The plot involves Lucia Harper (Bennett), who is trying to keep Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick), a low-life criminal, from seeing her teenage daughter, Bea (Geraldine Brooks). He tells Lucia that he’s willing to stop seeing Bea for a price. Lucia is confident that when she tells her daughter Darby’s true feelings, the relationship will come to an end. This is film noir, so no situation gets resolved that easily. Without giving anything away, let’s just say things go horribly wrong, exposing Lucia’s daughter and family to some pretty despicable characters.
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| Joan Bennett in a pivotal scene from The Reckless Moment |
Director 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.
Joan Bennett (1910–1990) began her film career during the early sound era. A natural blonde, Bennett dyed her hair as a plot device in the film Trade Winds (1938). As a brunette, Bennett projected a sultry persona that had her compared to brunette beauty Hedy Lamarr. During this period, she starred in two costume epics. She played Princess Maria Theresa in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) and Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940).
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| Joan Bennett in a still from one of her screen tests for Gone with the Wind. This is the famous paddock scene. |
Almost Scarlett O’Hara
Bennett was one of two finalists for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), along with Paulette Goddard, who appeared to be the front-runner. There was concern that Goddard’s marriage to Charley Chaplin wasn’t legal, which made Bennett’s prospects to play Scarlett almost certain until Vivian Leigh showed up to watch the filming of the burning of Atlanta scenes on the Selznick backlot. Despite that disappointment, Bennett had a distinguished film career. She worked with many of the top directors of the period, including George Cukor, Mitchell Leisen, Tay Garnett, Henry Hathaway, and Vincente Minnelli. She had a very successful collaboration with the director Fritz Lang. With Lang, she starred in the classics Man Hunt (1940), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945). She worked with the French director Jean Renoir in The Woman on the Beach and with director Zoltan Korda in The Macomber Affair (both 1947), co-starring Gregory Peck. In 1950, she became the perfect wife and mother in Father of the Bride (1950) and its sequel, Father’s Little Dividend (1951), both directed by Minnelli. A scandal after the release of Dividend pretty much ended Bennett’s film career. She continued to act on stage and on television, where she became a pop culture icon playing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1966-1971).
James Mason (1909-1984) was an English actor who was a popular film star in Great Britain before he came to Hollywood. Mason was a top box office star in the UK with hits like The Seventh Veil, The Wicked Lady (both 1945), and Odd Man Out (1947).
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| Barbara Stanwyck and James Mason in East Side, West Side (1949) |
Mason went to Hollywood to make Caught (1949), directed by Ophuls. He made three other films in 1949: Madame Bovary, East Side, West Side, and The Reckless Moment. In 1951, he entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox, where they signed a seven-year contract. At Fox, he starred as General Rommel in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) directed by Henry Hathaway. It was a commercial and financial success. He reprised the role in The Desert Rats (1953), co-starring a young Richard Burton, with direction by Robert Wise. In 1954, he played the evil Sir Brack in Prince Valiant and Captain Nemo in Disney’s 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea. That same year, he starred in the role he is probably most identified with, Norman Maine in A Star Is Born, co-starring Judy Garland. For his performance in that film, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He continued to act through the fifties and sixties in a variety of films, including North by Northwest, Journey to the Center of the Earth (both 1959), The Marriage-Go-Round (1961), Lolita (1962), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Georgy Girl (1966), and Mayerling (1968). During the 1970s and 1980s, Mason continued to act in film and on television. In 1982, Mason was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in The Verdict, starring Paul Newman.
Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor Trivia
Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor share the same birthday: February 27.
Bennett played Amy March in Little Women 1933.
Taylor played Amy in Little Women 1949.
Both Bennett and Taylor were grandmothers at 39.
Both Bennett and Taylor gave birth to one of their children on their birthdays.
Bennett and Taylor played mother and daughter, respectively, in Father of the Bride and Father’s Little Dividend.
You can read more about Joan Bennett by clicking here.
(1933) at RKO. As Katharine Hepburn’s self-centered younger sister Amy, Bennett was noticed by producer Walter Wanger. In 1935, Wanger had her cast as Sally McGregor, a character with mental health issues in Private Worlds. The film starred 
, Charles Boyer, and Joel McCrea. The picture was a hit and Bennett earned good notices; she was on her way.
. Until Vivien Leigh showed up, the coveted role was between Paulette Goddard and Bennett, with Goddard having the edge. Bennett’s screen tests still exist and suggest she might have been an interesting choice for the role. In spite of not being cast as Scarlett, Bennett’s career was on an upward arch. In 1939, the same year Gone With the Wind was released, Bennett made a beautiful Princess Maria Theresa opposite Louis Hayward in The Man in the Iron Mask. In 1940, she starred in four films including 
opposite George Raft and 
, again cast opposite Hayward.
(1940) opposite Walter Pigeon, Alice Reed in 
(1944), and the slutty Kitty March in 
(1945), both co-starring Edward G. Robinson. The late 1940s brought continued success. She co-starred with Gregory Peck in The Macomber Affair (1947) an adaptation of Ernest Hemmingway’s 
. That same year Bennett worked with Jean Renoir in The Woman on the Beach. She was under Lang’s direction again for the psychological melodrama Secret Beyond the Door (1948). In 1949, she worked with Max Ophuls as blackmail victim Lucia Harper in 
.
with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie was such a hit that it spawned a sequel, Father’s Little Dividend the next year. Bennett’s new image as the perfect wife and mother looked like it would continue through the rest of the 1950s, but a scandal all but destroyed her movie career.
. The role eventually went to Gwen Verdon but had Bennett taken the role, it would have reunited her with frequent Hollywood "Golden Age" costar Don Ameche. The story goes that David Wilde, Bennett’s fourth husband, didn’t think the role was dignified enough and talked her out of taking it. In 1990, Bennett suffered a heart attack and died. She is buried next to her parents in Lyme, Connecticut.