Jay Dratler’s The Pitfall

Jay Dratler’s The Pitfall was published in 1947.

Forbes is a Hollywood screenwriter. He knows this guy called Mac. Mac is a cop. Mac has made Forbes a very strange proposition. Mac busted a punk named Bill Smiley for petty thieving. Smiley is now behind bars but not for long. It was a very minor offence and he’ll be out in six weeks. But Mac has become obsessed by Smiley’s wife Mona. He has only met her briefly but he thinks she’s the most gorgeous most desirable woman he’s ever set eyes on. But she would never consider going to bed with Mac because he’s a cop.

Mac’s proposition is that Forbes should meet Mona, romance her, date her and (presumably) sleep with her. He should then introduce her to Mac and naturally she will then dump Forbes and jump into bed with Mac.

Forbes has three objections to this proposal. Firstly, he’s a happily married man. Secondly, it sounds like a recipe for trouble. Smiley is likely to come after him with murder on his mind. Thirdly, the whole idea makes no sense. It is incoherent, illogical, bizarre and crazy. Forbes is not interested.

On the other hand Forbes’ wife is pregnant at the moment and he’s not getting any bedroom fun. The more he thinks about it the more he decides he wants some bedroom action. And if Mona is as hot as Mac claims then he could definitely get interested. And what could go wrong?

We figure out right away that with Forbes we’re dealing with a classic noir protagonist. He knows the whole situation just has so much potential for disaster, and for several kinds of disaster all rolled up into into one package. He isn’t dumb enough to think it can work out any way but badly. But he goes ahead anyway. He decides not to think about all those disastrous outcomes that are not just possibilities but practically certainties.

He meets Mona, and from that moment on he is lost. She is as gorgeous as Mac claimed. There’s something else about her that drives him crazy. He thinks of her as his tigress. Her body drives him wild. When they go to bed together it’s magic. He is hooked completely. Where Mona is concerned he’s an addict.

Of course he has given no thought to the fact that Bill Smiley’s sentence was a very short one. He has given no thought to what will happen when Bill is released. He hasn’t thought about the fact that Mac is a very dangerous man and he’s a cop as well. Mac expects Forbes to fade out of the picture so that he can have Mona. Cops like Mac do not like being double-crossed. Forbes has also put out of his mind the fact that he has a wife and kid and that he’s not going to be able to walk out on them. All Forbes can think about is Mona, and her perfect body.

Mona to some extent fulfils the femme fatale role in the plot but she’s not a classic femme fatale. OK, she’s a married woman having an affair but she isn’t intending to wreck Forbes’s life. To begin with she doesn’t know Forbes is married. She doesn’t know she’s stealing another woman’s husband.

The one minor problem you might have with this book is accepting the idea that a man like Mac, a tough no-nonsense cop, would come up with that crazy scheme in the first place. It’s a somewhat contrived plot device. If you can accept it that initial premise then everything else in the plot flows smoothly and logically from there. There are lots of ways that life can come crashing down around Forbes’s ears but there’s no way to know which of the many possible disasters might bring that about. And there’s no way of knowing whether Forbes will somehow figure a way out, or whether he’ll get some lucky break.

Forbes is the narrator of the story and The Pitfall is a fine example of the effective use of first-person narration. All we know is what Forbes knows, or thinks he knows. Neither Forbes nor the reader really knows what is going on in Mona’s head, or which way she is likely to jump if things come to a crisis. Forbes is crazy about her and he may be seeing her through the rose-coloured glasses of love. Neither Forbes nor the reader has any idea what is driving Mac. Maybe Mac is totally sane and this is just a cruel game he likes to play with other people’s lives. Maybe he’s totally sane but in the grip of a sexual obsession. Or maybe when it comes to Mona he is just as insane as Forbes.

There’s no way for either Forbes or the reader to predict the actions of Mona or of Mac.

In fact the plot is resolved very neatly. This is top-tier noir fiction. Highly recommended.

The Pitfall has been re-issued in paperback by Stark House.

I’ve also reviewed the excellent movie adaptation - Pitfall (1948).