The Reckless Moment shares with Caught (also 1949) certain film noir characteristics, as well as an outsider's insights into postwar American society: Ophuls' European perspective on suburban life--in particular, on the illusions harbored by the middle-class woman--is fascinating. Joan Bennett stars as a repressed but contented housewife whose routine existence is shattered by her daughter's involvement with a philanderer, and her own role in his death. James Mason is cast against type as a lower-class blackmailer who smoothes his way into Bennett's life, trying to pin her down. Their intense spider-and-fly relationship gradually softens as his wistful charm turns to sympathy. Ophuls' eye for detail in deep-focus compositions, made famous in his French films La Ronde and Lola Montes, is equally evident here, and Burnett Guffey's camerawork uses the sunlight of a small-town Southern California locale for a harsh exposure.