James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Ryan are "Caught"

Caught (1949) is an American film noir directed by Max Ophuls and starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Ryan. The screenplay was by Arthur Laurents from the novel Wild Calendar by Libbie Block.

Leonora Eames (Bel Geddes) always dreamed about being rich. Her dreams come true when she marries Smith Ohlrig a multimillionaire. Her dreams quickly turn into nightmares when Ohlrig turns out to be mentally unstable and abusive. Leonora eventually leaves Ohlrig, going to work in a doctor's office, and befriends Dr. Larry Quinada (Mason). The two eventually fall in love but there's one problem: she's married to Ohlig and he's not going to give Leonora up easily.

Max Ophuls (1931-1957) was born in Germany where his film career began. After it was clear the Nazis would take power in Germany, Ophuls, a jew, moved to France in 1933 where he became a French citizen in 1938. After the fall of France, he traveled through Switzerland and Italy, eventually ending up in the United States. In Hollywood, Ophuls directed Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Exile (1947), Joan Fontaine and Louis Jordan in Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), and Caught starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Ryan. The Reckless Moment would be his last Hollywood film before he returned to France, where he directed major successes La Ronde (1950) and The Earrings of Madame de…(1953) starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux.

James Mason (1909 – 1984) was an English actor who was a movie star in the UK before coming to Hollywood. His popular British films include The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady co-starring Margaret Lockwood (1945). His performance in Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) brought him international acclaim and success in Hollywood. In Hollywood he starred in four films in 1949: Caught, Madame Bovary with Jennifer Jones, The Reckless Moment with Joan Bennett, and East Side, West Side with Barbara Stanwyck. Other popular American films include The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), A Star is Born (1954), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Island in the Sun (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), and Lolita (1963). Mason continued to work in film and television up to the time of his death.

Barbara Bel Geddes (1922 – 2005) was an American stage and screen actress. She starred as Maggie in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). She played Irene Dunne’s daughter in I Remember Mama (1948), and was Midge, James Stewart’s on-again-off-again girlfriend in Vertigo (1958). Bel Geddes also worked on television during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1978, she starred as Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow on Dallas (1978 – 1990), the role for which she is most famous.

Robert Ryan (1909 - 1973) was an American film and stage actor. Ryan got his start in acting with a theater group in Chicago, where he was born, in the late-1930s. By 1939, he had a film contract with Paramount appearing in minor roles in a variety of pictures. In 1943, he signed a long-term contract with RKO based on his stage performance in Clash by Night (1941). The studio was grooming him for stardom with 1943’s Tender Comrade co-starring Ginger Rogers when he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving as a drill instructor. He resumed his career after the war and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in Crossfire (1947). Ryan worked on stage, on TV, and in film during the next three decades. His other film roles include The Set-Up (1949), Flying Leathernecks (1951), On Dangerous Ground (1951), Clash by Night (1952), and Bad Day at Black Rock (1954).

Robert Ryan and Barbara Bel Geddes

Caught trivia

• James Mason was originally cast as Smith Ohlrig, the role Robert Ryan played.
• Smith Ohlrig was supposedly based on Howard Hughes.
• This was Mason's first American film.
• The film has three famous TV moms in the cast: Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver of Leave it to Beaver), Natalie Schafer (Lovey Howell of Gilligan's Island), and Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie of Dallas),

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.

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Discussion questions

1. Contemporary reviews were negative but now the movie is considered a film noir classic. What do you think turned those critics off?
2. What did you think of James Mason's American film debut? Was he smart to switch roles with Robert Ryan?
3. Caught was Bel Geddes fourth movie in three years. What did you make of her performance? Any shades of Miss Ellie?
4. Many critics thought Robert Ryan's character was modeled after Howard Hughes. Did you see any resemblance?
5. Did anything about the film surprise you?