Unsuccessful Broadway show from Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith becomes glossy, tepid M-G-M romantic comedy with one song. Frank Sinatra is certainly well-cast as a womanizing theatrical agent in New York City, and Debbie Reynolds is cute as a singer-dancer under her own personal deadline to get married, but this archaic set-up is no longer any fun. To the bachelor, available girls are just "tomatoes" (pronounced tuh-may-tahs); to the talented songbird, being a woman means nothing without having a husband to validate her. Premise comes directly from that antiseptic '50s aesthetic that women want marriage in order to start a family (just like their mothers), but men want marriage in order to get into the bedroom (because no self-respecting 'tomato' would go all the way without vows). Ladies-man Sinatra does a lot of sweetheart-talking and forehead kissing, yet his randy excursions (and drunken escapades) are merely chatted about, never seen. He's called a monster, a heel--which seems a tad severe for a guy who never seems to get any action because his phone is always ringing and his doorbell is always buzzing. Sinatra and Reynolds may have indeed proved to be a splendid screen-couple, but they are trapped by "The Tender Trap", which curdles from coyness. ** from ****
Review of The Tender Trap
