The Reckless Moment (1949)

Director:

Max Ophüls

Writers:

Mel Dinelli (adaptation)
Henry Garson (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

29 December 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Plot:

After discovering the dead body of Bea Harper's lover, Bea's mother Lucia hides the body under the assumption...

Plot Keywords:

Blackmail | Corpse | Mother Daughter Relationship | Femme Fatale | Car Accident

Cast

James Mason	...	Martin Donnelly
Joan Bennett	...	Lucia Harper
Geraldine Brooks	...	Bea Harper
Henry O'Neill	...	Tom Harper
Shepperd Strudwick	...	Ted Darby
David Bair	...	David Harper
Roy Roberts	...	Nagel
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jessie Arnold	...	Old Lady (uncredited)
Jack Baker	...	Man (uncredited)
Pat Barton	...	Receptionist (uncredited)
Al Bayne	...	Man (uncredited)
Holger Bendixen	...	Man (uncredited)
Gail Bonney	...	Woman (uncredited)
Peter Brocco	...	Pete - Bartender (uncredited)
Paul E. Burns	...	Desk Clerk (uncredited)
John Butler	...	Pawnbroker (uncredited)
Kathryn Card	...	Mrs. Loring (uncredited)
Claire Carleton	...	Blond (uncredited)
Boyd Davis	...	Tall Man in Post Office (uncredited)
Karl 'Killer' Davis	...	Wrestler (uncredited)
George Dockstader	...	Man (uncredited)
Charles Evans	...	Bank Official (uncredited)
Charles Ferguson	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Everett Glass	...	Drug Clerk (uncredited)
Robert Gordon	...	Man (uncredited)
Buddy Gorman	...	Magazine Clerk (uncredited)
Harry Harvey	...	Post Office Clerk (uncredited)
Barbara Hatton	...	Woman (uncredited)
Virginia Hunter	...	Girl (uncredited)
Danny Jackson	...	Drummer (uncredited)
Charles Jordan	...	Man (uncredited)
Kenneth Kendall	...	Man (uncredited)
Norman Leavitt	...	Second Postal Clerk (uncredited)
David Levitt	...	Man (uncredited)
Mike Mahoney	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Charles Marsh	...	Bob - Newsper Vendor (uncredited)
Louis Mason	...	Mike (uncredited)
Richard Mickelson	...	Man (uncredited)
John Monaghan	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Sharon Monaghan	...	Bridget (uncredited)
Sue Moore	...	Woman (uncredited)
Evelyn Moriarty	...	Woman (uncredited)
Bruce Gilbert Norman	...	Dennie (uncredited)
Penny O'Connor	...	Liza (uncredited)
Pat O'Malley	...	Bank Guard (uncredited)
Joe Palma	...	Card Player (uncredited)
Dorothy Phillips	...	Woman (uncredited)
Ed Pine	...	Man (uncredited)
Joe Ploski	...	Clerk in Bus Depot (uncredited)
Byron Poindexter	...	Man (uncredited)
Joe Recht	...	Newsboy (uncredited)
Barry Regan	...	Man (uncredited)
John Roy	...	Man (uncredited)
Cosmo Sardo	...	Man (uncredited)
Celeste Savoi	...	Waitress (uncredited)
William Schallert	...	Police Lieutenant (uncredited)
Ann Shoemaker	...	Mrs. Catherine Feller (uncredited)
Billy Snyder	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Glenn Thompson	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Frances E. Williams	...	Sybil (uncredited)
Harry Wilson	...	Man in Bus Depot (uncredited)

Directed by
Max Ophüls		(as Max Opuls)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Mel Dinelli		adaptation
Henry Garson		screenplay
Elisabeth Sanxay Holding		Ladies Home Journal story "The Blank Wall"
Robert E. Kent		adaptation
Robert Soderberg		screenplay (as Robert W. Soderberg)

Produced by
Walter Wanger	....	producer

Original Music by
Hans J. Salter		(as Hans Salter)

