Sun 23 Jun 2013
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: CAUGHT (1949).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[3] Comments
CAUGHT. MGM, 1949. James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan. Very loosely based on the novel Wild Calendar by Libbie Block. Director: Max Ophüls.
Speaking of endings, as I was when discussed Kiss Me Deadly a short while ago, something similar happened six years earlier — intentionally, this time — with the ending of the MGM film Caught, where we see one ending, a richly satisfying one in which (WARNING!) Barbara Bel Geddes murders her abusive husband Robert Ryan, but we hear — in a jarring, dubbed-over tone — another one in which the characters talk about how she saved his life at the last minute. (END OF WARNING.)
Obviously there was some last-minute fudging by the studio heads at MGM, to appease the censors and give audiences a happy ending, even if it meant throwing out the whole point of the story. Yet in spite of what we hear the characters say, the evidence of our eyes remains.
I guess actions — even images of actions — speak louder than words.
Editorial Comment: Based on Mike Grost’s review of the film, which you can find here, I’ve changed the category in which I placed the movie from “Crime Film” to “Romantic Drama,” in spite of the fact that other experts often consider Caught to be film noir.
June 24th, 2013 at 9:19 am
Thank you for the link!
Many experts indeed regard CAUGHT as film noir.
But virtually all other film noir are crime films.
Out of the hundreds of films that have been labeled “noir”, CAUGHT is nearly unique in that no crime takes place. None of the characters are crooks, there are no suspense passages, no murders or violence.
Film noir should be a term restricted to crime films, made between 1940 and the early 1960’s. Around 500 such films were made in Hollywood alone. Plus lots of others in Britain, France and Japan.
June 24th, 2013 at 10:53 am
No insight or anything re Caught other than I thought it a pretentious bore from start to finish. On a personal note, I knew Libby Block’s husband, the producer Pat Duggan. He was a great guy but at the time we were working together he simply could not get anything going despite have in the fifities produced We’re No Angels and later on, The Young Savages. Interspersed were some interesting but unsuccessful projects such as The Search For Bridey Murphy.
June 24th, 2013 at 6:33 pm
I’m one of those who consider this film noir, perhaps soap opera film noir but noir none the less. Robert Ryan gives his usual excellent performance in this marriage from hell.