The Age of Commercialism

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The least typical of Max Ophuls' masterpieces, "Caught" is a Women's Picture, written with a steely edge by Arthur Laurents. Barbara Bel Geddes is outstanding as the girl who marries money in the shape of Robert Ryan's sociopath multi-millionaire, modeled so we are told on Howard Hughes, but he treats her with such contempt she runs away and gets a job as a receptionist to James Mason's struggling doctor. It's a triangle quite unlike other triangles in the movies of the time; there is a psychological depth at play here rare in a genre picture of its kind and both Mason and Ryan are superb while Ophuls' framing of the characters greatly enhances the relationships between them, (the distance between Ryan and Bel Geddes in his mansion, the close proximity between Mason and Bel Geddes in the office scenes).In lesser hands this might have simply been novelettish but it isn't the superficiality of the material that interests Ophuls but how he can manipulate the material so the film is all of a piece. The least typical of Ophuls, I said; perhaps not. Shot after wonderful shot reveals this to be the work of one of cinema's great stylists and it really shouldn't be missed.

A naïve young woman who's been brought up to believe that happiness and contentment can most easily be achieved through the acquisition of wealth, sets out to get rich as quickly as she can and for a woman in the 1940s this, in practical terms, meant getting married to a wealthy man. After having achieved her goal, she soon becomes disillusioned when she realises that being wealthy doesn't automatically lead to being happy.Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes) is the car-hop who lives in a cramped apartment with her roommate Maxine (Ruth Brady) and harbours ambitions for a better life. To this end, she saves to pay her charm school fees and after having completed her course, gets a job as a model in a department store. One day, at the store, she's approached by an unctuous little man called Franzi Kartos (Curt Bois) who gives her an invitation to a yacht party which is due to be hosted by Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan). Despite Ohlrig being a multi-millionaire, she initially declines the offer but later, on Maxine's advice, changes her mind. By sheer coincidence, Leonora meets Ohlrig before she reaches the party and they share the evening together but later she turns down his invitation to go to his mansion for a drink and he drives her home.Ohlrig is a control freak who becomes incensed by Leonora not responding to his advances in the way that he thought she should and discusses the matter with his psychiatrist (Art Smith). When he's advised that his reaction is because he can't control Leonora, he decides to marry her as soon as possible to spite his shrink and to re-assert his control over events. His determination pays off and the couple are soon married but it quickly becomes clear to Leonora that she's in an abusive relationship and when Ohlrig humiliates her one night in front of a group of his executives, she decides to leave the Long Island mansion that had become a virtual prison to her.Leonora goes to live in a down-market apartment in Manhattan and gets a job as a receptionist at a busy doctors' office. Ohlrig regards her actions as an affront and tries to take back control by telling her that he's realised that he treated her badly and will change. She returns to him but after only one night together, realises that he'd simply manipulated the situation because he needed her to accompany him on a trip which he's already arranged. Leonora goes back to her job at the doctors' office and subsequently falls in love with Dr Larry Quinada (James Mason) who's a handsome paediatrician. Their relationship runs into a problem when Leonora discovers that she's pregnant by Ohlrig and he won't give her a divorce unless she agrees to give him full custody of the child. It then takes some time before the situation is eventually resolved in a way that nobody involved could have predicted."Caught" was based on Libbie Block's novel "Wild Calendar" in which Ohlrig's character was based on Howard Hughes. Interestingly, director Max Ophuls had previously been insulted and fired by Hughes when he was working on the movie "Vendetta" and is believed to have used the depiction of Ohlrig in this movie as a form of revenge against the famous business tycoon.Barbara Bel Geddes makes Leonora a sympathetic character who's absorbed the attitudes of the society in which she lives and doesn't see herself as a gold-digger. James Mason makes a strong impression as the dedicated and serious-minded doctor and Robert Ryan is fantastic as the villain of the piece. He's brilliant as the cold, cruel and manipulative industrialist whose need for consistent and total control is so strong that he suffers psychosomatic breathing problems when he can't control events and whose wealth has made him cynical, sadistic and sociopathic."Caught" is a movie that could reasonably be viewed as a piece of social commentary, a director's act of revenge or a dark melodrama and fortunately, it scores well on all levels.

When I first watched this movie about 20 or so years ago, it was the first time I'd seen Ms. Barbara Bel Geddes in something other than the TV show "Dallas". As such, I remember being quite impressed not only by her young beauty but also how different this character-a model named Leonora Eames trying to snag a rich man-was from Miss Ellie. In fact, part of me thinks maybe J.R. Ewing himself would not take kindly to the way this Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan) treats his Mama here! So because Leonora finds her pampered existence stifling, she ups and leaves Smith-with his initial blessing-to go work for a Dr. Larry Quinada (James Mason) in the poor side of Manhattan as a receptionist. Ryan and Mason are good enough in their well-defined roles but Ms. Bel Geddes truly amazes with her stretching her acting talents with the range of emotions she displayed here. No wonder Larry Hagman finally agreed to join "Dallas" when he found out she would play his mom on that now-legendary show! So on that note, I highly recommend Caught mainly on the strength of Ms. Bel Geddes performance alone.

A fairly good plot becomes mired in an ending which is most callous. It is hard to fathom that any writer could state that death of a baby would virtually set a woman free from a horrible marriage.Barbara Bel Geddes was our Cinderella here and believe me, she wished she had never met her Prince Charming- Robert Ryan, wealthy, rotten and vicious to the core. When she flees Ryan's millionaire misery, she falls for the doctor she goes to work for as a receptionist.The movie would have been far better had it become a murder mystery. So many would have wanted to do away with the Ryan character. He is really despicable here, as well as totally off the wall. As is, at the end of the film we want to know why we didn't do away with the writing.