Ed-Shullivan I am a fan of Frank Sinatra's body of work and I realize that this is a comedy/romance/musical, but I still have a difficult time imagining so many beautiful women fawning over the petite and feminine looking Frank Sinatra. Having said that, bringing into the film theater agent Charlie Y. Reader's (played by Frank Sinatra) old childhood friend Joe McCall (played superbly by David Wayne) who comes to stay with his playboy buddy Charlie as he thinks his marriage is on the rocks.Throughout the film we see a turnstile of beautiful women coming in and out of Charlie's apartment. Charlie is torn between two women in particular. One of these beautiful women is actress Debbie Reynolds who plays a young independent stage performer named Julie Gillis. The other is actress Celeste Holm who plays Sylvia Crewes a beautiful and mature woman of the same age as her good friend Charlie. Who will Charlie decide to marry? As stated earlier I just cannot wrap my head around the other gorgeous women such as actresses Lola Albright (Poppy Masters),Jarma Lewis (Jessica Collins), and Carolyn Jones (Helen the twice a day dog walker) who also seem to be interested in the wimpy looking Frank Sinatra.David Wayne who plays Joe McCall can't stop shaking his head at the many women chasing his friend Charlie, (and neither can I stop shaking my head). Joe also seems to be going through a mid-life crisis and so he starts falling for one of Charlie's love interests. The many confusing relationships will periodically be broken up by a song and dance number simply to remind the audience to not take these many relationships too seriously, and I didn't. Nor could I take this film too seriously and so I give the film a decent but not too praise worthy 6 out of 10 rating.

HotToastyRag Besides the title song, The Tender Trap doesn't have much going for it. Frank Sinatra plays a playboy bachelor, and David Wayne, a family man, envies his lifestyle. One day, David leaves his wife and children and decides he's going to live "the life" too. While he becomes infatuated with Frank's current squeeze, Celeste Holme, Frank is left to play around with aspiring actress Debbie Reynolds. Only, Debbie is a very good girl; she won't take any love-em-and-leave-em behavior.I was never a Debbie Reynolds fan; she always seemed enormously insincere and amateur. If the king of all bachelors is going to be hooked in by somebody, she'd better be worth it—and I have a hard time believing Debbie Reynolds is worth it. It's pretty dated, with lots of jokes about men's view of "death by marriage", and won't really appeal to modern women. Do yourself a favor: listen to the song and skip the movie.

writers_reign I had fond memories of this entry, seen several years ago, and was prepared to be disappointed but it holds up remarkably well. It boasts three standout performances in the shape of Sinatra, Holm and Wayne, who epitomise Sophistication, Style, Wit, Class, Urbanity. Poor Debbie Reynolds doesn't stand a chance against these heavy hitters and even if her part were less thankless - she'd already road-tested it in Susan Slept Here - she'd still have been hopelessly outclassed. It's not much of a plot - and Sinatra would revisit it in the next decade via Come Blow Your Horn - but it does provide a peg for some stylish interiors, adult banter and interplay to die for between the three principals. Pure magic.

theowinthrop When Frank Sinatra's real film career (the one that starts with MEET DANNY Wilson and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY and SUDDENLY) got started, his comedies generally improved. Instead of playing the eternally naive heartthrob that the bobby-soxers supposedly enjoyed (but is actually quite annoying in films like ANCHORS AWEIGH), he found that his sophistication could carry a better style of comedy. Ahead of him was HIGH SOCIETY, OCEAN'S ELEVEN, COME BLOW YOUR HORN, ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS, where he was usually in control of the situations rather than pulled about by mechanical plot twists based on his stupidity. And THE TENDER TRAP is an early example of this switch.Sinatra's Charlie Reader is a successful talent agent, and his success is mirrored in his apartment facing the 59th Street Bridge in Manhattan, and his colorful lifestyle of a different date with a different woman (Celeste Holms, Lola Albright, Caroline Jones, and Jarma Lewis) every night. His trade comment of "A ring-a-ding-ding" is not voiced here, but it could easily be said. Like his character of the older brother in COME BLOW YOUR HORN, he is inviting an old childhood pal (like his younger brother in the later film) named Joe McCall (David Wayne). But the younger brother in the later film is intoxicated by the glamor of Sinatra's lifestyle. Eventually the younger brother actually makes Sinatra ashamed of his own lifestyle as the younger brother takes it to extremes. Here, Wayne is in the middle of a mid-life crisis, and he's actually hoping to enjoy Sinatra's lifestyle, but as the film progresses gradually realizes that Sinatra's habits mistreat many women. Sinatra may be a great swinger, but he is something of a sexual pig.But Frank's lifestyle is beginning to show cracks. In COME BLOW YOUR HOME it was a matter of his aging (Lee J. Cobb fuming that he's a bum because he's unmarried and approaching 40). Here it is his meeting a young actress named Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds) that he starts dating. Sinatra looks at Julie (at least at first) as just another lady on his weekly list. But he slowly finds he does not want her to consider his other girlfriends, and he also wants her to be available to him. But his interest is tempered when he discovers she is only interested in him dating her and only her...with the intention of only marrying her.Sinatra goes crazy here - not babbling but losing his cool thoroughly. He tries to forget her quickly, by picking up one of the other regular girls, only to find that Jones has met a fellow who is going to marry her, and Albright has another regular date. Holms (as Sylvia Crewes) shows up. Oddly enough she is willing to accept the one sided dating system that Sinatra has chosen, because she is aware that she is now 33 and the chances of getting a fellow to marry her are quite rare. She lists the types to Wayne, and none are very appetizing. Sinatra proposes marriage to a shocked Holms, who (somewhat shakily) agrees. Sinatra decides to throw a huge party, even inviting his other occasional date Lewis to it. But in the middle of getting the party under way he runs downstairs and smack into Reynolds. She decides she loves him despite his selfishness, but he announces that he loves her as well...and proposes to her. She heads home, promising to see her fiancé in the morning, and he proceeds to wonder what to do now that he's affianced to two women.It turns out to be a disaster, but it is deserved. I won't go into the rest of the plot, but things do work out. It is nice to see Tom Hellmore, soon to be the notorious Elstin Draper in VERTIGO, in a far nicer role her. Also the conclusion of the film, with the now standard Jimmy Van Husen theme song being sung by Sinatra, Reynolds, Holms, and Wayne (with a sorrowful chorus of Albright, Lewis, and Jones) bears comparison to the singing by Cameron Diaz and her three bridesmaids at the start of MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING for being so fresh and unexpected. It was a top notch comedy, and another step upward for Sinatra in the rebuilding and expansion of his film career.