Reckless Moment Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

Don't knock Herr Ophuls.

Now let's be reasonable about this.....anything made by Max (that's to his mates by the way) deserves a viewing. Unfortunately, Letter From An Unknown Woman(I love you Joan!!!!) or Madame De this is not...in fact it's an above average Hollywood film and that's it.

All great directors have average days.

Fails to generate enough heat

Time out rates this film in the top 100 but I don't really see why. A film about murder and blackmail has the ingredients to create real suspense but the film fails to do this. The main fault lies in the motivation of the two main characters particularly James Mason's which didn't really convince. Entertaining in it's way but not nearly as good as it's reputation led me to believe.

Disappointing

I wanted to watch this film having read the book, 'The Blank Wall' by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. The book is very good, unfortunately the film fails to capture the essence of the book and the character's motivation, mostly because the plot has been mucked around for no good reason I could fathom. 'Reckless Moment' has been compared to 'Mildred Pierce' with Joan Crawford, given the choice I would prefer to watch the latter which is a shame because I was hoping for a lost classic.

no bad......but not great

I did enjoy this film, but not as good as it could have been.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Mason builds it up

Always watchable James Mason adds spice to this odd tale about a mother who'd do anything to protect her daughter – like covering up a supposed murder for instance. Mason is convincingly menacing as the blackmailer at the outset. And his change of heart later in the movie is equally believable. Joan Bennet as the frantic mum has her moments but the character is irritating (though not as irritating as the rest of the family, including the pompous absent dad). If only her husband had been at home, the movie's moral seems to be, all would have been well. Men! Don't leave your wives alone! If your children murder someone she won't know what to do! You have been warned!!

Reckless Moment

Just goes to show that you need to make up your own mind and not be swayed by others. After reading the reviews re the above I wish I hadn't reserved it. Very quickly discovered it was an excellent film, though at times I found it quite funny. Don't think this was meant to be but felt sorry for blackmailer as he was constantly interrupted. Give it a try - if you like Hitchcock you may find you like this.