The plot of this deceptively overlooked little trifle is the usual nonsense about a sweet young lass whose path crosses that of one of those personable young millionaires with entirely honourable intentions you find behind every corner in the silents, only to be entirely falsely suspected of being a gold-digging little hussy by his disapproving family. But 'The Love Trap' proves fascinating historically both as a relic of the "part-talkie" era and for its adroit staging by the up-and-coming young William Wyler feeling his way towards his mature style.The first two thirds of this fluff has attractive performances in the leads by Laura La Plante and Neil Hamilton, while Wyler is already visibly attempting to find ways of extending the boundaries of the cinema screen through frequent use of pans and attempts at composition in depth. In his talkies Wyler abandoned the pans, which tend to jar at times, but with the great Gregg Toland behind the camera eventually came second only to Orson Welles as the 1940s' master of deep focus composition in 'The Best Years of Our Lives' (1946), which veteran cameraman Gilbert Warrenton had done his best to achieve in 'The Love Trap' with the limited resources then at his disposal.Then suddenly everybody starts talking! The early scenes had all carried a Vitaphone soundtrack, and 'The Love Trap' had evidently started life as a silent, since there are scenes in which people speak dialogue which the makers haven't bothered to caption, as they'd presumably decided the film was going to go into release as a part-talkie and thus elected to keep titles to the minimum in scenes where the audience would be able to get the gist without them.At this point the film seems on the verge of turning all serious on us, but happily opts instead for saucy pre-Code farce, in which Miss La Plante - mostly dressed only in her scanties - effortlessly and charmingly leaps the daunting hurdle of suddenly starring in a talkie.

This is a transitional film--one that is partly silent and partly a talking picture. This was common during the late 20s in the US and all the way up into the early 1930s throughout the world. So, although I have heard "The Jazz Singer" (1927) referred to as the first 'talkie', it only had a few talking and singing portions. A few other such films are "The Mysterious Island" (1929) and "Blackmail" (1929), but the number of such films is significant. Quite often, silent films were held from circulation and a few talking segments were added so that the film could be advertised as a talkie! "The Love Trap" clearly was originally planned as a silent, but instead of one or two talking segments spread throughout the film, it begins silent and about midway through it, the film becomes a talkie.For the most part, it's a pretty ordinary film and is probably only on DVD today since it was an early film of the famed director, William Wyler. It is also interesting for two other reasons. First, it is very Pre-Code in its sensibilities--with scenes involving attempted sexual assault, a woman being patted on the butt and a lot of sexual innuendo. Now this is NOT to say it's a dirty film (as the lady is quite innocent) but if the studio had attempted to release the movie following the adoption of a toughened Production Code in 1934, it never would have been allowed without significant editing. Secondly, it stars an actor who was a HUGE star in the 20s up through the mid-1930s who is almost totally forgotten today. Neil Hamilton (known to a few as Commissioner Gorden from the 1960s "Batman" show) was a very handsome and popular leading man and I've seen several dozen of his films--and enjoyed them quite a bit. As for the leading lady, Laura La Plante, she was never that prolific as an actress but had a relatively successful, if undistinguished, career.The film begins with Miss La Plante getting tossed out of her job as a chorus girl. She's way behind in her rent and is in danger of being tossed out of her home. So, in desperation, she goes to a party with a friend to try to meet a man, but it turns out to be a wicked party and she snuck away--as she was not that sort of a girl. Then she returns to her flat only to see her belongings sitting out front in the rain. A nice rich guy comes by and sees her predicament and comes to her aid. Oddly (and only in a scene that you'll see in films or with guests from "The Jerry Springer Show"), the pair get married--knowing almost nothing about each other.A few days later, after the dust settles, the first problems in their quickie marriage develop. Hamilton's very snobbish family is not amused he married so quickly (very understandable) but they also are angry because she's so 'common'. Hamilton fails his new bride, as he allows his family to mistreat and mistrust her. Through a series of misunderstandings, they convince him that he married a skank--and the marriage appears to be heading for an annulment. La Plante does love her dopey hubby and concocts a rather clever (and funny) plan to win him back and keep his stupid relatives at bay.While today this film might seem pretty ordinary, for 1929 it's actually quite good--and manages to still be rather funny. Not a great film, but for a transitional movie, one well worth seeing--especially since it has a rather sweet ending--which old softies will no doubt enjoy.

Along with "Directed by William Wyler," was this rare half silent, half talkie starring Laura La Plante and Neil Hamilton. I liked Laura from "The Cat and the Canary" and "Showboat," and she proved that she could be a good little comedienne in this one.The first part, and the best in my opinion, is silent. The constraints of early sound made the second half stiff and contrived. The voices were out of sync in places. Laura is a wide-eyed little chorus girl who improbably meets wealthy and handsome Neil as she has been thrown out of her room with all her belongings, and is sitting on the curb. Of course it begins to rain! His taxi passes by, splashes her with muddy water, and he falls for her right then and there. Now that happens every day! But in these fluffy little movies, it did in fact happen every day! It was all in good fun! Laura had a very expressive face that was made for silents, and she's proved her "acting chops" in the three movies that I've seen her in. Neil Hamilton was quite attractive, and had good chemistry with her.During the second and sound half, Paul's (Hamilton's) uncle recognizes Evelyn (La Plante) from a wild party, and tries to sabotage their marriage. She sets a trap for him to vindicate herself with Paul, and show the uncle's hypocrisy. He had been at the party, a place that he shouldn't have been, but because he's an aristocrat and she's just a poor little chorus girl, he feels she isn't good enough for his nephew. Plus he's misconstrued an incident that happened at the party.Sound like a familiar scenario? Of course there's the typical happy ending. But I enjoyed the first half of the movie where all the real acting takes place, and it was interesting to see this early Wyler effort. But I can only give it a 6 out of 10. They should have included a better Wyler endeavor in this package.

What a delightful, romantic comedy. THE LOVE TRAP sparkles under William Wyler's direction. Wyler earned fame over his career as a tough director to work for, but one that made actors look good. This is certainly evident in this late silent-part talkie, in the case of Laura La Plante, whom I had only seen previously in THE CAT AND THE CARNARY. She is quite wonderful and her co-star, Neil Hamilton makes a strong romantic lead. I chuckled all the way through this fun film, finding it full of nice little twists to a familiar kind of story. The print on the Kino release is very nice. Also included in the excellent DIRECTED BY WILLIAM WYLER documentary that was co-produced by Wyler's daughter, Catherine.