A Mouse in a Trap

Term of Trial. All that glitters is not tinsel. On the surface, this film shows a certain cheap flash: it can be seen as a sniggery story about a dirty old man and a hot young thing. But those who dig beneath the surface will find dramatic iron: the story of a man too weak to be really good, of a woman too lazy to be really bad, and of the sad little mess they make of their lives.

The man (portrayed with inexhaustible finesse by Sir Laurence Olivier) is a schoolmaster and a good one as far as he goes: gentle, idealistic, fond of children, the Mr. Chips of a mill-town slum. But his gentleness is half timidity, his love of learning partly fear of life. Night after night he buries his nose in his books, he soaks his head in whisky because he cannot bear to think about the stupid, cunning, wistful, brutal, hungry little faces he has seen all day. Above all. he cannot bear to think about life with his wife.

The wife (portrayed with vulgar charm by Simone Signoret) is a Frenchwoman who walks all over him and hates him for letting her do it. "You're so bloody noble," she sneers. "Why can't you be human for a change!" Be beastly, is what she really means. Be like me. But he is too decent and too weak for that. He can only love her--yet the more he loves her the worse she treats him. His supper is cold, his bed is tepid. She gets fat and blames her figure on him: "No woman could keep her looks on your income." Having ruined her looks, she snarls, the least he can do is keep her till she can "find another man." But she is really too lazy to try, and what's more she would be miserable without a booby to bitch at.

One day a pretty little thing (Sarah Miles) gets a schoolgirl crush on her tired old teacher. He loves the child like a daughter, but before long she loves him in another sense, and one night she begs him hysterically to have her. Shocked, he refuses. Furious, she enters charges of indecent assault. After a painful scandal, he is acquitted and comes home to his wife in rueful triumph.

He finds her bags packed. Is she angry because he led the poor child on? Not a bit. She is leaving because he did not lead the poor child on--she despises his timidity. In a panic, the teacher violates that value which alone had given his life meaning: the sacred trust between teacher and pupil. "Oh, I did what she said I did." he says with a smirk. "I lied in court." His wife gasps, inspects him with a trace of respect, decides to stay. "Well," she coos, delighted to have him down on her level at last, "you're less of a mouse than I thought." He looks into the camera, a man who knows better than anyone what he is. and that he will never have the strength to be anything more. "I am," he says bleakly, "am I?"

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