The Tender Trap 1954

by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith



Charlie Reader is a young bachelor in New York who’s living the ideal life. Or so it seems to Joe McCall, an old friend of his from Indianapolis. Charlie has an elegant apartment, a good job, and millions of girls—all eager to bring him food, tidy up his apartment and fall in with his every wish. The girls are all good-looking, all ladies, and all slightly on the mature side. Joe, who’s come to New York because he thinks he’s discovered a cure for the common cold, is very much taken with Charlie’s set-up and more than somewhat envious. He finds himself becoming interested in Sylvia Crewes, the nicest of Charlie’s girls, while Charlie, in the meantime, finds himself getting more and more involved with Julie Gillis, a luscious young morsel just out of college. Julie is in love with Charlie, but she’s determined he’s going to do things the way she wants them done, which Charlie isn’t too enthusiastic about. Charlie juggles his girls till one frantic evening he finds himself engaged to both Julie and Sylvia, and one amusing scene after another results until he finally manages to get rid of the wrong young lady and marry the right one.