Directed by Max Ophuls in his last feature in the United States, The Reckless Moment is a seamless blend of noir and melodrama, bolstered by a taut screenplay, nuanced characters, and incredible performances, resulting in a suspenseful and thought-provoking film.
Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett), a middle-class housewife from the small beachside town of Balboa Island whose husband, Tom (Henry O’Neill), is frequently away on business, travels fifty miles to Los Angeles to meet with a lowlife criminal named Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick) to get him to stop seeing her seventeen-year-old daughter, Bea (Geraldine Brooks). Ted demands money to leave Bea, but Lucia refuses. After going home and telling Bea what happened, she refuses to trust her mother and instead meets Ted at the boathouse that night, where he admits Lucia told the truth. As a result, a dispute ensues, and as Ted chases her, she shoves him, causing him to trip and fall into the anchor, which ultimately kills him. Lucia discovers him the following morning and disposes of his body. The police investigation begins. But Lucia’s difficulties are only beginning, as a loan shark, Nagel (Roy Roberts), sends his partner, Martin Donnelly (James Mason), to blackmail her for $5000. They have access to Bea’s love letters that she wrote to Ted, and they threaten to release the letters to the police if she does not pay the money. Can Lucia save her daughter’s life?
Following the crime, the cover-up, in which Lucia attempts frantically to save Bea, creates several suspenseful moments. Apart from its noir elements, the film is mostly a melodrama, with its central conflict around Lucia and Martin’s relationship, specifically the development of his one-sided love for Lucia. The screenplay has the challenge of convincingly depicting his evolving affection for her in a short amount of time, and it does so brilliantly, which is the key to the film’s success. His attraction to her stems from her simplicity and sincerity and the fact that she embodies everything he wishes to have: a middle-class upbringing, solid family values, love and dedication to her children, and seemingly ordinary domestic life, but he has not had the fortune to experience it. After spending time with her, he realizes what he has been missing out on and how drastically different it is from his lifestyle—a life of crime he has grown sick and tired of. In addition, Donnelly does not exhibit the stereotypical gangster characteristics of being intimidating, fearful, or domineering. Instead, he comes across as a smooth-talking, charming gentleman, largely thanks to the casting of James Mason as Martin Donnelly. Mason oozes charm (and doesn’t have that gangster aura), and his outstanding portrayal as a weary and unhappy human being full of regrets helps add layers to his character and establish his relationship with Lucia effectively.
After watching the film, one can’t help but feel that Bea’s character could have been fleshed out more by exhibiting her inner turmoil following the crime and delving deeper into themes like morality. But then again, it’s not about her, as Ophuls convincingly drives home his point about the mother’s love and the lengths to which the parents will go to protect their children and keep them from a life of disaster. She does everything she can to keep Bea’s name hidden, including burying the dead corpse alone, attempting to take out a loan and pawn her jewelry to pay the loan sharks, and even considering confessing to the murder to prevent ruining her daughter’s life. Furthermore, Ophuls’ smooth and fluent camera movements place us right by her side and make us feel her urgency and desperation.
Lucia is a fascinating character through which Ophuls investigates postwar American middle-class society. Lucia lives in an affluent suburb and is the backbone of the family she supports, but she seems to have no social or economic independence. For instance, after being blackmailed by Martin, she rushes from one location to another, begging for money because she has no other source of income other than the money her husband provides for home needs. In addition to the loneliness that has resulted from her husband’s absence, Lucia feels trapped because she has no other social life beyond her family, which was a conscious decision but exacerbated her feelings of social isolation. Joan Bennett’s superb portrayal lends depth to this multifaceted character. Her anguish and sense of helplessness are palpable throughout her performance, particularly in her face and body language as she desperately tries to save her child.
The Reckless Moment is a satisfying cinematic experience that follows the journey of two lonely strangers from entirely different backgrounds who meet through strange circumstances and come to mean something to each other during a pivotal moment in their lives.
The Reckless Moment movie links: Letterboxd, Wikipedia
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