THE RECKLESS MOMENT
US, 1949, 82 minutes, Black and white.
James Mason, Joan Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O ’Neill, Shepperd Strudwick, Roy Roberts.
Directed by Max Ophuls.
The Reckless Moment is a brief psychological drama. Based on a story from The Ladies’ Home Journal, it was also used as the basis, with a great attention to detail, in The Deep End (2001) with Tilda Swinton in the Joan Bennett, mother role.
The film focuses on Geraldine Brooks as a young girl, infatuated with a gambler (Shepperd Strudwick). Her mother threatens him and he comes to visit surreptitiously, clashes with the daughter, falls into the sea and drowns. The mother then removes the body and puts it in deeper water.
James Mason appears as an Irishman in the pay of a gangster (Roy Roberts) who wants to blackmail the family with letters from the young girl. However, in meeting the mother, he has a change of heart and does his best to defend her, even to staging a car accident that will indicate that somebody else killed the gambler. Henry O’ Neill appears as the boisterous and welcoming grandfather.
The film has the style of the 1940s – and is interesting to compare with the 2001 version. The film was directed by German-born Max Ophuls who made a number of films on the Continent, made four films in the United States in the late 40s: The Exile, Letters to an Unknown Woman, Caught (also with James Mason) and The Reckless Moment. After this he returned to France where he made La Ronde and Lola Montez in the 1950s.
1.A 1940s thriller? Black and white? Brief? Psychological? Crime?
2.The photography, California, homes, the water? The city? The musical score?
3.The title, with reference to Bea, with reference to Lucia? The finale with Martin?
4.The focus on Lucia, as mother, daughter, wife? Her going to the city? The confrontation with Ted Darby? Warning him off? His defiance? Her return home, the confrontation with Bea? The discovery that Bea had met Darby, finding his dead body on the beach? Her decision to remove the body, the effort to put it in the boat, the anchor? Getting rid of the body? Her return home? Talking with Bea? The situation seeming to be handled?
5.The home, Bea, her wilfulness, clashes with her mother, the discovery of the letters and her intense relationship with Darby? Tom, the kindly grandfather, welcoming? David, his age? The father absent in Berlin? The phone calls?
6.The police investigation? The arrival of Martin Donnelly? His personality? The threats? The letters? Asking for the money? Explaining that Nagel wanted the money?
7.Lucia, her attempts to find the money, the bank loan, the loan company, pawning her jewellery? Meeting with Martin?
8.The arrest on somebody on suspicion of killing Darby? The effect on Lucia, an innocent victim? His later escape?
9.Martin, his change of heart, meeting with Lucia, wanting to halve the money? The discussions with Nagel, fighting with him?
10.The discussions between Martin and Lucia, the solution, Martin’s fight with Nagel, putting him in the car, crashing the car? Nagel to blame for the killing?
11.The resolution of the situation? Innocence and guilt?
