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      The Reckless Moment

      Released Dec 29, 1949 1h 22m Mystery & Thriller Drama List
      Reviews 72% Audience Score 500+ Ratings While fighting with girlfriend Bea Harper (Geraldine Brooks), Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick) takes a spill that leads to his death. Desperate to keep her daughter out of jail, Bea's mother, Lucia (Joan Bennett), disposes of the body. Meanwhile, Lucia's suspicions that Ted had sleazy friends are confirmed when gangster Martin Donnelly (James Mason) materializes with the intention of extorting cash from the Darbys. Yet when Martin and Lucia grow increasingly close, the scheme starts to splinter. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

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      Sean Axmaker Parallax View It certainly makes for the purest and most impossible love of [Max] Ophuls' films, and for me, the most emotionally compelling. Sep 28, 2009 Full Review Chris Cabin Filmcritic.com a rather original take on what is usually a very pedestrian setup Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 12, 2009 Full Review Daniel Kasman d+kaz. intelligent movie reviews Rated: A- Dec 24, 2007 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews A very engaging thriller... Rated: A- Mar 12, 2003 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      nick s Very well done noir, with great acting and directing. Lots of nice camera work and scene blocking. Character development a little rushed, but always hard to balance that against keeping the story moving. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/11/24 Full Review jordan m I was looking forward to seeing this in the few days leading up to it, partially because it'd been quite a while (97 days according to my LB journal) since I'd watched an old black & white movie, but also because I've really not seen much from the noir genre. Its 82-minute runtime had me suspecting I would enjoy this pretty thoroughly, and indeed I did up til about the halfway point, where her efforts to acquire money got a little monotonous. It's hard to put myself in the shoes of a parent who would spend $5,000 in 1949 money (equivalent to $60,400 today according to this inflation calculator) for the sole purpose of hoping that some bad guys wouldn't tell the whole town that my kid was dating someone she shouldn't have, particularly one who has every intention of leaving said town for an art school soon. I think the plot would have been more believable if they were threatening to tell on her for tampering with the dead body, an act she probably shouldn't have gotten away with. However, it was easy enough to look past those problems and enjoy the movie for its interesting spin on motherhood and its use of a beleaguered parent as the star of the show and the primary love interest. I wish I'd read in advance about Ophuls, I would've paid more attention to the tracking shots! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review stu b A tight and tidy suspenser--only 80 minutes long--starring Joan Bennett as a suburban Cali mom who sets out to slam the brakes on the relationship between her daughter and the girl's shady, much older boyfriend, only to find herself knee-deep in blackmail, murder, and an unexpected romantic entanglement of her own. The action begins with Bennett confronting her daughter's lover, segues into a series of visits from the mysterious blackmailer (James Mason, in one of his first American screen roles), and never lets up. Great noir? No. But enjoyable? Yes. Based on a novel, "The Blank Wall", by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. See it. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/11/22 Full Review paul d Max Ophuls' The Reckless Moment is a very good film. Typical for that era, it tells its story in a taut, economical way. It's ostensibly a crime drama but really a human drama and a love story. The censors of the late 40s kept this under control, but made in a different era it might have been quite steamy. James Mason and Joan Bennett are both excellent. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review William L If you can describe The Reckless Moment in one word, it would probably be 'insubstantial'. Great noirs are built off a sense of intrigue, suspense, and unpredictability, and this Ophüls film lacks in all three. The exceptionally short runtime means that character development is tossed out the window (particularly for Mason's Martin Donnelly, who flips from cold-hearted blackmailer to fiercely loyal, hopelessly romantic protector within about ten seconds of meeting Bennett's Lucia Harper), but somehow also manages to be boring despite the opportunity to trim fat. The premise offers some potential for real thrills - a domestic housewife finds herself covering up the accidental killing of a man to protect her daughter, only to be dragged into a blackmail scheme - but never builds up any intensity; when Lucia encounters a corpse on her beach and rushes to dispose of it, it is composed in such a workmanlike, uninteresting fashion, which is sustained as the runtime goes on. Bennett herself tries hard to salvage this mess and with a different script could really carry a female-led noir, but can only do so much. No idea why this is considered favorably alongside so many better examples of the genre of the era. (2.5/5) Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/10/21 Full Review kevin w An interesting bit of 1950s style overwrought melodrama as a teen gets mixed up in a murder and her mother (Joan Bennett) is therefore forced to some decidedly underhanded work to keep scandal at bay. A smooth blackmailer gets involved forthwith (James Mason with a credible Irish brogue) and what soon develops is an under-the-table romance, only hinted at. She gets a break from the all too intrusive family life and he gets a touch of the decent side of the tracks. Filmed in many Newport Beach locations this stew makes it abundantly clear how constricting "normal family life" can be. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Reckless Moment

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis While fighting with girlfriend Bea Harper (Geraldine Brooks), Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick) takes a spill that leads to his death. Desperate to keep her daughter out of jail, Bea's mother, Lucia (Joan Bennett), disposes of the body. Meanwhile, Lucia's suspicions that Ted had sleazy friends are confirmed when gangster Martin Donnelly (James Mason) materializes with the intention of extorting cash from the Darbys. Yet when Martin and Lucia grow increasingly close, the scheme starts to splinter.
      Director
      Max Ophuls
      Screenwriter
      Mel Dinelli, Henry Garson, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Robert E. Kent, Robert W. Soderberg
      Distributor
      Columbia Pictures
      Production Co
      Columbia Pictures Corporation
      Genre
      Mystery & Thriller, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Dec 29, 1949, Wide
      Runtime
      1h 22m
      Sound Mix
      Mono