The second chapter in this series features a movie made in the Vancouver, British Columbia area in 1966 at Hollyburn Studios. People familiar with this corner of the Pacific Northwest may recognize the Squamish, Capilano and Cowichan rivers as well as Brandywine falls and Bowen Island.

The gripping story about a trapper that purchases a wife contains many outdoor and river canoeing scenes. Perhaps in a subliminal way this film had more to do with the coming renaissance of modern canoeing than that other over ballyhooed film that some might say "didn't really deliver."

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#2 – The Trap

This is a fascinating film not only for its dramatic paddling scenes (the locations of which weren’t always obvious – can we have a scene by scene breakdown from other reviewers?  I’d say the start of the capsizing was at the start of the Capilano; the lake scenes were Harrison or Buntzen; the rocky desert looking shoreline didn’t look like the coast at all – perhaps something in the Interior?  And the cascade/falls (second part of the capsizing scene) has me guessing.

I was amused by the portage scene in which the canoe is magically about 2/3 the size of the one on the river.  I’d also be interested in who did the local British Columbia scouting and stunt coordinator work.  There was some real paddling in places!  Hollyburn Film Studios was founded in part by Art Jones, who is now in his 70’s, residing in West Vancouver and active in local tourism and theatre, and was the founding president of what is now BCTV, around the time The Trap was made.  It would be fascinating to talk to him!

Interestingly, the Internet Movie Database www.imdb.com lists no less than TEN movies called The Trap – regarding this one they say simply “Oliver Reed in younger, better days.”  Reed actually played a part of a Roman elder in the 2000 blockbuster movie Gladiator, which was released after Reed’s 1999 death.

Review by Dan Burnett