Customer Reviews

Caught (1949) [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Few people are aware that the central character in Caught, Smith Ohlrig, was actually a parody of tycoon Howard Hughes. Directed by German ex-patriate Max Ophuls and produced at MGM, the film was made after Hughes reportedly affronted Ophuls by referring to him as "the oaf" when the latter worked at RKO under Hughes' erratic reign. After Ophuls left RKO for MGM, he orchestrated the film's creation as a sublime revenge against Hughes. Starring Robert Ryan, James Mason and Barbara Bel Geddes, Caught was an elegant entry that showcased Ryan's tremendous power as an actor. He seemed to intuitively recognize how to portray Ohlrig (Hughes), demonically effective as the cruel, self-centered magnate who marries ingenue Bel Geddes to spite his psychiatrist. As in many of his films, Ryan's performance is the biggest reason to see it, and as usual, one keeps hoping for more scenes in which he appears. Though Mason and Bel Geddes occupy more space in the film, it is clearly a "Ryan" film. Caught engages the audience most during the scenes involving Ryan and Bel Geddes, and was considered by many to be the best of Ophuls' American-made films. As a film noir, it contains all of the necessary elements of alienation and deception, and the opening scenes between Ryan and Bel Geddes, Ryan and his psychiatrist, Ryan and James Mason, and Ryan and his lackey (Curt Bois) are reason enough to see the film. The story itself is less effective than the sum of its parts, and should be seen by any movie buff interested in film noir.

Leonora (Barbara Bel Geddes) marries a rich man (Robert Ryan) and gets wealth but not happiness. To get away from her pointless life and the husband, who regards her as an employee, rather than a wife, she moves away and gets a job as a secretary for a doctor (James Mason).

This movie is not only well-written, well directed and well acted. It also has great cinematography and a good Noir atmosphere. The story isn't unique, but the combination of all these things result in a very good movie. Film Noir is one of my favorite genres and no Noir fan should miss this movie. The movie, and especially the Robert Ryan character (based on Howard Hughes) made me think of Citizen Kane. Noir fans can raise my rating a half star.

"Caught" is solid though slightly offbeat film noir. It certainly drives home the notion that money will not solve all your problems! As C unfolds, a very young Barbara Bel Geddes dreams of marrying a rich guy. That's the way to happiness! Barbara gets her wish and soon is in a loveless marriage to tycoon Robert Ryan. She has made her deal with the devil. Finally, she leaves him and takes a job as a receptionist for an idealistic Doctor, James Mason. She falls quickly in love but can't marry. There is a slight hurdle- Bel Geddes is pregnant by Ryan! This reviewer won't reveal the resolution- the curious will have to see C for themselves. The view here is that the fadeout is rather abrupt and even bizarre. Noir fans can still enjoy C for the following reasons: 1) The acting is strong, especially the male leads. Mason and Ryan almost always turn in stalwart performances. C is no exception. (Try to catch Ryan in "Executive Action" and Mason in "5 Fingers". The former concerns the JFK plot; the latter is a WW2 spy thriller. Both are undershown and underappreciated.) 2) The noir background of dark exterior, dimly lit rooms, murky lighting and general gloom is well done. 3) The supporting cast is excellent especially Frank Ferguson as Mason's partner and Curt Bois as Ryan's cloying flunky. Art Smith is wonderful as Ryan's patient but overwhelmed shrink. C is worth more than the sum of its parts. This is not a choice for those watching their very first noir movie. Old hands at the genre should be quite satisfied. For veterans, the 4 star rating is justified.

.......I might overrate this film because of her. However, there are many who are m ore impartial in this matter and they think highly of this film.

Perhaps that is because:
1 - There are three classy actors in lead roles: Bel Geddes, James Mason and the always-evil (it seems) Robert Ryan; 2 - some really nice film-noir cinematography with a lot of dark atmospheric scenes but faces lit up so can see them clearly; 3 - a feeling of impending violence and tension in the scenes involving Ryan which keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what may happen; 4 - Mason's contrasting and soft personality, and 5 - Bel Geddes' soft voice and winsome character which makes the viewer (not just me) care about her.

The aforementioned tension is probably why this movie is labeled a film noir but it really falls into more of the melodrama mode. Normally, that doesn't do it for me, but not in this film.

***SPOILER ALERT***The only part that turned me off was the ending in which the principal "good guys" seemed really happy and delighted that the baby had died! Wow, does that sound like the selfish attitudes of the modern-day world. A pathetic way to end a good film. Despicable ending or not, I'd sure like to see this on DVD. What's the holdup?

Last night, March 21, 2011, I watched this movie for the first time on Turner Classic Movies. I was never a big fan of Barbara Bel Geddes...but she was superb in this! Folks who love the work of Robert Ryan should put this one at the top of their "must see" list. Of course James Mason is wonderful in anything he touches. The one thing that classic movie buffs should look for is the "moving camera" effect/work of director, Max Ophuls. The night club scene in this film when James and Barbara dance around and through a big noisy crowd of folks is truly a joy to see. They talk and act like regular people and the best part is the scene feels real...not contrived as so many other films do. You all might want to look at the history of the actors' group, Enterprise, that made this film. After WWII a lot of wonderful actors formed film companies and tried to do their own work outside the giant movie companies like MGM. Many wonderful films were made before these independents went broke. This film is a good example of what great and good talent can do outside the control of the big moguls. I can only find this film in VHS form. But this is OK for this old gal...I was using VHS a long time before DVD. This is a good price and I look forward to many private viewings.

