The Reckless Moment (1949)
Joan Bennett is, for all intents and purposes, a single mom. Her husband is overseas on business, and while she has to manage the household she has to dodge prying questions from her live-in father-in-law and deal with her young, rowdy son and rebellious teenage daughter, Geraldine Brooks. She doesn’t approve of her daughter’s much older, slimeball boyfriend, Shepperd Strudwick, and she warns him to leave her family alone. The next day, Shepperd turns up dead on the shore of their lake house!
The title of The Reckless Moment refers to Joan making the decision to protect her family above all else. The rest of the movie, after she finds the body and makes her reckless decision, she makes a series of stupid mistakes and drags James Mason down with her. He’s one of the blackmailers who gets involved in the mess, and while he’s trying to get the money from Joan, he also falls in love with her, despite any lack of a romantic storyline or any sparks or tender moments between them. It really doesn’t make any sense why he falls for her, and it’s clear from the get-go that she has absolutely zero interest in him, which also doesn’t make any sense, since he’s handsome and utterly devoted to her.
The Reckless Moment would have been a much better movie if Susan Hayward or Claudette Colbert were in the lead. They’re more attractive than Joan, and they’d breathe more passion into the character. Joan seemed very cold and was hard to root for. Also, it would have been more suspenseful if Joan’s character was a divorcee or a widow; James Mason would have had a fighting chance!
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on YouTube. And thanks "Max Ophuls" for posting!
More Joan Bennett movies here!
More James Mason movies here!
The title of The Reckless Moment refers to Joan making the decision to protect her family above all else. The rest of the movie, after she finds the body and makes her reckless decision, she makes a series of stupid mistakes and drags James Mason down with her. He’s one of the blackmailers who gets involved in the mess, and while he’s trying to get the money from Joan, he also falls in love with her, despite any lack of a romantic storyline or any sparks or tender moments between them. It really doesn’t make any sense why he falls for her, and it’s clear from the get-go that she has absolutely zero interest in him, which also doesn’t make any sense, since he’s handsome and utterly devoted to her.
The Reckless Moment would have been a much better movie if Susan Hayward or Claudette Colbert were in the lead. They’re more attractive than Joan, and they’d breathe more passion into the character. Joan seemed very cold and was hard to root for. Also, it would have been more suspenseful if Joan’s character was a divorcee or a widow; James Mason would have had a fighting chance!
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on YouTube. And thanks "Max Ophuls" for posting!
More Joan Bennett movies here!
More James Mason movies here!