“Go on sit down. Decompose yourself.”
Fred Dennis (Lyle Talbot) is an inventor. He is working on a new kind of television process that will be revolutionary. At least once he finishes it. Right now he doesn’t have the money to purchase the needed parts to complete his invention. He is actually in debt and owes not only his landlady but a debt collector as well.
Rocky O’Neil (Nat Pendleton) works for the debt collection agency. His hobby is science. Or at least reading about it. He is assigned to collect the money owed by Fred. Rocky is fascinated by Fred’s invention and wants to help him find funding. Rocky gets him a job at the bill collector’s. Fred is assigned to collect a debt from Barbara “Bobby” Blake (Mary Astor).
Bobby runs a company that promotes inventions. Her latest product is a potato peeler, but apparently people are happy with using knives to peel potatoes. Fred is a bad debt collector and apparently Bobby is a bit of a soft touch. She finds out about his television invention and thinks she can sell the idea to “Paragon Broadcasting Company”. What she manages to do is browbeat John Curtis (Thurston Hall), the head of the company into giving her two hundred dollars just to get rid of her. Intending on paying her bills and giving Fred a token amount she ends up giving him the whole check so he can finish his invention.
Paragon needs to purchase equipment for their broadcast stations. “Standard Equipment” offers to do it but for an exorbitant price. An inside man and some crooks are working to put Paragon in a position where they cannot pay Standard on a timely basis. This would give Standard a chance to take over Paragon for peanuts.
When Fred’s invention works it throws a monkey wrench into Standard’s plan to takeover Paragon. That’s when sabotage and the goon squad go to work to prevent Fred from ruining their plans.
“Trapped By Television” was released in 1936 and was directed by Del Lord. The movie is in the public domain. The film is a science fiction/comedy. What makes it science fiction is the television aspect. In the mid thirties television was still in its infancy.
Fred’s invention is a fantastic looking gizmo. Both the television receiver and the television camera vaguely reminded me of early daleks. The screen on the receiver is huge compared to real television screens of the time. The image on the screen was created using a back-lit projection of a moving image onto the screen. In a way it could be considered a special effect. This would definitely place it in the science fiction genre.
It’s a fun little romantic comedy with, at the time, science fiction undertones.