Trapped (1949)

Try as I might, I am afraid that I just cannot take to Lloyd Bridges. His boyish good looks and finely coiffured hairstyle try, and try quite hard, but can't really make up for the fact that he just can't really act! This time around he is "Tris", a convicted counterfeiter who is recruited by the US Secret Service to help them get to the bottom of a ring that is flooding the place with dodgy bills. Eventually agreeing to help them, he escapes their supervision and rejoins his girlfriend Barbara Peyton ("Meg") and his old gang where he proposes a new, lucrative, scheme. John Hoyt is quite effective as the double-dealing "Downey" and Richard Fleischer keeps the first half hour or so quite suspenseful, but for some reason the thing just rapidly falls away as we head to a pretty flat denouement in an eerily lit trolley-bus hangar. Ultimately, it's an adequate crime noir, but the characterisations lack depth and I found the whole thing rather unremarkable.