Directed by Andre De Toth in 1948, Pitfall tells the story of John Forbes (Dick Powell), an insurance company worker drone who seems fairly comfortable in his routine. When he's not at work he spends time with his family: his wife Sue (Jane Wyatt) and his son Tommy (Jimmy Hunt). John's life takes an interesting twist when he meets a gorgeous and mysterious woman named Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott). See, Mona's boyfriend, Bill Smiley (Byron Barr), is a crook. He's swindled the insurance company that Forbes is employed with out of a serious chunk of change and spent a serious chunk of that serious chunk on fancy gifts for his beautiful lady.

What does Forbes have to do with all of this? Well, his employers want compensation. Once they get wise to the scheme they send him to collect all of those gifts. So, being the good worker drone that he is, Forbes sets out to do just that. Of course, as soon as he meets the women he falls for her pretty hard. With her boyfriend doing time behind bars, what's to stop the two of them from having an affair? And that's exactly what happens, but things get dangerous when a private eye named MacDonald (Raymond Burr) sets his sights on Mona too. And of course, sooner or later that boyfriend is going to get out of jail, and when he does, he probably won't be all that impressed that John and Mona have been monkeying around behind his back, which is something that McDonald isn't above using to his advantage here.

This one builds quite nicely. The film starts off with De Toth's depiction of a man living the American dream: he's got a pretty wife, a fine son and a nice house out in the suburbs. He holds a steady job and is the consummate provider. Of course, as he's driven off to work and kisses the wife goodbye, we start to realize that like so many others, Forbes is unhappy with this lot in life. His home life is fine, the epitome of domestic bliss, but the man craves something different. And of course, that's exactly what he gets once Mona enters the picture. She's not intimidated by him, nor is she initially all that intrigued by him but soon enough they're zipping about in her boat together and going out for drinks. It doesn't take her long to start reciprocating his feelings for her. Of course, the element of danger that's integral to a story like this comes from a few different angles. There is, obviously, the chance that Forbes could get caught in the act and blow it with his wife and family, but he doesn't let that stop him. Maybe he gets off on the danger. More intense is the MacDonald character, played with some impressively effective sleaziness by Raymond Burr. It's made pretty clear here that MacDonald's obsession with Mona, and it very much is an obsession not just a little crush, is unhealthy. She's not interested in him but he doesn't care. In all actuality, he's a bit of a psychopath. But again, Forbes doesn't let that stop him. And if he's not going to let someone as intimidating as MacDonald keep him away or let his own morality talk him out of this infidelity, is he going to let the threat of Bill Smiley's impending release stop him? Forbes' world is one filled with dishonesty. He can't even be honest with Mona, the woman he falls so hard for, about his married home life. Eventually murder enters the picture and it quickly spirals out of control for all of the principal players.

The cast do fine work here. Wyatt and Hunt are mostly background characters but their respective roles are important and well played. Powell is, not surprisingly, given much more to do here and he makes the most of it. He's a fine leading man, his character clearly conflicted about so much in life but unusually driven in his love and/or list for ‘the other woman.' Lizabeth Scott steals every scene she's in as that other woman. She's drop dead gorgeous here, bringing a sultry appeal to the part that is impossible to miss. Raymond Burr, not to be outdone, plays his obsessed PI with just enough of an unhinged style that, yeah, this guy is creepy… and not to be trifled with. Burr's ‘big guy' screen presence serves that particular character well.

The ending might be a little easy to see coming, but then, it was all inevitable, wasn't it? The movie goes at good pace though and it's really nicely shot. The Los Angeles locations make a good backdrop for all of the tension and drama while the cinematography captures it all beautifully. Add to that a pretty rousing score and Pitfall remains a captivating and genuinely thrilling tale of lies, betrayal and consequence.

Video:

Kino gives Pitfall its Blu-ray debut in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed in the movie's original 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratio. The picture looks to have undergone some restoration although small as specks and scratches are pretty common throughout. Though this print damage is regular, it is at least minor and won't don't see a whole lot in the way of really big, distracting damage. The disc is well encoded and free of any compression artifacts. Black levels look good if just short of perfect and contrast looks quite nice here. There's a good amount of detail present, the close up shots show this off better than anything else, and if this isn't a reference quality black and white picture it's a perfectly watchable and quite obviously high definition presentation.