Frank Sinatra’s character Charlie in The Tender Trap (1955) is both a mature growth from the earlier musicals, a smoother ladies’ man than the war films, yet recognizable in that Charlie draws from Sinatra’s recording persona. I will also look at how the gaze and the spaces in the film form Charlie’s character and respond to Sinatra’s recording persona.
There is a very present male gaze in this film. Joe gazes at all of the women who waft in and out of Charlie’s apartment. Then they gaze at the TV screen to catch a glimpse of Sylvia, who is, in Charlie’s words, “special.” The TV becomes a key component of times when characters need to avert their gaze, especially in sexually tense moments (like in Julie’s parents’ apartment). When Charlie begins to fall for Julie, it is because he is gazing at her on stage from below. There is a lack of female gaze, except for when Charlie sings “The Tender Trap,” to show Julie how the song should be sung. But even then, we don’t get a close-up of her gaze, though we can tell from her body language that she is infatuated, because she sits down close to the piano.
What is more important than the gaze for establishing relationships are the spaces within the movie, particularly the bachelor pad and the “single girl’s” apartment. The layout of Charlie’s apartment screams bachelor – the first thing when you enter the apartment is a well-stocked bar. The decor, compared to that of the model home that Julie admires, is sleek and masculine, with a big desk, grey sofa with mussed-up pillows, a TV, green plants (no flowers), big floor-to-ceiling windows, and a shaggy dog who hides in the kitchen.
Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds in the single girl's apartment
Who enters the space changes the space, or changes how the space is viewed, which in turn changes the feelings of characters and the direction of the plot. Julie is dissatisfied with the chair in the model living room at the home show, until Charlie sits in that chair. His presence in this domestic space changes her view of the space, and ultimately Julie’s view of Charlie as a potential husband, which he know becomes in her eyes. Unlike the other women Charlie has spent time with, Julie refuses to come to his bachelor pad until they are engaged, so she never enters his personal space, so Charlie is not allowed to perform the role as the playboy, in the way he could with other women.
One final space that I want to reflect upon, and mainly for my own personal interest, is the bathroom space. In a previous paper I wrote for a different class, I explored the use of bathroom space in the novel The Women’s Room, so I was struck by how bathroom space was inhabited by men in The Tender Trap. Joe follows Charlie into Charlie’s bathroom, while Charlie cleans himself up for a date that night. Charlie uses the bathroom for grooming/more functional purposes – shaving and showering – though it is also like a closet-space in that he dresses, too. These activities in the bathroom are less about changing his image than cleaning it up. It is within this space though that Joe expresses his frustrations, and Charlie describes the life of a bachelor. A possibility for a new life unfolds for Joe in the bathroom -it is also the space in which they can open up to each other.
The different spaces in this film respond to different aspects of Sinatra’s recording persona – the bachelor pad, the theatre, his behavior in Julie’s apartment. A former crooner, who was considered more of a playboy in his later years (what with his celebrity girlfriends Ava Gardner, for instance), Sinatra well embodies the character of Charlie, who is also a playboy. He has the apartment in the city, the artsy/theatrical job, the line of women going out his door, the good guy friend, not unlike Sinatra and the persona he projected. Both Charlie and Sinatra take care of their appearance, have a bit of swagger, and can sing (Charlie only shares this at one moment – on stage with Julie – but his deep, rumbly voice makes you believe that Charlie is a man who can woo the ladies with a heart-felt song).
Why Sinatra? 