After discovering the dead body of her teenage daughter's lover, a housewife takes desperate measures to protect her family from scandal.
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Title: The Reckless Moment (1949)
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Edit
Cast
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| James Mason | ... | Martin Donnelly | |
| Joan Bennett | ... | Lucia Harper | |
| Geraldine Brooks | ... | Beatrice 'Bea' Harper | |
| Henry O'Neill | ... | Tom Harper | |
| Shepperd Strudwick | ... | Ted Darby | |
 |
David Bair | ... | David Harper |
| Roy Roberts | ... | Nagel | |
Edit
Plot Summary
|
Plot Synopsis
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Storyline
In the charming community of Balboa 50 miles from Los Angeles, middle-class housewife Lucia Harper travels to Los Angeles to meet scoundrel, Ted Darby. Her seventeen year-old daughter Beatrice is in love with Ted. He asks for money to leave Bea, but Lucia refuses to give any. Bea does not believe her mother when told and during the night she sneaks out to the boat garage to meet Ted who admits that Lucia told the truth. Bea pushes him and Ted falls to his on an anchor. The next morning, Lucia finds the body and assumes that Bea has killed her lover. She decides to get rid of the corpse and puts it in her boat and dumps it far from home. When the police find Ted, a stranger, Martin Donnelly, visits Lucia to blackmail her on behalf of his partner, Nagel who has several letters Bea had written to Ted. Donnelly wants $5000 for the letters. The desperate Lucia tries to raise the amount. Martin falls in love with Lucia and tries to help her too. The dangerous Nagel wants to receive the ... Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Plot Keywords:
mother disapproves of boyfriend | getting away with murder | killing in self defense | three word title | hiding a dead body |Taglines:
A wild web of violence drew them irresistibly toward one another ! See more »Parents Guide:
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Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
26 December 1949 (Denmark) See more »Also Known As:
The Blank Wall See more »Edit
Box Office
Budget:
$882,653 (estimated)Company Credits
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IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)Color:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1Frequently Asked Questions
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'The Reckless Moment' is Max Ophuls' excellent 1949 suspense melodrama, starring James Mason as a blackmailer who falls in love with his desperate victim (Joan Bennett).
Ophuls direction is superb, with the suspense mounting in every scene as housewife Bennett, mistakenly believing her daughter has killed a man, disposes the body and tries desperately to hide the girl's involvement from the police and her family. Then Mason appears, demanding money for incriminating love letters he has which the daughter had written to the dead man. The plot thickens from there, with Bennett trying to shield her family from scandal as the blackmailer begins to admire and then love the devoted housewife and mother.
James Mason is always excellent in sinister roles, and his performance here is one of his best, though his character's motivation isn't quite clear. By his own admission, he's a loser who's never done a decent thing in his life, so why he suddenly develops a conscience is never fully explained.
But who wouldn't fall in love with beautiful Joan Bennett, giving the performance of her career as the desperate mother who's commonplace life is suddenly turned upside down by crime and blackmail. Ophuls, who the year before had guided Joan Fontaine through one of her greatest performances in 'Letter From an Unknown Woman,' drew from Bennett her most natural, believable performance. She's never been better.
Highly recommended for the outstanding direction and two great stars in peak form.