The Tender Trap | |
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Directed by | Charles Walters |
Produced by | Lawrence Weingarten |
Written by | Julius J. Epstein |
Based on |
The Tender Trap 1954 play by Max Shulman Robert Paul Smith |
Starring |
Frank Sinatra Debbie Reynolds David Wayne Celeste Holm |
Music by | Jeff Alexander |
Cinematography | Paul Vogel |
Edited by | John D. Dunning |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date
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Running time
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111 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,274,000 |
Box office | $4,495,000 |
The Tender Trap (1955) is a CinemaScope Eastman Color comedy starring Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, and Celeste Holm.
Based on the 1954 play The Tender Trap by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith, it marked Sinatra's return to MGM some six years after On the Town. A second film under a new contract with the studio, Guys and Dolls, was actually released ahead of The Tender Trap by one day on November 3, 1955.
The film earned an Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Original Song for "(Love Is) the Tender Trap" (music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Sammy Cahn). The song proved a hit for Sinatra, one he would continue to sing throughout his career. It is performed in a pre-credits sequence by Sinatra, sung in the film by Reynolds in a lackluster version that Sinatra corrects, and yet again at the end of the film by Sinatra, Reynolds, Holm and Wayne.
Charlie Y. Reader (Frank Sinatra) is a 35-year-old theatrical agent in New York City, living a seemingly idyllic life as a bachelor. Numerous women – among them Poppy (Lola Albright), Helen (Carolyn Jones), and Jessica (Jarma Lewis) – come and go, cleaning and cooking for him.