The Steel Trap

It's taken bank employee Cotten eleven years to work his way up from teller to assistant manager. Next weekend, however, he could empty the safe and bolt for Brazil, without fear of extradition, visa and airline connections permitting. Thus is sprung a celluloid suspense mechanism of nail-chewing effectiveness and stripped-down simplicity, kept persuasive by writer/director Stone's penchant for shooting on authentic locations. Wright gets the short straw as the impossibly gullible spouse who slowly twigs this 'business trip' might not be above board, but her Shadow of a Doubt co-star Cotten contributes another spot-on study of illicit impulses simmering beneath the most conventional exterior.