The Trap - Production & Contact Info

The Trap (1916)
Short | Short, Thriller

The Trap (1916)

Short | Short, Thriller

Dick Benton divides his existence between his young wife and his work. Tom Drake, a gambler, starts a flirtation with the young wife, who is spending a few days at the seashore. During their numerous clandestine meetings he fascinates her ...See moreDick Benton divides his existence between his young wife and his work. Tom Drake, a gambler, starts a flirtation with the young wife, who is spending a few days at the seashore. During their numerous clandestine meetings he fascinates her and at last pleading his love she falls an easy victim. He receives a letter from a pal in a small town out west who speaks glowingly of the ease with which a clever gambler can reap a harvest from the chance-loving townspeople, and urges Tom to consider the proposition. He decides to leave and persuades the wife to go with him. On the first anniversary of his wedding, Dick prepares a surprise for his wife. As he departs for his work that day be presents her with a beautiful bracelet and a personal bank account of twenty-five hundred dollars. Returning to his home that evening with more tokens of affection, Dick is stunned to find that his wife has gone. Dick renounces all women and giving up his substantial business and his home he goes west to spend the rest of his life in seclusion. Tom and the woman arrive in a western town and he establishes a cheap saloon and gambling resort. As time passes, Tom's sham love displays itself and the woman is subjected to ill-treatment. Jim Morris, a youthful tenderfoot, who has come west to make a fortune, becomes tangled up in the roulette wheel run by the gambler's mistress and urged on by his losses in an effort to win back his squanderings, he soon finds himself falling in love with the woman. Dick has a prosperous mine which he works alone. Returning from his mine one evening he sees his dog almost at the mercy of a wild puma. Dick fires at the animal but misses, however, saving his dog's life. Knowing that the dog is unable to guard the chicken coops from the beasts, Dick builds a trap. Jim has lost all of his money and he decides to start out fresh again. He is wandering through the hills when he is attracted by Dick's house. In making his way to the place, Jim steps in the trap and plunges below. His moaning brings Dick to the scene and he is rescued. His ankle sprained, Dick befriends him and nurses him back to health and induces the youth to remain and help work the mine. Jim goes to the village frequently for provisions but each time he is lured to the gambling resort when he thinks of the girl at the wheel. At last he asks her to elope with him. The woman accepts the youth's proposition and slips away to join him at Dick's cabin. Tom, discovering that his mistress has fled, directs his suspicion toward Jim, and he starts off for the cabin. While riding his horse at terrific speed down an embankment he is thrown from the saddle and hurled headlong to the bottom. Stunned and lame, he remounts, determined to have revenge on the woman. The woman arrives at the cabin and there is confronted by Dick. The sight of her causes Dick to become enraged and in a temper he attempts to strangle her, her fate being saved by the screams of a man outside the house. Tom reaches the cabin only to become a victim of the trap set for the beasts and in his downward plunge his neck is broken and skull fractured. Jim and Dick hurry to help the victim, but when his body is dragged from the trap it is lifeless. The sight of Tom's face brings a scream from the woman which reveals the fact that he is the one who lured her from her husband. Feeling that his wife has been punished for her wrongdoing but not inclined to forgive her and take her back, Dick rides with her to the stage station where he gives her money enough to take her to her home. He then returns to live the life of a hermit and to help the youth attain the end which brought him to the west. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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Cast	+ Add Cast
5 cast members

Name	Known for
William Clifford Dick Benton Dick Benton See fewer	The Hidden Law (1916)
Jessie Burnett Nell Benton Nell Benton See fewer	The Wasted Years (1916)
Alva D. Blake Tom Drake (as Al Blake) Tom Drake (as Al Blake) See fewer	A Western Romance (1913)
Victor Rodman Jim Morris (as Victor Rottman) Jim Morris (as Victor Rottman) See fewer	Trapping the Bachelor (1916)
Jack Bonavita Actor (as Jack Bonavita and His Bostock Animals) Actor (as Jack Bonavita and His Bostock Animals) See fewer	The Woman, the Lion and the Man (1915)