The Reckless Moment Photos

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Cast

James Mason
as Martin Donnelly

Joan Bennett
as Lucia Harper

Geraldine Brooks
as Bea Harper

David Bair
as David Harper

Henry O'Neill
as Mr. Harper

Shepperd Strudwick
as Ted Darby

David Blair
as David Harper

Roy Roberts
as Nagle

Frances E. Williams
as Sybil

Paul E. Burns
as Desk Clerk

Dan Jackson
as Drummer

Danny Jackson
as Drummer

Claire Carleton
as Blonde

Billy Snyder
as Gambler

John Monaghan
as Policeman

Peter Brocco
as Bartender

Karl (Killer) Davis
as Wrestler

Virginia Hunter
as Girl

Joe Palma
as Card Player

Penny O'Connor
as Liza

Bruce Gilbert Norman
as Dennis

Sharon Monaghan
as Bridget

Robert Hyatt
as Mud

Ann Shoemaker
as Mrs. Feller

Everett Glass
as Drug Clerk

Buddy Gorman
as Magazine Clerk

Louis Mason
as Mike

Charles Marsh
as Newsman

Body Davis
as Tall Man

Gail Bonney
as Woman

Dorothy Phillips
as Woman

Pat Barton
as Receptionist

John K. Butler
as Pawnbroker

Kathryn Card
as Mrs. Loring

Joseph Palmas
as Card Player

Pat O'Malley
as Bank Guard

Charles Evans
as Bank Official

Jessie Arnold
as Old Lady

Boyd Davis
as Tall Man

Charles Jordan
as Man

Celeste Savoi
as Waitress

Norman Leavitt
as Second Postal Clerk

Joe Rechts
as Newsboy

William Schallert
as Lieutenant

Cosmo Sardo
as Man

Holger Bendixen
as Man

Evelyn Moriarity
as Woman

Al Bayne
as Man

Robert Gordon
as Man

Ed Pine
as Man

Jack Baker
as Man

John Roy
as Man

Sue Moore
as Woman

Kenneth Kendall
as Man

Joe Recht
as Newsboy

Richard Mickelson
as Man

David Levitt
as Man

Mike Mahoney
as Policeman

Glenn Thompson
as Policeman

Barbara Hatton
as Woman

George Dockstader
as Man

Harry Harvey
as Post Office Clerk

Barry Regan
as Man

Byron Poindexter
as Man

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Critic Reviews for The Reckless Moment

Audience Reviews for The Reckless Moment

• Jun 10, 2014

  Some obvious Hayes Code constraints keep this film from being meaner and more twisted, but all in all, not a bad story about a mother trying to keep her family's respectable name out of the muck when her reckless daughter gets in involved with a hustler, and attracts a blackmailer (James Mason glows in this role.) Credible, well-structured, and well-conceived, The Reckless Moment is a cut above the usual fare.
  Pamela D Super Reviewer
• May 16, 2012

  The last of director Max Ophüls' Hollywood films, The Reckless Moment doesn't necessarily distinguish itself other than Joan Bennett's intense performance. It's actually a rather unconventional film noir starring Bennett as the well-to-do mother of a teenage daughter who's gotten herself mixed up with the wrong sort of man. The mother goes to confront this man and he offers to stop seeing the girl in exchange for a payoff. When he comes snooping around late one night, the daughter rejects him physically, and the man winds up dead. Desperate to keep her daughter out of trouble, the mother covers up the any evidence the dead man was ever there and and dumps his body off somewhere else. Soon afterward, a blackmailer (James Mason) enters the picture, threatening to expose the girl's love letters to the deceased man if he's not given $5000. In spite of a somewhat ridiculous storyline, Bennett shines as the no-nonsense, unbending woman who fights to protect the cozy home she's created. The father is completely out of the picture, of course, and it's up to the strong mother figure to keep this structure of civility from crashing down around their ears. James Mason as the charming villain meets the only end he can possibly meet within the film's circumstances. It's a shame for such a strong woman to have to go without the love of a man. Duty tells her to remain faithful to the disembodied voice over the telephone, rather than run off with the charming and dangerously foreign blackmailer, but standards and morals of the 1940s dictates this more forcibly than the heart does.
  Devon B Super Reviewer
• Jan 23, 2012

  Taut drama with the always underrated Joan Bennett great as the panicked mother and James Mason just right as the conflicted anti-hero. Wonderfully directed by Ophuls and atmospherically shot this was updated as The Deep End with Tilda Swinton also a fine film but this has a distinct allure of its own.
  jay n Super Reviewer
• Aug 19, 2010

  nominally film noir, the film has more in common with the melodramas of douglas sirk. based on a story from the ladie's home journal, as many so-called 'women's pictures' were, the plot follows an upper middle class housewife trying to keep her family running smoothly in her husband's absence. and when i say follows i also mean literally with ophuls trademark sweeping camera moves. joan bennett is given a chance to break out of bad girl roles as the family matriarch who tries to interfere in her daughter's affair with a scoundrel. when he is accidentally killed shortly afterward, she takes it on herself to dispose of the body in order to protect her offspring! this proves to be a fatal error as she is soon confronted by a handsome blackmailer in the figure of james mason, leading to a rather unlikely turn of events. i don't think the story is fleshed out enough to be entirely convincing. the best scenes are those of joan fruitlessly trying to raise the money, depicting the powerlessness of women in a patriarchal society. the film was remade in 2001 as the deep end with tilda swinton
  Stella D Super Reviewer

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