Cinematography by
Burnett Guffey

Film Editing by
Gene Havlick

Art Direction by
Cary Odell

Set Decoration by
Frank Tuttle

Costume Design by
Jean Louis		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Carmen Dirigo	....	hair stylist (uncredited)
Newt Jones	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Ella Perkins	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Earl Bellamy	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Russell Malmgren	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Gert Andersen	....	camera operator (uncredited)
William Johnson	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Walter Meins	....	grip (uncredited)
Joseph Walters	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Morris Stoloff	....	musical director
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Frances McDowell	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1949) (USA) (theatrical)
• Europa Film (1950) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Union Film (1952) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Second Sight Films (2006) (UK) (DVD)

Also Known As:

"Les désemparés" - Belgium (French title), France
"Schweigegeld für Liebesbriefe" - Austria, West Germany
"Almas desnudas" - Spain
"Angstens timer" - Denmark
"De ontredderden" - Belgium (Flemish title)
"Kvinna i fara" - Sweden
"Mia lathos stigmi" - Greece (festival title)
"Momento de Perdição" - Portugal (imdb display title)
"Na Teia do Destino" - Brazil
"Paljastettuja sieluja" - Finland
"Psyhes horis maska" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Sgomento" - Italy
"Trenutak lakomislenosti" - Yugoslavia (Serbian title) (literal title)
"Vakmerö pillanat" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"Vrouwen in angst" - Netherlands (imdb display title)

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:12 (re-rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) | USA:Approved (certificate #13937) | Netherlands:18 (original rating) (1950) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The Balboa Island Car Ferry, used by Joan Bennett and James Mason, still travels the 1000 feet distance between Balboa Island and the Balboa Peninsula.

Quotes:

Martin:You have your family, I have my Nagel.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Maternal Overdrive (2006) (V)

The Fragile Surface of Middle-Class Life

Burnett Guffey's fluid camera pulls the viewer into THE RECKLESS MOMENT, grasping and constantly renewing our gaze. Lucia's (Joan Bennett)lakeside house seems impossibly enormous and labyrinthine as the heroine moves through it in a near-somnabulistic state. The camera's grip on the viewer is no less powerful when Lucia goes outside the house: this is because the dangerous outer world has invaded the safe American family home. For 80 minutes, the two worlds will be inseparable.

Others here have praised Joan Bennett's performance. It is also of interest to note that this is Bennett's transitional picture from single woman to matriarch. One year earlier, the actress appeared in THE SCAR, a still-underrated, oppressively dark film noir in which she is not a femme fatale--as she had so memorably been in SCARLET STREET and THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW--but a lonely doctor's receptionist drawn into the shadowy scheme of her lover/employer. Beginning with THE RECKLESS MOMENT, Bennett would go on to embody several maternal characters: among the most noteworthy would be in the next film, FATHER OF THE BRIDE.

The mother character is important here because it re-casts the family melodrama in Post-War terms. It is the mother, not the absent, disembodied father, who must restore the normality of her household. This is no weak, helpless woman. Lucia demonstrates assurance and bravery from the very beginning, as she enters the seedy underworld of Ted Darby, her young daughter's lover, played brilliantly by a virtually ignored Sheppard Strudwick. Later, when things go horribly wrong, Lucia never tells her husband about it. It is up to her to maintain a grip on the safe veneer of middle-class life.

At every turn, Bennett is matched by James Mason as Martin Donnelly. This a role Mason would be better know for, if this film had any real circulation apart from pirated video copies. For some reviewers, Martin is the most interesting character: his development is far more dramatic and thorough than that of the heroine. Mason is completely inside Donnelly and forces the viewer to believe the transition.

The film's supporting cast has little to criticize apart from David Blair as Lucia's incredibly annoying son. The seemingly ubiquitous Roy Roberts makes a authentically frightening villain. And Geraldine Brooks shows why this actress was so often cast in films during this period. There are several bit players to be noted: Kathryn Card and William Schallert, to name a couple. who, like Strudwick and Bennett herself would go on to later careers on the small screen.

THE RECKLESS MOMENT is badly in need of restoration and distribution on home video.