MovieChat Forums > The Steel Trap (1953) Discussion > Woodley's call to the Bowers

Woodley's call to the Bowers

posted 12 years ago by lvanett2
5 replies | jump to latest

Since Mr. Woodley was told that Osborne & his wife went to Rio on "bank business", and he was going to call the Bowers, what happened? I know that in the film they don't return his call but during their bridge game Mr. Woodley said he was going to call them again. I would think that after Osborne got home after putting the money back, he would've either gotten a phone call or an interrogation by one of them. I can't imagine Woodley just dismissing the whole thing by that point. And then either Bowers or Woodley (or someone else) might be suspicious of Osborne's "illness" that Monday...people in the 1950's weren't that naive were they??? I kept expecting an undercover cop or FBI agent to discreetly walk up to Osborne and arrest him.

[–] IFeedPigeons 11 years ago

Well, he'd only put it back a minute before the bank employees got down there and found him "ill." I don't think it would take Bowers or Woodley very long to start piecing things together and have the cops nail him. Despite Jim's cheerful ending narration, he's not out of the woods yet. That's how it struck me, anyway. A very entertaining movie, with some quite effective suspenseful moments.

May I have 10 thousand marbles, please?
- Flounder, Animal House

[–] mojo2004 11 years ago

Since Mr. Woodley was told that Osborne & his wife went to Rio on "bank business", and he was going to call the Bowers, what happened? I know that in the film they don't return his call but during their bridge game Mr. Woodley said he was going to call them again. I would think that after Osborne got home after putting the money back, he would've either gotten a phone call or an interrogation by one of them.

I got the impression that everything was cleared up by Mrs Osbourne when she called Mr Woodley so he was no longer concerned. By then she knew her husband was on his way back from New Orleans and was going to put the money back.

Just for the record, I'm not a Dude, I'm a Dudette!

[–] bcamphome 11 years ago

The implication was that...well, I'm not sure WHAT the implication was. What I needed to hear was that...no, that wouldn't have worked either. What DID Mrs. Osbourne tell Mr. Woodley that would have taken the heat off? There's a real gap there that further damages the credibility of the movie.

[–] marckymarc71 10 years ago

To me it seemed that upon hearing from Mrs. Osborne, Woodley realized that the Osbourne's mother and daughter must have misunderstood where they were going. Since it's up to the viewer as to what happened next, I figured Jim would tell the Woodleys that they took a secret romantic weekend trip somewhere and told the mother it was Rio on "bank business" so that they could stay a little longer on holiday if they wanted, but decided to come back on time after thinking the better of it.

To me the most implausible part of the film was when the customs agent just lets them go with their $1 million in cash. Could the customs agent really be sued for holding them as Jim said?

[–] Keatonics 10 years ago

Well, I guess we have to suspend some disbelief. I am sure that is what the screen writer hoped.