a while. It sure seems to be that way in this film.This is supposed to be a comedy-romance and musical. The only reason I give it as many as four stars is for the song by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen. And for the little bit of performing we see from Frank and Debbie. But where is the romance? There isn't a spark between them. Worse still – where is the comedy? A few different women parading through Charlie's apartment and calling on the phone don't equal a single good witty line. But there are none of those. Or, if there are one or two, they got lost in the tediousness of the film.

I had fond memories of this entry, seen several years ago, and was prepared to be disappointed but it holds up remarkably well. It boasts three standout performances in the shape of Sinatra, Holm and Wayne, who epitomise Sophistication, Style, Wit, Class, Urbanity. Poor Debbie Reynolds doesn't stand a chance against these heavy hitters and even if her part were less thankless - she'd already road-tested it in Susan Slept Here - she'd still have been hopelessly outclassed. It's not much of a plot - and Sinatra would revisit it in the next decade via Come Blow Your Horn - but it does provide a peg for some stylish interiors, adult banter and interplay to die for between the three principals. Pure magic.

The tender trap is a Sinatra film, a fifties time capsule. As such, it comes fully loaded with a swinger versus good girl mentality. The woman always wants the picket fence and the man always wants the ultimate bachelor lifestyle (in Sinatra's case, complete with sexy dog-walkers and cheese delivery). So with this sort of fluffy 50's movie, it's easy to scoff and call it outdated and campy, and neglect to consider the fact that perhaps there lingers in it the tragedy of the era. My apologies for melodrama. But in the character of Sylvie (the unforgettable Celeste Holmes) is there encompassed a certain element of poignance that is strange to find in such a film as this.In the midst of the predictable plot and romantic mayhem sorted out so simply, perhaps by fate, perhaps by unimaginative writing. But in Celeste Holmes is there contained something deeper. A regret, hopelessness, I'll-settle-for-anything quality of the middle-aged (or thereabouts) successful career woman who didn't go for a family right away, and thus finds herself condemned to either "Married men. Drunks. Pretty boys looking for someone to support them. Lunatics looking for their fifth divorce!" or a Sinatra. To see her sitting at a table across from Debbie Reynolds, 21, with all her plan figured out beforehand, claiming that without such precautions a woman runs the risk of spinsterhood. You can't help but feel for the spinster herself as she gazes with quiet desperation at Sinatra. Her last hope.Yes The Tender Trap had quite a few weaknesses, but in all, I can't help but find it strange and lovely to find such fluff encrusted poignance. Sinatra and Debbie were cute, but when it came down to it, Celeste Holmes was magnificent.