What do you think?
Rate this book
The Pitfall
SHE LIT THE FUSE... When my phone rang it was my friend, Mac. He was a tough cop whose sideline was beautiful dames. Mac told me he was interested in a gal named Mona whose husband was in jail. Mac wanted her and figured I could set her up for him. I agreed, But when I saw Mona I knew I'd never get her out of my blood. She was for me -- and to hell with Mac and my own wife. That's when my troubles began...
182 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
1 person is currently reading
59 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 11, 2025
It's a bad idea to share a girl with your friend. It's worse if your friend is a bad cop. And worse still if you're a happily married family man. And even worse if she is also married, and moreso if her hotheaded husband is in the can and getting paroled soon. Having the disposition of a scared rabbit makes matters worse. So does popping copious bennies.
I read this because I wanted to watch the 1948 movie (Lizabeth Scott has a spell on me), and I have a rule about always reading the book first. The movie was fun, but the screenwriter ruined the ending. The movie completely lacked the panicky excitement in Dratler's novel. On the positive side, the movie had young, menacing Raymond Burr playing the bad cop (bad PI, in the movie).
I read this because I wanted to watch the 1948 movie (Lizabeth Scott has a spell on me), and I have a rule about always reading the book first. The movie was fun, but the screenwriter ruined the ending. The movie completely lacked the panicky excitement in Dratler's novel. On the positive side, the movie had young, menacing Raymond Burr playing the bad cop (bad PI, in the movie).
October 25, 2015
Description: John Forbes is a family man who's tired of the 9 to 5 humdrum of his job an insurance company executive. Life gets a little more exciting for him when he calls upon femme fatale Mona Stevens. Her boyfriend has embezzled from a store insured by Forbes' company and has showered her with gifts using the loot. Forbes comes to collect the ill-gotten gifts, but the boyfriend is in jail, and Forbes falls hard for Mona and begins an affair. The only problem is that MacDonald, a private dick who freelances for the insurance company, has had his eyes on Mona first. The obsessed MacDonald turns the soon-to-be-released boyfriend against Forbes. - Written by Martin Lewison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfLHe...
December 22, 2023
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
I've read several other adultery novels from the 1950's, like the excellent The Tightrope by William Ard, so I was excited to find this one written by Jay J. Dratler - who, as well as writing seven novels, wrote the screenplay for one of my favourite noirs The Dark Corner, and received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of the classic Laura. He won the Oscar for Call Northside 777.
Mona was a stranger in town - and lonely
The Pitfall is raw and tense, I would say the sleaziest of the pulps I have read. Jon Forbes is a Hollywood screenwriter making no progress on his latest job. He likes to hang out with his cop friend Mac and hear about Tinseltown's dirty secrets. One day Mac tells him about the beautiful wife of a purse snatcher he's arrested, how she is all alone in town and in his mind, ready for it. Mac wants her for himself, but she might shy away from a cop - so the plan is for Jon to have her first and then Mac will take over. Jon is quickly obsessed about having sex with her, really worked up. Jon tricks her into a date using a phony name, saying he is a friend of her husbands. They make a date and surprisingly, she really is up for it. The sparks fly and it gets intense really fast. The kind of all consuming sex that is so rough it includes cigarette burns for that extra thrill.
"That's what I wanted. That's what I 'd been praying for. It means we'll get to be lower and lower, until we're caught and trapped. And then maybe we'll turn on each other like the rats we are. You and I have changed since we met. We're closer to animals..."
"Tigress...Tigress..."
The first half deals with his lust for Mona - not able to work and barely able to take care of his wife and young daughter. Yes, he is a married man and his wife is so pregnant the doctor has ordered bedrest, so when he becomes distant she blames her pregnancy. He begins to buy the same gifts and perfumes for his wife as for Mona, blurring the lines of his affair. The second half has more of a doomed noir feel - as Mona's jealous husband comes home from jail and his friend Mac is ready for his turn at Mona - and Jon won't move aside. Mac hints at a plan where Jon could kill her husband and get away with it, he's even given a gun. His obsession turns to nerve-wracking misery and it seems everything will go down in ruin. "No sleep. No peace. Ever."
It's a sordid premise that a woman alone is an easy target for sex, that they will use her as they like and pass her around. That she is the kind of woman who is right up for that makes The Pitfall a little sleazy. The writing was good and when the tone changes in the second half as Jon spirals in torment the story balances out. The Pitfall was turned into a film in 1948, starring Dick Powell and the ever tempting Lizabeth Scott - retaining only the characters and turning it into more of a mystery than a story of sexual obsession. Reading this in 1947 must have been a thrill, even now it feels sordid.
Another gem from Popular Library, recommended for a salacious read.
