The Velvet Trap (1966)

The Velvet Trap: Directed by Ken Kennedy. With Jamie Karson, Alan Jeffory, Betty Coryell, Irene Graham. Put upon greasy spoon waitress Julie gets raped by her drunken short order cook boss. After managing to escape, Julie hooks up with regular patron Brad Collins and heads off to Las Vegas for an impromptu wedding. However, Brad leaves Julie high and dry in a cheap motel the very next morning after coercing her into posing for a few nude photos. But that’s just the start of poor Julie’s woes.

“This is a very odd film. It seems to have been set up as a u0026#39;roughu0026#39; (sub genre of sexploitation movies epitomised by films of Doris Wishman) and then got cold feet. Its all here, sex, violence, rape and murder and yet it is not. Its more like a soft core roughie, still leaving a bad taste in the mouth but stopping short of fully delivering. The director has to take most of the blame because the cinematography is very good and far too good for most of the action. Leading lady, Jamie Karson tries hard but looks completely bewildered throughout, as well she might. Towards the end, just when I was ready to give up, there is a kidnap and our lead is thrust into a surreal setting with some 80 year old ex-starlet with an enormous cigarette holder and a range of women dressed as if for some 20s flapper session and what look like Christmas decorations hanging from the ceiling. Turns out this is supposed to be a brothel but for several minutes this plays out without us hearing the dialogue just a rather effective jazzy score (maybe they forgot to record the sound) and then we speed to a nihilistic ending which is probably the best section of this miserable attempt at a film.”