The Tender Trap

A New York bachelor (Frank Sinatra) carelessly strings along several women until he meets an actress (Debbie Reynolds) who has no interest in him what so ever.

The Tender Trap is an agreeable, if overlong, romantic comedy.

Sinatra is great in a role that seems to come natural to him, but the rest of the cast is a mixed bag. Debbie Reynolds is passable as the romantic lead, but she pales next to supporting player Celeste Holm, who comes across as infinitely more charming than Reynolds and virtually steals the entire film.

Indeed, her scenes with David Wayne, who plays a married childhood friend of Sinatra’s character, make for a far more interesting and moving story than the Sinatra-Reynolds plot. The somewhat clumsy way it’s all resolved is one of the film’s few letdowns.

That said, The Tender Trap does run a little long at 111 minutes, and cutting the non-Sinatra musical numbers would go a long way to correcting that. Nobody sings “The Tender Trap” like Sinatra and we don’t need to hear Debbie Reynolds try.