I've read several other adultery novels from the 1950's, like the excellent The Tightrope by William Ard, so I was excited to find this one written by Jay J. Dratler - who, as well as writing seven novels, wrote the screenplay for one of my favourite noirs The Dark Corner, and received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of the classic Laura. He won the Oscar for Call Northside 777.
Mona was a stranger in town - and lonely
The Pitfall is raw and tense, I would say the sleaziest of the pulps I have read. Jon Forbes is a Hollywood screenwriter making no progress on his latest job. He likes to hang out with his cop friend Mac and hear about Tinseltown's dirty secrets. One day Mac tells him about the beautiful wife of a purse snatcher he's arrested, how she is all alone in town and in his mind, ready for it. Mac wants her for himself, but she might shy away from a cop - so the plan is for Jon to have her first and then Mac will take over. Jon is quickly obsessed about having sex with her, really worked up. Jon tricks her into a date using a phony name, saying he is a friend of her husbands. They make a date and surprisingly, she really is up for it. The sparks fly and it gets intense really fast. The kind of all consuming sex that is so rough it includes cigarette burns for that extra thrill.
"That's what I wanted. That's what I 'd been praying for. It means we'll get to be lower and lower, until we're caught and trapped. And then maybe we'll turn on each other like the rats we are. You and I have changed since we met. We're closer to animals..."
"Tigress...Tigress..."
The first half deals with his lust for Mona - not able to work and barely able to take care of his wife and young daughter. Yes, he is a married man and his wife is so pregnant the doctor has ordered bedrest, so when he becomes distant she blames her pregnancy. He begins to buy the same gifts and perfumes for his wife as for Mona, blurring the lines of his affair. The second half has more of a doomed noir feel - as Mona's jealous husband comes home from jail and his friend Mac is ready for his turn at Mona - and Jon won't move aside. Mac hints at a plan where Jon could kill her husband and get away with it, he's even given a gun. His obsession turns to nerve-wracking misery and it seems everything will go down in ruin. "No sleep. No peace. Ever."
It's a sordid premise that a woman alone is an easy target for sex, that they will use her as they like and pass her around. That she is the kind of woman who is right up for that makes The Pitfall a little sleazy. The writing was good and when the tone changes in the second half as Jon spirals in torment the story balances out. The Pitfall was turned into a film in 1948, starring Dick Powell and the ever tempting Lizabeth Scott - retaining only the characters and turning it into more of a mystery than a story of sexual obsession. Reading this in 1947 must have been a thrill, even now it feels sordid.
Another gem from Popular Library, recommended for a salacious read.
November 17, 2022
Excellent
Really liked this one. Tight , well written, fast moving, melodramatic but not too much—the trope is familiar - family man falls for a femme fatale and bad things happen but Dratler does it’s up just right—he’s smart , can write and knows how to move the story forward. And he’s a great storyteller. Read the book - see the movie. You’ll love it. And thanks again to Stark House Press for bringing this noir back. More!
Really liked this one. Tight , well written, fast moving, melodramatic but not too much—the trope is familiar - family man falls for a femme fatale and bad things happen but Dratler does it’s up just right—he’s smart , can write and knows how to move the story forward. And he’s a great storyteller. Read the book - see the movie. You’ll love it. And thanks again to Stark House Press for bringing this noir back. More!
June 23, 2025
Hollywood screenwriter Jo Forbes is living the American Dream: financial security, a job he likes, and a beautiful home. He and his wife, Sue, already have one young daughter, and there’s another on the way. Forbes gets some of his story ideas from his friend, ‘Mac’ MacDonald, a police detective. One day, Mac confides that he is interested in Mona Smiley, the wife of a petty thief he arrested and sent to jail. Feeling he can’t approach her himself, Mac asks Jon to do it for him and then arrange a ‘chance meeting’ between them. Jon is not interested, but the cop’s idea sticks in his head and he eventually agrees…
One man's midlife crisis turns deadly in Dratler's cautionary tale, adapted into the film 'Pitfall' in 1949. The story is told in the first person and exhibits some of the best traits of noir fiction: a spare, economical style and a sense of impending doom being its main virtues. However, this is not a novel for fans of dense plotting and intricate twists. The story is quite simple; the affair is off and running around the end of Chapter Four, and the denouncement arrives in the last 20 or so pages. In between, not a great deal happens. That's not to say it's a boring read; it's not. However, it's essential to buy into the anxieties of Dratler's main protagonist, as we spend a lot of time with his doubts, fears and insecurities, without too many significant events to stir the pot.