The talented director Max Ophlus (Imitation of life) -whose influence over Rainer Werner Fassbinder, was widely admitted by the extinct German master- dealt with this complex and terrible existential drama with master maturity.

Ophlus, like a social surgeon, dissected and embodied the dreamy fantasies of a woman who lives into a brainwashed ambiance according the fashionable patterns of the major celebrities. She is absolutely convinced her maxim happiness and total achievement as human being is to get married with a wealthy man.

Once she gets married, the pretended happiness dreamed by her leads her to another horizons. He is a neurotic though guy and his psychological abuses, will convince her she must give her life another shift.
She meets a human man (James Mason) who eventually will fall in love in her, but when she realizes she waits a baby from his hated husband, she decides to return.

Ophlus plays with the moral codes of these devastating times, when the horrors and spiritual wounds of the war permeated even the way of living into an atmosphere of cheap evasion as typical response after the most bloody War the world ever knew. Who's the prey and who is the depredator? Everyone plays in this messy puzzle and everyone wants to win. The pragmatism takes the place of the ethical behavior.

These illusions enrooted themselves with such intensity that became in behavior patterns. But when the eternal conflict of domain and power take place in a couple signed by different interests, the result may be unexpected.

Well acted and notably well written .

MGM / Wolfgang Reinhard Productions present "CAUGHT" (1949) (90 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan & Frank Ferguson --- Directed by Max Ophuls and released in February 17. 1949, our story line and film, Leonora Eame had married a man worth millions ... But her innocent dream became a tormented nightmare once she realized the truth about her husband. He is power mad and insane! ... Since he will not give her a divorce, she leaves a life of luxury and goes to work as a receptionist in an impoverished doctor's office in NYC's lower east side ... After a temporary reconciliation, with her husband, she conceives a child. By the time she finds out she is pregnant, she and the doctor have fallen in love ... A compelling and intelligent story which elicits fine performances from the principals under the skilled direction of Ophuls.

Under Max Ophüls (Director), Wolfgang Reinhardt (Producer), Libbie Block (Book Author), Arthur Laurents (Screenwriter), Lee Garmes (Cinematographer), Frederick Hollander (Composer (Music Score), Rudolph Polk (Musical Direction/Supervision), Robert Parrish (Editor), Paul F. Sylos (Art Director), Edward Boyle (Set Designer), Orry-Kelly (Costume Designer), Louise Wilson (Costume Designer), Gus Norin (Makeup), Jack Baur (Casting), Joe C. Gilpin (Production Manager) - - - - the cast includes James Mason (Larry Quinada), Barbara Bel Geddes (Leonora Eames), Robert Ryan (Smith Ohlrig), Ruth Brady (Maxine), Curt Bois (Franzi), Frank Ferguson (Dr. Hoffman), Art Smith (Psychiatrist), Sonia Darrin (Miss Chambers), Bernadene Hayes (Mrs. Rudecki), Ann Morrison (Miss Murray ),Wilton Graff (Gentry), Jim Hawkins (Kevin), Vicki Raw Stiener (Lorraine), Natalie Schafer (Dorothy Dale) - - - - - Film noir has sources not only in cinema but other artistic mediums as well...the low-key lighting schemes commonly linked with the classic mode are in the tradition of chiaroscuro and tenebrism, techniques using high contrasts of light and dark developed by 15th- and 16th-century painters associated with Mannerism and the Baroque...film noir's aesthetics are deeply influenced by German Expressionism, a cinematic movement of the 1910s and 1920s closely related to contemporaneous developments in theater, photography, painting, scultpture, and architecture...opportunities offered by the booming Hollywood film industry and, later, the threat of growing Nazi power led to the emigration of many important film artists working in Germany who had either been directly involved in the Expressionist movement or studied with its practitioners...Directors such as Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, and Michael Curtiz brought dramatic lighting techniques and a psychologically expressive approach to mise-en-scène with them to Hollywood, where they would make some of the most famous of classic noirs. Lang's 1931 masterwork, the German M, is among the first major crime films of the sound era to join a characteristically noirish visual style with a noir-type plot, one in which the protagonist is a criminal (as are his most successful pursuers). M was also the occasion for the first star performance by Peter Lorre, who would go on to act in several formative American noirs of the classic era ... featuring top performances from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays, along with a wonderful cast and supporting actors to bring it all together ... another winner from the vaults of almost forgotten film noir gems

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. James Mason
Date of Birth: 15 May 1909 - Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, UK
Date of Death: 27 July 1984 - Lausanne, Switzerland

2. Barbara Bel Geddes
Date of Birth: 31 October 1922 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 8 August 2005 - Northeast Harbor, Maine

3. Robert Ryan
Date of Birth: 11 November 1909 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death: 11 July 1973 - New York, New York

4. Max Ophüls (Director)
Date of Birth: 6 May 1902 - Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany
Date of Death: 25 March 1957 - Hamburg, Germany.

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 90 min on VHS ~ Republic Home Video ~ (9/02/1994)

What we have here is a well directed film (some great camera work and lighting in this), an engrossing plot (although not entirely clear and believable at times - why does she love robert ryan? - I don't get it), and a pitch perfect performance from James Mason that pretty much saves the film from melodramatic hooey and turns it into a halfway decent domestic angle on film noir. The ending is a little abrupt too. I viewed the film because it had been an influence on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's suspense character study "Martha" a MUCH better film. But above all "Caught" is worth seeing for all its flaws simply for James Mason's performance as the doctor. Man, was he a great actor!