Reckless Moment, The (1949)
Director: Max Ophüls
Germany born filmmaker Max Ophüls makes his third and final
American produced picture in the form of a low-key suspenseful thriller about
death, blackmail, and the distances a mother will go to protect her family. Ophüls
brings his wonderfully artistic mind for staging and camera movements to this
interesting story starring a middle-aged British actor still new to Hollywood
and an ever-transforming lead actress who happens to the wife of the film’s
producer. Its product is a relatively understated drama that is astonishingly
well executed, making even the most mondain moments of the film come alive with
suspense.
The Reckless Moment is a suspense drama about the
desperate measures a mother would go to attempt to keep her family from falling
into scandal. While her husband is away on business, suburban housewife Lucia
Harper (Joan Bennett) secretly disposes of the corpse of her teenage daughter’s
sleazy older lover found on their property from an unknowingly accidental death
to avoid any connection of the man, living or dead, from her family. When the
deceased’s loan shark Martin Donnelly (James Mason) looks to blackmail Lucia to
collect on her daughter’s former lover’s debts she alone does everything she
can to raise the funds and avoid releasing possible shame on her family. Observing
Lucia’s desperate attempts to keep her family safe Martin comes to sympathize
with her, even growing affections for her. However, Martin’s hard-nosed partner
Nagel (Roy Roberts) continues to pursue the debts threatening harm to her,
resulting in Martin sacrificing himself to protect Lucia and her family.
For what comes down to part suspense thriller and part film
noir, The Reckless Moment shines brightest as a work of director’s Max
Ophüls’ creative why in which he uses staging and camera. It may go unnoticed
by many viewers the use in which Ophüls moves his camera to create subtly
elaborate shots that aid in carrying the picture and its story in a dramatic fashion
that is immensely smoother and more compelling than the typical Hollywood
feature filmmaker. With long, elaborate takes the camera moves through a series
of movements. pans, tilts, dollies, and cranes, many times through different
rooms and even from one story to another to follow action that makes the film visually
more interesting in its delivery through the simplest of actions of the
characters. Because of this filmmaking and strong performances by its
relatively small cast the film feels just a little grander as the story weaves
us through the little piece of the world that Lucia finds herself trapped
within.
Based on the 1947 novel “The Blank Wall” the screenplay is
written in an imaginative manner that uses mondain everyday moments of the
Lucia’s life to share exposition. Whether it is her simply riding in a car,
standing in line at the post office, or shopping at a local market the plot
builds with exposition unravelling around her making these tangible commonplace
settings and actions become moments escalating suspense. Hitchcock would come
to utilize the same story device in many of his best-known works of the 1950s
and 1960s with how moments of absolute calm and serenity can build into moments
of drama and even terror. Such writing plays well with Ophüls’ style of staging
his shots, producing a wonderful mix of story, script, and direction by subtle means.
For our starring duo are two veteran stars of the screen
with two very different paths to get to where they were. Headlining the picture
is male lead in James Mason, the British born actor in the middle of the a very
busy debut year in Hollywood, The Reckless Moment being only his third
American feature. His dark, handsome, and gentlemanly manner makes him
appealing, menacing, and sympathetic, the most complicated character in the
movie. For him to manifest a wide swath of character traits in just one feature
easily illustrates how he can be utilized effectively in many ways for
Hollywood years to come, becoming one of the industry’s great leading men.
Joan Bennett stars as the main character of Lucia, the
mother that simply wants to protect her family, unknowingly finding herself
spiraling into a world of death and blackmail just to protect her children.
Having successfully transitioned from the attractive blonde beauty from her
younger days to the femme fatale as she reached her late 30s, here he shows
signs of a third phase in her character style as she portrays a motherly
figure. Her performance as a mother that tries all she can to be strong, battling
through vulnerability delivering a female character with great range. Bennett’s
connection to production stems into her husband, Walter Wanger, being the
producer of the picture in the year before he would become part of scandal wounding
a man he believed was having an affair with Bennett.
The supporting cast is well rounded out by a collection of
performers with vast careers in stage and screen and futures in the rising
television medium. 24-year-old Geraldine Brooks portrays the 17-year-old
daughter of Lucia, Bae, with a naivete that is believable for any teenager who
believes she is in love with an older man while yet still being a child.
Shepperd Strudwick plays the sleazy man that makes Bae believe he is in love,
but will gladly leave her for the right amount. Roy Roberts supplies the
eminent danger as Nagel, the dangerous partner of Martin, who cares about his
money so much so that he will blackmail and even kill a common housewife just
out of frustration. All these performers may not be the names that carry the
picture, but their performances supply steady pillars upon which the structure
of the picture fleshes out its plot.
Upon release of The Reckless Moment critics praised
the acting performances, but generally panned the story, finding trouble with
the morals of the plot. The picture performed at a loss for Columbia Pictures,
falling over a half million dollars short of production costs at the box
office. This would be the final American produced picture for the short stint
Max Ophüls shared in Hollywood. With time The Reckless Moment would be
observed for the fine piece of the filmmaking it is, earning it consideration
of being one of Ophüls’ very best films in his career. Later generations of
movie watchers that discover the film admire it for Ophüls’ great camera style,
produced with steady care even though it was lost in the mix during its day.
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