Reviews

The Trap is a really, really, good movie. It has a great musical score to it, the movie is filmed out in the Canadian wildness, and on a film lot in London. Most movies from the 1960's is very colorful, and beautiful to watch. This movie reminded me of watching the old Disney movies like Charlie the Lonesome Cougar, or the old National Geographic footage.

The Trap is about a women named Eve (Rita Tushingham) who as a kid watched her family get killed by Indian's. From the traumatic event she don't talk at all, and has been since mute. She's took in by a store keeper and his wife, and their daughter. They raise Eve up to being somewhat their own maid, and go to person.

The French Canadian trapper Jean (pronounced John) La Bete (Oliver Reed), arrives in town to trade furs, get his money, & get a few other things. When La Bete goes to the store owner's house to get his money he's surprised at some of the stuff the keeper has in his house. After he get's his money, which the store keeper's wife is not to happy. Remembering La Bete was wanting a wife, she tells Eve to get herself all dressed up, and takes her down to the edge of town. She meets up with La Bete and tell's him Eve's story, saying she is young, strong, can sew & cook, and would make a good wife. The keeper's wife gets paid for Eve, and now Eve's told she has to go with La Bete. Eve's not happy, fights with La Bete, and get's told to stay in the canoe.

Eve's taught by La Bete how to hunt, trap, fish, and even cut wood. La Bete is a jerk, messy, throws food on the ground, and has no manners. Eve and La Bete have their clashes through out the movie as they live together. La Bete get's hurt & Eve nurse's him back to health. With La Bete being bed ridden Eve is left to hunt, trap, & keep everything going. Well how does the movie end? it's ah is well.....you have to watch this movie to find out the ending. Great movie hard to find on VHS & DVD, but well worth the money.

Hi there all,

This is just a quick summary of my thoughts on the latest ollie reed book; a copy of which i won from a competition on this website some months ago, (on the date i send this post)

I have to say that on the whole, i liked this book!

Having read Cliff Goodwin's biography on Oliver, it was great to just read a book purely about his career. The focus is not on Oliver's apparent alcoholism; it is a very honest and (for the most part), unbiased review of his career. I would say however that it was slightly dissapointing to see one or two films that the authors could not attain a copy of, "One Russian Summer" being one of them. strange considering i have watched this film myself and it was one of ollies better performances in my opinion.

Other films, (which i will not list here), also proved to be either impossible or nire on impossible to attain a copy of. At the end of the day however this was always going to be the case, because many of the films were quite forgettable. So if i had to give a raiting, it would be about 8/10!

The other point i would like put out there, is that this book is almost a kind of biographgy in itself. whilst the authors are honest and unbiased, they do acknowledge the fact that Reed's refusal to go to hollywood and his excessive drinking simply took their toll on his career in a big way. Several statements from actors quoted in the book also testify to this, so it's inevitable that the decline of the man's career was in fact due to missed oppurtunities and a few bad choices, (both professionally and personally).

I felt as if i was going on a journey reading this book, and by the end i felt so sorry that Olivers later career resulted in a canon of bad films, and only a handful of notable appearances, (Proximo in "Gladiator" possibly being one of his best). And yes, the circumstances of his death were deeply unfortunate and of course saddening.

If you are a passionate Oliver Reed fan or even if you require referance, then this book should be on your shelf next to all the other books about him.

On the hole, great book and thank you to the administrators for your generous gift to me through the competition.

Sincerely
Ryan Probert