Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

TheMovieSmith As a fan of film noir I was excited to find another movie to watch. Little did I know what I was in store for. The lead character was a prime example of a gold digger. I know that looking at a movie through the lens of the present day will distort the original work however I find it hard to believe that a normal woman in the 1940's could be that obsessed with 'bagging a rich one'. The main character spends the entire film whining about wanting to be rich all the while hating herself for being a gold digger (You can't have your cake and eat it too). I know they wanted to make her seem naive but it completely backfired. She is just a horrible woman and has no redeeming value whatsoever as a character. The performances seem dry and forced; absolutely no chemistry between Leonore and the doctor. There is even less chemistry between her and Smith. I find it hard to believe she could have ever fooled herself into loving him (as she claims in the film). Smith is also the prime example of a terrible man and is quite possible a worse human than her. Marrying her just to spite his doctor and then ruling her life at every turn. He is however more believable at being a cad then she is as a gold digger. In a movie full of garbage the most insulting thing to contemplate is that a 'happy ending' (complete with an uplifting score) is the woman's child being still born. After pleading with her husband not to take her baby away from him she is relieved to have the baby die so she can be free to marry the doctor she loves, a doctor (pediatrician) which is just as happy to have the baby and husband out of the picture so he can finally have his one true love. Mindless dribble at its finest. All in all the film is an early example of tawdry soap opera complete with terrible acting and a crummy plot.

Spikeopath Caught is directed by Max Ophüls and adapted to screenplay by Arthur Laurents from the novel Wild Calendar written by Libbie Block. It stars Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, James Mason, Frank Ferguson and Curt Bois. Music is by Frederick Hollander and cinematography by Lee Garmes. Seeking to make a comfy nest by marrying a rich man, Leonora Eames (Geddes) snags more than she bargained for when Smith Ohlrig (Ryan) becomes the man of her life. And then circumstance brings Doctor Larry Quinada (Mason) in to her life and things will never be the same again... Psychological swirls a go go in this fine piece of work. Story was changed somewhat by Ophüls after he was brought in as a last directing throw of the dice. Softening the harsh edges of Leonora's original persona on the page, he brings about a sort of piggy in the middle scenario. On one side she has a tyrant control freak of a husband, on the other she has a good honest gentleman doctor keen to impart his love to her life. It sounds an easy choice to make, but circumstance, the vagaries of noirish fate - of life affirming decisions, doesn't make this a straight forward narrative piece. Smith Ohlrig is based on Howard Hughes, who surprisingly didn't kick up too much of a fuss once the word got out. This is one troubled character, mean and controlling, superbly portrayed by a chilling Robert Ryan, it's just a pity there isn't time in the piece for more of Ryan's forceful nastiness. The best scenes feature Ryan, the shamble of the marriage is adroitly filmed by Ophüls around the gloomy Ohlrig mansion, with reverse shots, perception tinkerings and isolated shadow play emphasising the relationship from hell - the impact of Lee Garmes' (Nightmare Alley) photography and the art direction of Frank Paul Sylos (The Great Flamarion) also not to be under estimated. Leonora is a well written character, it would have been easy to have her as weak willed and spineless, but there's a strong feminist bent afforded her by the makers, giving her some guts and intelligence to off set the desperate situation she will find herself in later in the play. Geddes ticks all the right boxes for the emotional requirements of the role, never over doing the histrionics. Mason saunters into the pic with a grace and elegance that made the American market sit up and take notice, a class act and he fits the role perfectly. Ophüls steers this one admirably throughout, arriving at a culminating finale that's guaranteed to make you have conflicting feelings. 8/10

blanche-2 Barbara Bel Geddes is "Caught" by Robert Ryan in this 1949 film also starring Robert Ryan and James Mason.Bel Geddes is Leonora Eames, an attractive young woman who attends the Dorothy Dale Charm School, hoping to become a model and meet a rich man. She's encouraged in this goal by her sister, since they don't come from money. Leonora ultimately becomes a store model. When she's invited to a party on a yacht, she hesitates, but her sister encourages her to go. She dawdles for so long that she ends up sitting at the launch by herself, hoping someone comes along to take her.The man who shows up is Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), a very wealthy man, and soon, he and Leonora are married. Ohlrig, however, is a very disturbed, controlling individual and only proposes because he's angry with his psychiatrist.Though Leonora has money, jewels, and a life of leisure, Ohlrig is rarely home and when he is, he is verbally abusive or neglectful. Leonora leaves him, turns her back on the money, and gets a job as a receptionist in a pediatric practice run by Dr. Quinada. The doctor is James Mason. Hmm...nasty Robert Ryan with money...gorgeous, smooth-talking James Mason to whom money means very little...what's a girl to do. I only know what I'd do - in a heartbeat. Anyway, complications ensue, as Ohlrig tries to get his wife back, and she and Dr. Quinada fall in love.Bel Geddes is appropriately sweet and vulnerable as Leonora, and of course, Robert Ryan made a career out of playing brutish, cruel men, and he's terrific. I understand that in real life, he was an absolute doll. Mason is gentle and sincere as Dr. Quinada Though the ending is a little contrived, this is still a good movie in the hands of this cast and director Max Ophuls, who makes the point that those who worship money as a god can easily find themselves -- well, caught.

JasparLamarCrabb Possibly the strangest film to come out of Hollywood in the 1940s. Barbara Bel Geddes marries wealthy madman Robert Ryan and realizes pretty quickly that she needs to get out. She pretends to be poor and goes to work as a receptionist for kindly doctor James Mason. Directed with a lot of style by the great Max Ophuls, this film is astounding. It's also very audacious with an excellent cast. Bel Geddes, who never really had a substantial film career, is quite striking and Mason, in an early lead, is terrific. The movie, however, is stolen by Robert Ryan. As a thinly disguised Howard Hughes, he creates one of the screen's great villains. The screenplay is by Arthur Laurents and despite the outré situations, it's never campy or ludicrous.