This is the
story of a young woman and two young men who dream! Leonora Eames wants to find
a rich and good-looking young man that will sweep her off her feet and marry
her. She thinks if she becomes a successful model it will give her a better
chance of meeting the right one. But at times living the real life version of our
dreams does not always lead to happiness and fulfilment.
The men in her life could not be any
different. Smith Ohlrig is a complicated man whose afraid of being controlled
and to this end accumulates millions of dollars which allows him the luxury of
dominating others and presiding over Leonora, whom he marries, but even this does
not stop him having psychosomatic heart problems when he can't get his own way!
Ohlrig is allegedly modelled on the Tycoon Howard Hughes and with a name that
could be mistaken for oilrig I think you can grasp the cut of the character. Our
heroine is not after Ohlrig’s money although he thinks she is, this naive young
woman actually loves him, well at first at least, until she finds out what the
man is really like! Off course conflict ensues with Leonora virtually held
prisoner in a home that reverberates the coldness a medieval castle. But
strangely Ohlrig loses control over a woman he so much wants to dominate. Feeling
threatened he drives her away pushing her into the employment of a Doctor Larry
Quinada as receptionist in his East Side surgery. Will she return to Ohlrig,
will she fall in love with the captivating doctor, where are her life and
emotions heading and will she manage to regain control over her own feelings? And
will Leonora finally discover what's really important in her life?
Superbly directed
by Max Ophuls's, who amongst many other films was responsible for classics like
Madame
de... (1953) and Lola
Montes (1955), it has a screenplay based on Libbie Blocks novel Wild Calendar. Caught (1948) is about
control and domination with the camera work and Ophuls brilliant direction
giving unequal size to the characterisations cleverly placing the actors in
dominating positions on the screen for the furtherance of the movies narrative.
Although described as a melodramatic soap opera this black and white movie has
some truly scene steeling performances from Robert Ryan as Ohlrig and British
actor James Mason in his Hollywood debut as Dr Larry Quinada with Barbara Bel
Geddes, who is best known for her role in TV’s Dallas as matriarch Miss Ellie
Ewing from 1978 until 1990, as Leonora Eames, a role originally meant for
Ginger Rogers. The movie has one main problem its overbearing soundtrack that
tends at times to dominate the proceedings, other than that well worth a look,
as are most of the directors other movies.
Nice publicity shot for the film. |
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