108: The Reckless Moment

            After questioning the casting of James Mason in Bigger than Life (1956; #111) I’m happy to have found his talents put to such good use in Max Ophüls’ The Reckless Moment (1949).  The film was a point of departure both artistically and geographically for Ophüls, who would return to Europe and embark on the most acclaimed, and final, incarnation of his career after its completion.  That he chose to make a studio-controlled noir as his final work in English might seem strange to those familiar with his later European films, but thematically this is pure Max Ophüls. 

            In the remaining years of his life, Ophüls went on to direct The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) and Lola Montès (1955).  These are two of the best films featuring female protagonists who bend the rules of society.  Here he plays on similar themes, reversing roles and rules of the noir genre and eluding, as he does in those later films, to those unspoken rules about what a lady should and shouldn’t do.

            Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett) is determined to end her young daughter’s affair with an older man.  She’s discreet when she drives from the suburbs into downtown L.A.  If anyone knows where she’s gone they’re libel to ask some questions.  She meets the man in a bar and offers terms.  When he asks for money to keep the whole thing quiet she thinks she has his number.  Her daughter (Geraldine Brooks) would never stay with a man who offered to leave her for cold hard cash.  But when she returns home an argument erupts over the matter.  The daughter is irate and it takes every effort Lucia can muster to keep the rest of the house from knowing about the whole affair.  Her husband is away on business and hasn’t the time or ability to deal with such matters. 

            Things take a turn for the worse when the boyfriend stops by the boathouse that evening for a romantic rendezvous.  He and the daughter quarrel, and she strikes him before escaping to the main house.  It all seems to be over, but the next morning his lifeless body lays on the beachfront.  Almost instinctively Lucia disposes of the body out in deep water.  The man’s death appears to have been an accident, but she can’t know that for certain. 

            Paranoia over the incident turns to legitimate fear when a Mr. Donnelly (James Mason) calls the following evening.  It seems that the dead man used several love letters penned by Mrs. Harper’s daughter as collateral for a loan.  Murder or no murder, the contents of these writings would bring scandal, along with questions from the police, upon the family.  Donnelly demands money for the letters, adding further pressure to the household’s already strained finances.  However, as his relationship with Mrs. Harper grows while she attempts to obtain his asking price, his focus may no longer be on the money, but on the woman whom he’s blackmailing.

            Mason is perfectly suited for this role.  He plays it subtly, which is the right tone, as the situation is cause enough for alarm.  What’s so interesting about the film is how social concerns so deeply affect the character’s decisions.  Of course the whole situation could have been avoided had Mrs. Harper simply called the police, but what harm might that cause?  The home owner’s association and the ladies at the country club don’t take kindly to dead bodies on beaches.  And while we neither see nor hear mention of such specific judgmental eyes throughout the picture, they loom large in the unspoken words between the lines.

            The Reckless Moment is a social commentary at heart, and the questions of class and propriety that dictate why young suburban girls don’t date men who live in downtown hotels are at the center of that commentary.  These elements of unspoken sexual morality play a large part in Ophüls European films as well.  Here he also sheds, nay, shines a light on the trappings of suburban society and the false fronts of normality that dictate that order.  Likewise, there are contained herein illusion to a burgeoning commentary on race relations in film, focused on the family’s African American maid.

            The elements of the film: performances, commentary, a tad of Ophüls’ intricate cinematography, are brought together by a fantastic score that knows when and when not, to make its presence known.  This is not an Ophüls masterpiece, but it is a fine piece of filmmaking.

Language: English

Runtime 82 Minutes

Available @ Youtube.com

Grade: 2.5 Hats Off