Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

HotToastyRag Besides the title song, The Tender Trap doesn't have much going for it. Frank Sinatra plays a playboy bachelor, and David Wayne, a family man, envies his lifestyle. One day, David leaves his wife and children and decides he's going to live "the life" too. While he becomes infatuated with Frank's current squeeze, Celeste Holme, Frank is left to play around with aspiring actress Debbie Reynolds. Only, Debbie is a very good girl; she won't take any love-em-and-leave-em behavior.I was never a Debbie Reynolds fan; she always seemed enormously insincere and amateur. If the king of all bachelors is going to be hooked in by somebody, she'd better be worth it—and I have a hard time believing Debbie Reynolds is worth it. It's pretty dated, with lots of jokes about men's view of "death by marriage", and won't really appeal to modern women. Do yourself a favor: listen to the song and skip the movie.

treeline1 Charlie (Frank Sinatra) is a successful Broadway agent and swinging bachelor with his pick of lovely ladies. His old buddy (David Wayne) comes for a visit, having temporarily tired of married life, and has fun with one of Charlie's girls, played by Celeste Holm. A young singer (Debbie Reynolds) catches Charlie's eye, but she's prim and proper and set on marriage.Sinatra was a huge star and icon of all things hip and sexy in 1955. He's wonderful in the movie; unfortunately, the script isn't. Originally a play, the characters still politely take turns giving overly-witty speeches and it looks like a staged play (the stars even take a curtain call at the end). Holm and Wayne, as the second-tier stars and comic relief, reliably play their usual smart aleck characters, but the act gets old. Reynolds, nearly half Sinatra's age, has the allure of a Brownie Scout; there's absolutely no chemistry between the two and their romance never rings true.Fans of Sinatra will enjoy his cool and sensuous performance, but the story could have used needed more music in addition to the oft-sung title song and a more realistic script. It's silly but harmless 50's fun. 6.5 stars.

jc-osms Incredibly lame Sinatra vehicle teaming him with Debbie Reynolds in a real oil and water mix. It wants so-hard-it-hurts to be an urbane comedy in the Tracy / Hepburn vein with supposedly extra added glamour centred as it is on the lifestyles of show-people but falls flatter than a trodden-on pancake. Sinatra gets an easy part as the rake the "dames" as he would no doubt call them can't get enough of whose life is spiced up by the arrival of old chum, David Wayne as a disillusioned married man and then Debbie Reynolds as a priggish and to my eyes anyway, boyish looking new girl in town who of course reels her man in by the simple expedient of actually saying "No" to him. All it is, is a dressed up homily to marriage, although personally I'd run a mile from Reynolds' hubby-hunting ingénue. There's no chemistry between the leads at all, Sinatra is unquestionably, as Reynolds herself tells him at one point, much too old for her. Celeste Holm and David Wayne get to mug and swoon in the background to no telling effect plus the production is so stage-bound, you can almost hear the line-prompter from off-stage feeding the actors. Its one redeeming feature is the well-known title song which is inserted into the movie not periodically enough but really on the whole this is sloppy Hollywood film-making of the worst kind, almost embarrassing to watch, particularly in these thankfully more enlightened times.

Stephen Alfieri "The Tender Trap" is a snapshot of the '50's, where we've seen lots of cocktails, smoking, and light sexual repartee. It was based on the play "The Tender Trap", that had a short run during the 1954-55 Broadway season (It starred Kim Hunter, Ronnie Graham, Robert Preston and Joey Faye, repeating his role as Sol Schwartz). It was one of hundreds of light, fluff designed to appeal to the matinée and business man crowds, who just wanted some light-weight comedy.In the film Frank Sinatra is ultra-smooth playing a character probably not too far removed from himself. Lots of beautiful dames, booze, and a good friend (played winningly by David Wayne) to keep him grounded. He seems to have the world on a string, moving throughout the day from one beauty to another.Debbie Reynolds plays a singer/dancer who is reluctant to take a job in a Broadway show, because she plans to marry four months after the show has opened. Even though she has not met the man of her dreams yet.Guess who it turns out to be. That's right, totally predictable. And the script is archaic in it's views about women and marriage, but who cares. It's all a lot of fun (especially Celeste Holm in a marvelous role).Well worth the time for a viewing.8 out of 10