Format: Video from The Magic Flashdrive on laptop.
I went in to The Reckless Moment completely cold, so I was surprised when the great James Mason turned up about 20 minutes in. I like James Mason and tend to like films that he’s in. Even when I don’t like the film, I still like Mason. He makes a good villain; there’s something about that peculiar speech pattern of his that seems menacing when he wants it to be, even when (as here) he uses it to affect an accent. As it turns out, I’m glad that he was in this picture, because there’s not much else to watch.
So here’s the story: Lucia (pronounced “LOU-sha”) Harper (Joan Bennett) discovers that her precious and precocious daughter Beatrice (Geraldine Brooks) has been carrying on with a much older and shady individual named Ted Darby (Shepperd Strudwick). Lucia heads out to tell Darby to stay away from her daughter. Darby says he will, but only if she pays him off. Offended, Lucia returns home and confronts Bea, who tells her that she intends to continue seeing Darby.
