Mantrap 4K (1953)

Another of Hammer’s early (ie pre-Hammer horror) B movie crime thrillers is being given the double disc (UHD and Blu-ray) 4K treatment complete with a slew of extras, both on disc and on paper. 

This time it’s Terence Fisher’s MANTRAP, an adaptation of the Elleston Trevor novel Queen in Danger. Over opening titles (in the UK version, anyway) we see Kieron Moore’s Mervyn Speight escaping from prison. He’s in for a murder he didn’t commit, and now he’s seeking the real killer. Meanwhile his wife Thelma (Lois Maxwell) has hooked up with new man Victor (Bill Travers) and is busy with her job as beauty editor at a major newspaper. Added to the mix is lawyer Hugo (Paul Henreid) who is recruited to find Speight before the police do in the hope of proving his innocence, all of which culminates in an almost Agatha Christie-style climax of assembling all the suspects at a party so the real killer can be identified.

MANTRAP is absolutely reasonable B movie stuff, by which I mean it’s not as good as some of the other B features we now have on 4K like THE MAN IN BLACK or STOLEN FACE but it’s still a pretty good time and the climax means the title is a better play on words that you initially might think. Hammer’s 4K transfer is crisp and the film includes a number of familiar faces to fans of British movies of the period, including the charming Kay Kendall as Henreid’s wife-to-be and a blink and you’ll miss her appearance from Barbara Shelley.

As with all these releases the true money’s worth is in the extras. You get two versions of the film - UK and US with different commentaries on both. The UK’s MANTRAP features noir experts James Harrison and Sergio Angelini whereas the US MAN IN HIDING has Toby Roam and Heath Holland. I don’t agree with the latter that MAN IN HIDING is a better title because it lacks the double meaning of the UK one. Their commentary also seems to suggest they are actually watching the UK version (where we see Moore breaking out of prison) rather than the US version where the titles open over a still image of the A4 to London. A textless version of this image is also provided as an extra and I can’t help but wonder if this was supposed to be a textless version of Moore’s escape as just over a minute of a still shot of a main road is going to be a contender for the least interesting extra to grace any disc this year.

Other extras include an excellent introduction to film noir in general and British film noir in particular, with Wayne Kinsey, Imogen Sara Smith and Sergio Angelini discussing the subject for 32 minutes. There’s also an excellent piece on author ‘Elleston Trevor’ (watch the piece to find out the reason for the quotation marks) with authors Martin Edwards, Mike Ripley and Barry Forshaw (25 minutes). Jonathan Croall gives us a 25 minute piece on his father, the actor John Stuart, while a freezing-looking Wayne Kinsey and Robin Bailes (also freezing) track down the locations for the film (30 minutes). There’s also a 23 minute archival interview with camera operator Len Harris as well as just over a minute of behind the scenes footage which is a brief but unmissable extra. Finally you get a book with new writing on the film from Wayne Kinsey, Pamela Hutchinson and others plus the usual luxury packaging to keep it all in. Another essential purchase for anyone interested in British cinema of the period.

Terence Fisher’s MANTRAP is out in 4K from Hammer in a limited edition two disc UHD and Blu-ray set on Monday 13th April 2026