# Reckless Moment, The (1949)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

RECKLESS MOMENT, THE (director: Max Ophüls; screenwriter: from the short story "The Blank Wall" by Elisabeth S. Holding/Robert W. Soderberg/Robert Kent/Henry Garson/Mel Dinelli; cinematographer: Burnett Guffey; cast: James Mason (Martin Donnelly), Joan Bennett (Lucia Harper), Geraldine Brooks (Beatrice Harper), Henry O'Neill (Mr. Harper), Sheppard Strudwick (Ted Darby), David Blair (David Harper), Roy Roberts (Nagle), Frances Williams (Sybil), 1949)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Max Ophüls (Caught/Lola Montes/The Earrings of Madame de ...) is a director not usually associated with noir film, in fact his films tend to be the antithesis of such films. But, nonetheless, he has come-up with a first-class melodramatic thriller, very much in the noir spirit, by complementing Guffey's photographs of shadowy figures and a dark city scene, with long craning shots, quick-darting movements of the heroine's nervous actions, and a style of camerawork that is not necessarily suited for a noir film, using an encircling camera, giving the scene an airy feel of possible freedom. But these two opposing styles of camerawork successfully clash here, which suggests an entrapment of the characters, as they are caught on camera in their own elements and cannot escape from who they are and the class they were born into, no matter if it seems for the moment they are each entering into the other's world.

A voiceover begins the film by saying that last Christmas Mrs. Lucia Harper (Joan) had left her serene little town, an upper middle-class residence in Balboa, California, as the film via flashback shows us what transpired, as she goes 50-miles to Los Angeles and meets a slimy, older art dealer, Ted Darby (Sheppard), who has been seeing, against her permission, her 17-year-old daughter Bea (Brooks). The world of these two, is literally miles apart in every way. Los Angeles is where the young girl went to study art instead of going to college like her father wanted her to, and Lucia blames herself for backing her daughter's choice, thereby giving her a chance to meet undesirable types such as Darby.

Darby is in need of money, and he tells Lucia that if she gives him enough money, he will no longer see her daughter. Lucia feels that she has heard enough from him, and tells him that after she tells her daughter what he said, she is sure Bea will no longer be interested in him.

Lucia's husband is away for the holidays, building a bridge in Berlin, and her contact with him is through letters and periodic phone calls. The family, consisting of Bea's younger brother David (David), and Lucia's elderly and talkative father-in-law (O'Neill), and the live-in maid, the ever-trustworthy Negro Sybil (Williams), always seem to be around the house, as her whole life revolves around the family.

Lucia is anxious not to tarnish the family name in any possible way, she decides not to tell her husband what's going on, feeling that her talk with Bea should clear things. But Bea is at a rebellious stage and refuses to believe her mother or appreciate her interference. Instead, Bea meets Darby at the family boathouse that night and confronts him with what her mother said. The "Reckless Moment" occurs when she gets so upset with herself for believing him, that she slaps him and makes him dizzy by hitting him on the head with her flashlight, and while trying to run after her, he trips on the dock and accidently kills himself.

When Bea tells Lucia what happened, she decides to take her motor boat out at dawn, before the family is awake, and puts an anchor on the body and dumps him in the water. She tells Bea to forget about Darby and never mention his name again.

The newspaper headlines the next day are about Darby's body found as it washed ashore in Balboa, a place where murders do not happen. To add complications to the illegal act Lucia did, of not reporting the body to the police, she has a visitor, Martin Donnelly (Mason), who reads to her the mushy love letters Bea wrote to Darby, which the seedy Darby sold to a ruthless loanshark named Nagle (Roy). Donelly is a low-level crook, who works for Nagle, and is blackmailing Mrs. Harper for the amount of $5,000, or else he threatens to give the letters to the newspapers, which will allow the police to implicate her daughter in the murder. Lucia weighs his blackmail demands, and seems even more fearful of her middle-class bourgeois values being upset by some scandalous newspaper reports than anything else. Not having that kind of money on hand, she tries unsuccessfully to stall Donelly, but he tells her that he works for an impatient and vicious man, and she better deal with him.

The twist in the story is, that the gentlemanly acting Donelly gets enamored with the middle-class world of Mrs. Harper and becomes romantically inclined toward her, impressed that she would do anything to protect her daughter, something his mother back in Ireland would not have done for him. He feels his life could have been different if he met a woman like her. So when she can't get a loan and could only get $800 by hocking her jewelry, he tells her to forget it, she doesn't have to pay Nagle, the police have arrested someone for the crime. But Lucia protests, I can't let an innocent person go to jail for the crime he didn't do. Donelly tells her, "What's the use of sacrificing your family for him, he is only one of Darby's associates. If he's innocent of this one, he's guilty of others."

But Nagle is not satisfied with Donelly showing up without the money and visits Lucia, where he is told to wait for her in the boathouse, by Sybil. His presence is horrifying to the middle-class woman, but soon Donelly arrives and he fights with Nagle, getting stabbed in the process, but he is able to choke him to death, and when the frightened Lucia has enough of this underworld scene that she can take, she tells Donelly she wants to go to the police and tell all, he tells her he'll take care of things and not to do anything. He puts Nagle in his car and accidently goes off one of the sharp turns on the road, where he is severely injured. When Lucia catches up with him, she's in the car with Sybil, whom she relates exactly what happened, as they come upon the car crash; Donelly is still barely alive. He tells her he is dying anyway and will confess to killing both Darby and Nagle.

In the last scene, her husband calls and her family unaware of what she did for them, anxiously await his return. And she returns so easily to her bourgeois world, as if she never left it, as she resumes being an ordinary housewife, talking to her husband about the Christmas tree.

Bennett and Mason give sterling performances, pulling out all the nuances of their roles. The film is taut and tense, elegantly directed by Ophüls in a simple but powerful way. The Mason character, despite his gallantry, will still be considered a social outcast, while the Bennett character will go back to her ordinary world, never missing a beat. A very engaging thriller, every bit as good as the more respectable films the classy director has made.

    REVIEWED ON 2/3/2000         GRADE: A-

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

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