Summary
A gilded cage of matrimony enslaves Margaret, whose heart still beats for Clive, the ascetic jurist now crusading against vice; her husband Deering, monarch of roulette and baccarat, turns their palatial manor into a neon-lit Tartarus. When Clive’s first police sortie collapses through betrayal, the ex-lovers lock eyes across velvet and mahogany, rekindling a smolder that Deering answers with fists and snarls. A second, thunderous raid—preceded by Clive’s clandestine warning—unleashes chaos: Deering, convinced his wife has conspired against him, lunges for her throat, only to be cuffed and then spectacularly reborn through a moonlit jailbreak. He returns to find his Chicano partner Ramon gutting the hidden safe; a bullet settles that partnership, but Ramon’s dying scream summons the law. Deering’s final gambit—strangulation under crystal chandeliers—ends with a balletic plunge from a balcony, his silhouette etched against lightning like Icarus with loaded dice.
Synopsis
Although she loves Clive, a young lawyer, Margaret weds Deering to save her father from financial ruin, while passing years bring fame to Clive and result in his being elected district attorney, the man cannot forget Margaret. Deering conducts a magnificent gambling establishment in his mansion. His conduct toward Margaret causes her to hate him. In the meantime, having promised to break up the ring, headed by Garvin, which is protecting the gamblers, Clive arranges a raid upon the Deering establishment. Due to a leak, however, this raid comes to naught. While in the mansion, Clive comes face to face with Margaret. Deering watching the two, sees their old love well up anew. It causes the man to become more brutal than ever to his wife. The district attorney discovers his secretary to be the source of the leak which had frustrated the raid. A second raid proves successful. Before this takes place, Clive dispatches a note to Margaret urging her to leave before his men arrive. Deering, believing his wife had known of this raid all along, is wild with rage and attempts to kill her. This is frustrated and the gambler is arrested. He later makes a sensational escape and returns to his mansion in time to see Ramon, his partner, rifling the secret safe containing their funds. After mortally wounding the man, Deering attempts to kill Margaret. Dying, Ramon summons Clive and the police. The latter come just in time to save the woman. Again Deering tries to escape, but this time he meets his death in leaping from a balcony.
Review Excerpt
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The projector clatters; nitrate exhales a ghostly incense. From the first iris-in, The Pitfall refuses the sentimental lace doilies that pad most 1922 melodramas. Instead, it presents marriage as a balance-sheet transaction: Margaret’s virginal vow bartered for paternal solvency, Clive’s affection foreclosed by poverty. Cinematographer James W. Horne—moonlighting here before his Columbia serials—bathes the gambling salon in tangerine gas-flare, so every roulette wheel looks like a solar eclipse..."
