Of Max Ophuls' American features, The Reckless Moment and Caught (both 1949) are masterpieces of the kind ofdark melodrama that exposed the quality of domestic American life in the late forties. Ophuls shares withSirk an outsider's insights into postwar American society; The Reckless Moment builds its considerablesuspense on the illusions harbored by the suburban middle-class woman. Joan Bennett stars as a repressedbut contented housewife whose routine existence is shattered by her daughter's involvement with aphilanderer, and by her own role in his death. James Mason is cast against type as a lower-classblackmailer who smoothes his way into Bennett's life, trying to pin her down. Their intense spider-and-flyrelationship gradually softens as his wistful charm turns to sympathy. Ophuls' eye for detail in deep-focuscompositions, made famous in his French films La Ronde and Lola Montes, is equally evident here, andBurnett Guffey's camerawork uses the sunlight of a small-town locale for a harsh Southern (California)exposure.