The Reckless Moment ( The Blank Wall ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
by Max Oph?ls
![The Reckless Moment ( The Blank Wall ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]](/images/The-Reckless-Moment-The-Blank-Wall-NON-USA-FORMAT-PAL-Reg-2-Import-Great-Britain-B000PSS25M-L.jpg)
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Max Oph?lsPrimary Contributor: David Bair
Primary Contributor: Geraldine Brooks
Primary Contributor: Henry O'Neill
Primary Contributor: James Mason
Primary Contributor: Joan Bennett
Primary Contributor: Roy Roberts
Primary Contributor: Shepperd Strudwick
Commentary: CategoryClassicFilms
Commentary: CategoryUSA
Commentary: film movie Classic
DVD: Region Code 2
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Import, PAL
Running Time: 79 minutes
Product features:
- THIS DVD WILL NOT WORK ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER
Movie Reviews of The Reckless Moment ( The Blank Wall ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Movie Review: A fine movie of fierce family love and subtle personal feelings...as well as death and blackmail
Summary: 4 Stars
Is The Reckless Moment a noir or a melodrama? I'll vote for both. Whatever it is, the film is a superb drama of, as one person has said, "maternal overdrive." And if the plot sounds familiar, think of that wonderful movie, The Deep End starring Tilda Swinton from 2001. The Deep End is a remake of The Reckless Moment.
Lucia Harper (Joan Bennett) is an upper-class wife and mother with a young, teen-age son and a 17-year-old daughter. Lucia's husband is away. The family lives in a fine ocean-front home in "the lovely community of Balboa," fifty miles south of Los Angeles. Bea Harper is just old enough to get herself in trouble with men and just young enough not to want to listen to her mother. The older man she's been seeing is a sleazy, charming opportunist. When Lucia realizes what's going on, she warns the man away...and soon she finds him dead at their boat house. She thinks her daughter was responsible. With little hesitation, Lucia Harper does what she thinks she must to protect her daughter and her family. She drags the body into a small boat and dumps it on the far side of the ocean inlet. When the body is eventually discovered, murder is suspected. And then Lucia is visited by a dark Irishman, Martin Donnelly (James Mason). He has letters written by her daughter to the man, letters which could be interpreted in a compromising way if they were turned over to the police or to the press. The price for silence? Thousands of dollars which Lucia can find no way to raise. In a subtle, slow rearrangement of feelings, Donnelly, who is a disreputable man hardened to pleadings, finds himself sympathetic to Lucia's determination to protect her family. Donnelly's partner, however, is made of harder and more cynical stuff. The conclusion takes place in the darkened boathouse and then in an act of sacrifice that may have you wondering about what you would have done.
I think this is at least a semi-noir because of the desperate fix Lucia Harper finds herself in. The more she tries to protect her daughter and the more she tries to raise the money the blackmailers want, it seems the more the consequences of her actions close in around her. The flip side of that noir coin is the role and personality of Martin Donnelly. Ever so slowly we can see him drawn to Lucia Harper. But he's drawn not simply to her as a person as he is to what she represents...love and determination, a stable family, a fierceness to protect those she loves. If Lucia Harper may be doomed by circumstances she wants to control but can't, Martin Donnelly may be doomed by feelings he never expected to have and for which there can be no happy ending.
The Reckless Moment starts out as Joan Bennett's movie. In my view she remains one of the least appreciated of Hollywood actresses. She played heartless women so effectively (Scarlet Street, for instance) that her versatility was obscured. Yet she could match Myrna Loy in good-natured irony and desirability, and was equally good at portraying lovingly exasperated mothers. She was shrewd, as well, being quite willing to play mothers of grown children as she moved into early middle-age. The Reckless Moment, however, becomes a two-person movie as soon as James Mason appears at Lucia's home bearing those letters. Mason was one of the great film actors. With a face that could stay calm but imply all sorts of feelings, some unpleasant and nearly all conflicted, just below the skin, with an incomparable voice and with great acting technique, Mason could turn dross into gold. Matched with Bennett, the two of them perform a kind of dance where each needs the other to do well.
How does The Deep End compare to The Reckless Moment? I think they are both first-rate movies. The Reckless Moment was Max Ophuls last American movie before he returned to Europe. It's available on a Region Two DVD from Second Sight in a fine black-and-white transfer. Special features include an introduction by Todd Haynes and a commentary by Lutz Bacher, credited as the author of Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios.
Summary of The Reckless Moment ( The Blank Wall ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD:it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ),SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery,SYNOPSIS: A blend of melodrama and film noir, The Reckless Moment stars Joan Bennett as Lucia Harper, a suburban housewife whose husband is away on business. Her daughter, Bea (Geraldine Brooks), an aspiring artist, has fallen for Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick), a shady older man from Los Angeles who claims to be an ex-art dealer. One night, after a secret rendezvous in the Harpers' boathouse that turns into an argument, Bea accidentally kills Darby. When Lucia discovers his body in the morning, she panics and dumps it in the lagoon instead of contacting the police, who would surely charge her daughter with murder. Her problems only increase when a suave Irish gangster named Donnelly (James Mason) shows up with a package of love letters from Bea to Darby, and blackmail on his mind. With her husband out of town, Lucia has no choice but to give in to his demands, and brings him along on a desperate quest to raise the money that takes them from bank to loan office to pawn shop. Along the way, Donnelly seems to develop sympathy -- even affection -- for her. When his boss shows up to pressure him into finishing the job, Donnelly's surprising decision sets up the film's startling climax. The Reckless Moment was remade in 2001 by Scott McGehee and David Seigel as The Deep End.DVD Video
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