Tired of his hum-drum life, insurance executive Dick Powell falls for Lizabeth Scott, whose boyfriend embezzled funds so that she could live a high-style life. Imprisoned now, he soon learns from Raymond Burr, a private detective who has really fallen for the Scott character, that Powell and Scott have been carrying on. Truth be told, Scott still has deep feelings for her boyfriend, loathes Burr and breaks off with Powell when she sees he is married with a child.What ensues is one tragic event after another leading to justifiable homicide on the part of Powell and Scott killing Burr for giving her newly freed boyfriend a gun to kill Powell.Jane Wyatt plays an almost Father Knows Best character mother in what turns out to be a tale of only having the good life and not getting involved.Powell's performance is rather restrained but effective and Burr steals the scenes he is in-a brutal person who shall stop at nothing to get the Scott character. Femme fatale? Scott is an innocent person drawn into this situation by circumstances, even beyond her control.

In Los Angeles, the insurance executive John Forbes (Dick Powell) is a family man bored with his routine suburban life with his wife Sue (Jane Wyatt) and their son Tommy (Jimmy Hunt). When a man called Bill Smiley (Byron Barr) is arrested for embezzlement, Forbes hires the private investigator J.B. MacDonald (Raymond Burr) to find where the money is. MacDonald discovers that Smiley spent part of the money giving gifts to his girlfriend Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott) and becomes obsessed with her. Forbes goes to Mona's apartment to collect the gifts and he does not tell that he is married. Soon they have a brief love affair until Mona learns that his married with child. Meanwhile MacDonald unsuccessfully tries to seduce Mona that becomes friend of Forbes. When Smiley is near to be released, MacDonald poisons him against Forbes and on the day that Smiley is discharge, he gives a gun to him. What will happen to Forbes and Smiley?"Pitfall" is a magnificent film-noir with a realistic story and well- developed characters. The direction and performances are top-notch and the cast gives credibility to the plot with excellent lines. Dick Powell and Jane Wyatt perform a mature couple that expects to supersede their problem. The gorgeous and sexy Lizabeth Scott is perfect in the role of a seductive femme-fatale. But Raymond Burr steals the show in the role of a despicable and Machiavellian villain. The open end is another plus in this great film. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Caminho da Tentação" ("Way to Temptation")

When PITFALL ends, the audience is left with a few loose ends. But since we have come to understand the characters and what they symbolize, I think we can figure out what happens to them after the final fade out. First, I think it's implied the marriage between Powell & Wyatt will survive. She is not exactly giving him the cold shoulder at the end. Plus, it conforms with the societal belief at the time that a dutiful wife should forgive the philandering husband and remain by her man's side no matter what. Also, putting Dick Powell in this part is significant, because the way the cheating husband is cast, it is with an actor that seems like someone a wife (and the audience) can forgive. He doesn't seem as evil as Raymond Burr does.Furthermore, if Wyatt's character does not forgive Powell's, then doesn't she run the risk of seeming as bad as Scott, whose character is morally compromised in the story...? No matter what, Scott is still the 'other woman.' Anyway, we have two types of female characters (as archetypes). One can break up a family; and the other can keep it together. And after this movie ends, I think we get the idea that the family stays together, and the marriage survives.

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.