‘The Reckless Moment’ or — Parental Pressure?
Ten minutes into ‘The Reckless Moment’ (1949) I found myself wondering what sort of movie I was watching: Was it a noir? A melodrama? A ‘woman’s picture’? A thriller? Turns out it’s all of the above but, primarily, it’s got to do with mothers and the constant pressures of family life pressing down on them until they practically shatter.
Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett) has her hands full looking after her household: her husband is away rebuilding Europe; she has a son who likes to run about half-naked; there’s a live-in aging parent and her teenage daughter is desperately in love with an unsavoury older man. Needless to say Lucia possesses a strong streak of determination what with all that to handle, but when the body of her daughter’s lover turns up near their boathouse leading Lucia to (mistakenly) believe her daughter is the murderer, that determination is severely tested. Oh well, at least things can’t get any worse.
Things get even worse when a blackmailer, Martin Donnelly (James Mason), turns up demanding $5,000 for her silence as his “boss” has evidence of Lucia’s daughters involvement with the deceased meaning the poor woman not only has to now cover up a murder she didn’t commit but also protect her daughter from the cops, frantically scrape a load of cash together AND keep it all hidden from her family and neighbours. The only thing that could make matters even worse is if she ends up strangely attracted to this somewhat rather charming blackmailer but that’s not going to happen… right?
Sounds like a piece of B-movie trash, and it kinda is, but there’s one thing I forgot to mention — it’s directed by Max Ophüls meaning we’re dealing with B-movie trash of the highest order and executed with dazzling skill. Although it’s easy to miss just how seriously impressive what Ophüls is pulling-off because in keeping with Lucia’s banal, suburban domestic setting there’s a sensation of restraint here (is this really the same director who would go on to make the visually deranged ‘Lola Montes’?) but if you look closely you soon pick up on what’s going on.
An example? There’s a fantastic moment when Lucia, attempting to make a phone call in a drug store, asks Donnelly for some change and it’s only after the action has occurred that we realise we’ve been treated to an immaculate lateral tracking shot that’s shown us the action, setting, life and movement in a single, buttery-smooth glide… and it’s GORGEOUS! Or how about when she’s in the bank manager’s office asking for a loan and it takes a few seconds for us to register there’s four or five separate planes and layers of action going on silently behind her? It’s deceptively complex in its simplicity but once attuned to firmly fixes our gaze and attention.
This is a film where everything is moving, in motion, and that’s appropriate because Lucia is a woman always on the go and never at a state of rest, and all because of her bloody family. This explains her attraction to Donnelly as it isn’t love (there’s no way on earth she’s going to commit carnal infidelity because her maternal pride annihilates any potential lust) but sheer envy — envy of his lack of attachments, envy of his freedom and envy of his agency. It’s not so much that she wants to run off with him but more to run off and BE him as it must be so less stressful being a gangster than a mother, and the thing is we know she’s possibly right.
So at the end there might be tears of catharsis as “normality” is restored but notice we say goodbye to Lucia through the bars of the home’s staircase banister with the implication that her family is an inescapable prison and ask yourself whether these are tears of relief we’re witnessing or tears of grief for an ungraspable freedom and the pain of the unbearable pressure of American domesticity? (also notice Lucia is constantly stalked by a Christmas tree throughout, the ultimate oppressive symbol of the tyranny of the idealised home and her omnipotent, tinsel-covered judge)
‘The Reckless Moment’ is an absolutely fantastic melodrama/noir. It’s got two outstanding performances by Mason and, especially, Bennett with a story that’s delightfully trashy and engaging as hell. But it’s the deceptively effortless control by Ophüls that really pulls you in, so deceptive you might not realise you might be watching a little masterpiece. There’s not a reckless moment in the entire film.
