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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0089218448293
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Alpha Video
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Alpha Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Running Time: 90 minutes
Sales Rank: 52515
Studio: Alpha Video
Theatrical Release Date: June 15, 1936
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Much more realistic than the titel might suggest
I found this movie was worth the time I spent on watching it (and the money for the purchase). It is not a sci-fi horror movie as the title might suggest but rather a comedy-thriller with a sharp edge. Television is presented as a young but established medium and the hero is at the center of interest because he is on the brink of inventing a better TV-camera. He gets caught in the dirty fight between two broadcasting corporations for supremacy on the airwaves which includes the kidnapping of the laboratory chief of one corporation. I bought this primarily because Marc Lawrence and May Astor, both favorites of mine, are in it. And they both don't disappoint. Astor gets quite a substantioal part of the action as a woman entrepreneur (an attractive, unhysterical Mildred Pearce) who in a moral turnabout gets from conning businessment to becoming a reliable supporter of the hero. Anybody who likes old movies will appreciate this B picture which tells a good and entertaining story.
Rating:  - Okay for a low-budget film
I was interested in seeing this film because it was directed by Del Lord, a frequent Three Stooges director. Since this film too was shot at Columbia Pictures, it's not exactly a big-budget affair (although at least Columbia wasn't the most poverty-row studio out there in this era). The television invented by Fred Dennis does look pretty impressive for the era, but apart from the technological props, the sets, costumes, and props seem rather obviously low-budget. Even Bobby Blake's fur coat looks cheap!
Rocky O'Neil is a bill collector who meets and quickly becomes buddies with inventor Fred Dennis when called upon to wrest some money from him. It turns out that Fred owes money not only to the bill collectors, but also to his landlady. He's so in debt because of his obsession with building a superior type of television set. Being somewhat of an amateur expert on antique televisions, I think Fred's television is meant to be one of the electronic sets in development at this point in time (1936) and not the older mechanical scanning-disc sets that were in use in the late Twenties and early Thirties. (Not a lot of people today know that television, while obviously not as ubiquitous as it is today, was a lot more common back then than we've been led to believe.) Rocky is sold on Fred's invention, and to get financial backing ends up associating with Bobby Blake, another frustrated would-be inventor, and her assistant/roommate Mae Collins. Sprinkle in a couple of bad guys looking ... Read More
Rating: - Well-done little techno-thriller from a by-gone era
Want to see what Enemy of the State and other contemporary techno-thrillers will look like to your children and grand-children? Take a look at Trapped By Television and you'll get an insight into the future, as this B-movie revolves around the latest, greatest, cutting-edge technology of 1936... TELEVISION!
In Trapped by Television, a techno-geek bill collector is sent to repo some equipment for a loser (Lyle Talbot). Said loser turns out to be an inventor who has created the perfect television recording/broadcasting device, so instead of doing the repo job, the bill collector becomes the inventor's assistant, hooks him with a couple of spunky (if crooked) promoters (led by Mary Astor), and sets him on the path to selling his invention with a major broadcast company that has been attempting to develope their own television device. Unfortunately, standing between the scientist and his roguish companions are a group of violent techno-thieves who have stolen some designs the broadcast company was developing and intend to sell them back to the company at a huge profit. Will our intrepid heroes gain fame and fortune and advance the technology of entertainment, or will television be their death trap?
Trapped By Television features a sharp script, likable characters, and some nice acting. It's a fun watch, and it is a great illustration of how much things have changed in our world in just 50 years, both culturally and technogically.
I recommend it very highly.
Rating:  - Great Science Fiction Curio Movie!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a great science fiction curio 30's movie made when Television was in the delevelopmental stage and the thoughts they had on it at that time.It's a must see!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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