What is unusual is that Forbes continually professes great love for his wife and daughter at the same time as he is seeing Mona. That might lead you to assume that she's the traditional femme fatale, but instead, for the most part, at least, she's presented as much of a slave to passion as Forbes. There are strong hints that the basis of their relationship is highly sexual and may have an element of violence. Given this was 1947, it's not explicit, of course, but he constantly refers to her as his 'Tigress' although that is the name of the perfume she favours. However, there are many references to her 'claws', and the metaphor becomes somewhat overdone when he starts quoting William Blake's famous poem 'The Tiger.'
Given that Dratler was a successful Hollywood screenwriter himself (he adapted Vera Caspary's novel 'Laura' into the 1944 classic), it's tempting to speculate that there's some element of autobiography in this tale of a wandering scriptwriter. On the other hand, Forbes' line of employment may just have been a matter of convenience for the author, who knew the working world in which his main character moves.
The film version was produced independently by Regal Films, which may explain why Dratler didn't adapt it himself. As it is, screenwriter Karl Kramb makes several changes to the story, and these are reasonable and necessary choices. Firstly, Forbes (Dick Powell) now works for an insurance company which provides a better reason for his character to meet Mona (played by Lizabeth Scott). In the book, her husband is in jail for petty theft, but the film upgrades that to embezzlement. Forbes' career change also provides a stronger reason for his mid-life crisis. He's obviously bored with the humdrum routine. In Dratler's original story, his wife Sue is heavily pregnant and essentially bedridden, which is likely a significant factor in his restlessness and roving eye. An insinuation like that would never have been acceptable in a Hollywood movie of that era, of course, either to the audience or the censors. But the most crucial change is the nature of the affair. In the book, it's a torrid, steamy affair that lasts for weeks; in the film, it's merely a one-night stand, even though it's clear the couple possess genuine feelings for each other.
Neither book or film is likely to appear on anyone's list of noir classics, but they are both very solid and engaging pieces of work.
One man's midlife crisis turns deadly in Dratler's cautionary tale, adapted into the film 'Pitfall' in 1949. The story is told in the first person and exhibits some of the best traits of noir fiction: a spare, economical style and a sense of impending doom being its main virtues. However, this is not a novel for fans of dense plotting and intricate twists. The story is quite simple; the affair is off and running around the end of Chapter Four, and the denouncement arrives in the last 20 or so pages. In between, not a great deal happens. That's not to say it's a boring read; it's not. However, it's essential to buy into the anxieties of Dratler's main protagonist, as we spend a lot of time with his doubts, fears and insecurities, without too many significant events to stir the pot.
What is unusual is that Forbes continually professes great love for his wife and daughter at the same time as he is seeing Mona. That might lead you to assume that she's the traditional femme fatale, but instead, for the most part, at least, she's presented as much of a slave to passion as Forbes. There are strong hints that the basis of their relationship is highly sexual and may have an element of violence. Given this was 1947, it's not explicit, of course, but he constantly refers to her as his 'Tigress' although that is the name of the perfume she favours. However, there are many references to her 'claws', and the metaphor becomes somewhat overdone when he starts quoting William Blake's famous poem 'The Tiger.'
Given that Dratler was a successful Hollywood screenwriter himself (he adapted Vera Caspary's novel 'Laura' into the 1944 classic), it's tempting to speculate that there's some element of autobiography in this tale of a wandering scriptwriter. On the other hand, Forbes' line of employment may just have been a matter of convenience for the author, who knew the working world in which his main character moves.
The film version was produced independently by Regal Films, which may explain why Dratler didn't adapt it himself. As it is, screenwriter Karl Kramb makes several changes to the story, and these are reasonable and necessary choices. Firstly, Forbes (Dick Powell) now works for an insurance company which provides a better reason for his character to meet Mona (played by Lizabeth Scott). In the book, her husband is in jail for petty theft, but the film upgrades that to embezzlement. Forbes' career change also provides a stronger reason for his mid-life crisis. He's obviously bored with the humdrum routine. In Dratler's original story, his wife Sue is heavily pregnant and essentially bedridden, which is likely a significant factor in his restlessness and roving eye. An insinuation like that would never have been acceptable in a Hollywood movie of that era, of course, either to the audience or the censors. But the most crucial change is the nature of the affair. In the book, it's a torrid, steamy affair that lasts for weeks; in the film, it's merely a one-night stand, even though it's clear the couple possess genuine feelings for each other.
Neither book or film is likely to appear on anyone's list of noir classics, but they are both very solid and engaging pieces of work.
April 15, 2023
Loved this hard-boiled noir. I look forward to watching the film noir adapted from it.
May 31, 2021
Fast-moving and hard-boiled story about a married insurance man who is bored and gets into a jam with Mona. Look out for Mac!
The film version is titled “Pitfall," and is with Raymond Burr.
💥 Recommended.
The film version is titled “Pitfall," and is with Raymond Burr.
💥 Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews