Opiniones de usuarios

Barbara Bel Geddes is perfect as a starry-eyes young woman who wants to make something of herself. She goes to charm school. Who would ever dream that a young lady in such a cloistered setting would meet and be wooed by a fabulously wealthy eccentric!

"Caught" is cast in a unique manner. Maybe it was the director's lack of familiarity with American performers. More likely, these are the people who were most eager to work under him. Whatever the reason for his choosing Robert Ryan to play the millionaire, it was brilliant casting: Ryan was a superb actor. He was tall and intense. In his most famous noirs, he plays cops or military men. Yet the character he plays here is withdrawn, well-spoken, and even a bit effete. He's in analysis, to boot! It's an exceptionally good performance that today would win an actor all sorts of awards.

James Mason is also cast very much against type: He plays a doctor who treats poor people for little or no pay. (Light years, not just a bit more than a decade, away from his Humbert Humbert!) And Ryan has a manservant who plays piano and calls everyone, male or female, "darling!" He is played to perfection by Curt Bois.

"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is a lovely film and probably Ophuls' most famous American work. It'd dreamy, romantic, heartbreaking. "Caught" is very different -- I would place it squarely as film noir. However, it does not lack for his famous shots of people ascending staircases and doing other graceful things beautifully.

If only for Ryan's performance, "Caught" is a must. And there is far more to it than that one performance.

Of the many European emigres who helped shape American cinema, especially film noir, Max Ophuls brought one of the subtlest, most elusive sensibilities. Caught reflects this elusiveness: Part melodrama, part romance, part film noir, it's an unsettling film that burrows into complacent assumptions about freedom and success.

Department-store model Barbara Bel Geddes buys the notion that snagging a rich husband is the key to happiness. Once wed to disgustingly wealthy tycoon Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), however, she finds herself a bird in a gilded cage whose owner is increasingly jealous, abusive and frightening. (The rumors are that Ohlrig was modelled on Howard Hughes, much as Charles Foster Kane was on William Randolph Hearst.) Finally she leaves him to work in the office of a poor pediatrician (James Mason), with whom she falls in love. But she and Ryan keep drifting back together, in a love-hate relationship that grows ever more doomed and desperate (there's a virtuoso scene in Mason's offices, at night, centering on her ominously empty desk)....

This is certainly Bel Geddes' most complex and fleshed-out screen performance, but the script suggests dimensions that she only hints at; though the part wouldn't work with a tigress like that other Barbara, Stanwyck, taking on Ryan in an equal grudge-match, an actress with a mite more edge might have shown how the caged wife came to draw courage and defiance precisely from her position as a powerful man's wife. (Bel Geddes is just too wholesome and likeable to bring off this ambiguity.) And the heavy paw of the studio descends as Caught comes to a close: The conclusion is too quick, loose ends flap in the breeze, and satisfaction remains incomplete. Ryan's dynamo performance -- he could really make the flesh crawl -- and Ophul's elegant direction compensate for a half-baked denouement imposed by a craven studio, lest anybody take personal or political offense.

The film contains noirish elements rather actually being of the genre but it is still a most beautifully photographed b/w movie. Some Ophuls trademark shooting, particularly with regard to the wonderfully shot staircase sequences and the dance club scenes where the camera seems to glide with a life its own. Great performances are central to the film's success because we do get close to melodrama and the horrific portrayal by Robert Ryan as the ruthless, almost psychotic millionaire and the highly effective playing by Barbara Bel Geddes, keep this morality tale from becoming too sentimental. James Mason does well enough as the barely believable doctor with a heart of gold and other bit parts all help hold this raging beast together.

This powerful film by Max Ophuls (who was billed for this and other American films as Max Opuls, strangely enough), is all about Howard Hughes, though not by name of course. The tall, looming and psychopathic presence of a gloom-ridden Robert Ryan dominates this film. He is the multi-millionaire control freak who either has to own and control everyone or if he cannot, then he must destroy them. Ryan is totally convincing as this appalling character, but then everyone in Hollywood knew all about Howard Hughes, knew just what he was like, and gleefully knew how to portray him as devastatingly as possible. (Was there anyone who did not hate Hughes, one wonders. Here you can see why.) Into the psychotic web of the Hughes character (called here Smith Ohlrig) comes an innocent young girl with one weakness: she wants to marry somebody rich. From here on, Ophuls savagely attacks that aspect of 'the American Dream' which focuses on money. Barbara Bel Geddes, two years after her spectacular debut in 'The Long Night' (1947), here delivers another overwhelming performance as a sweet-faced and sweet-voiced innocent. And we all know what happens to them, don't we? They become victims. Here, her victimhood reaches unheard-of extremes of psychological torture and cruelty from her maniac husband. In desperation, she flees the marital mansion without a penny and finds a low-paid job as a receptionist for two doctors on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, using her maiden name. One of them is stalwart Frank Ferguson, always present in any good Hollywood movie as a support. The other is James Mason, thoroughly convincing (with the exception of his English accent) as the selfless and good healer of the sick. Mason falls in love with Barbara, not knowing she is married or who she is. The expected complications ensue, and you can imagine Robert Ryan's reaction to all of this. Things get very intense indeed in this noirish melodrama. It is very gripping stuff, well made by the brilliant Ophuls, and gets under your skin. One reason for that is it is not just a story, it is an attack on that monstrous product of materialistic obsession and passion for domination, the 'ruthless business magnate'. Having known many ruthless business magnates, I find them just as disturbing as the one shown here, even though Ohlrig is an exaggerated version. But the basics are the same. Ophuls has endeavoured to make this not so much a 'morality tale' as a 'morality attack', and he succeeds totally. The Ryan character may be exaggerated for effect, but he is in no way a caricature. They really are out there, and if you have never met one, lucky you.

A young woman marries a millionaire but then falls in a love with a poor doctor. Bel Geddes is miscast as the woman in the love triangle. The role calls for someone beautiful and vibrant, but the actress is too plain and dull to be believable as someone who rich and powerful men would be fighting over. Mason is supposed to be American, but makes no attempt to suppress his British accent. Ryan gives the most interesting performance here, as the intimidating and controlling big shot Bel Geddes marries. It has the look of a film noir but it is really nothing more than a soap opera. Ophuls specialized in these types of films, but he can't overcome the mediocre script.

Too often "Caught" is overlooked regards film buffs in general, and noir fans specifically. The director Max Ophuls is at his best, with terrific pacing and subtlety throughout. This is far and away, Barbara Bel Geddes best film, though she has stiff competition from James Mason and Robert Ryan. In typical noir fashion, "Caught" drags the American Dream through the tar, showing the American capitalist (and other diverse values) to be not-so-darned nice. In view of what was already happening, and coming down the line (McCarthyism), "Caught" was a brave movie. Special praise should be given the brilliant German actor, Curt Bois in this movie (as "Franzi"). He's absolutely perfect, as he was in so many roles. The ending is, to me, clearly a studio patchwork, but such is to be expected. Still, this movie is a "no-miss".

"Caught" isn't really a film noir notwithstanding the dramatic scenes in a darkened mansion. It's more a psychological exploration of a gold digger's conversion from pursuit of the rich to love of the pure. Barbara Bel Geddes is very effective as an attractive but poor working class girl not blessed with beauty but guided by a desire for opulence.

Before she can meet the love of her life she allows herself to be swept off her proletarian clods by Robert Ryan who once again is nearly perfect as a character exhibiting crass ruthlessness topped off by a nice dollop of madness. James Mason is a very human M.D., far more likable than the saccharine-sweet screen doctors of the past. He's a pediatrician I wouldn't have minded having when I was a kid.

What is surprising is the ending of this film, one that would be inconceivable today and must have seemed weird to many, particularly women, even then. Of course I won't reveal the resolution but "Caught" is a film very available for rental and well worth the less than ninety minutes it takes to watch an excellent cast tell a good story.

Advertised as a film-noir but in truth more of a dark, realistic melodrama, you'll find no detectives or murders here plus even her biggest supporters couldn't ever describe central character Barbara Bel Geddes as a femme-fatale. Even so, atmospherically and imaginatively directed by Max Ophuls this is a taut little B-movie which punches well above its weight.

Geddes is the ordinary average girl who at the start we see dreaming of the day when a rich millionaire will pick her out and marry her into a life of luxury and wraparound love. Well, careful what you wish for Babs, as a filthy-rich oil tycoon Miles Ohlrig, a thinly-disguised portrait of Howard Hughes, played by the ever-reliable Robert Ryan does just that but goes on to treat her as a mere chattel, allowing her no personal freedom and all the time stifling her spirit with his domineering ways. It gets too much for her and she effects an escape, finding herself in a busy baby-doctor's surgery where she talks the saturnine if initially starchy doctor James Mason into letting her have a low-paid job as a medical secretary.

Of course complications soon arise as she later finds she's pregnant by her husband, falls for Mason's cool but compassionate doctor and finally has to contend with a return visit from Ryan looking to somehow reassert his property rights over his wife. The film resolves itself over an ending that some might find artistically bold but many more I suspect will find callous.

The film has other flaws too, certainly you can't really imagine Geddes turning the heads of two such taciturn characters as Ryan and Mason portray here. Geddes actually is pretty good in her part, even if the goody-two-shoes persona she adopts here didn't seem to progress too much when arriving at her best-known big-screen role as Jimmy Stewart's adoring but insipid girl-friend in Hitchcock's "Vertigo". Ryan and Mason are always good value for my money and both deliver finely compressed depictions of their driven characters. Ryan's loathsome Ohlrig character demeans his young wife with his back to her, playing a pinball machine in their own living room while Mason's Dr Quinand rediscovers his moral compass through Geddes' example.

Max Ophuls direction is as lucid as you'd expect from the master of the tracking shot which is effortlessly demonstrated here on several occasions. Well directed and acted, if somewhat morally ambiguous, this hard-hearted little feature deserves to be better known.

Caught came on BBC2 one afternoon and I was pleased I taped it. I quite enjoyed this.

A woman falls in with love with a rich man and then marries him. But the marriage does not last when she realises this man is mad and leaves him. She then gets a job as a secretary at a doctors' surgery and gradually falls in love with her boss, Dr Larry Quinada. He asks her to marry him but can't as she is still married to the millionaire but a confrontation between the two men at the end leads to tragic consequences...

Caught is nicely filmed in black and white and has a good music score as well.

The excellent cast includes Barabra Bel Geddes (Dallas), James Mason (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth), Robert Ryan (The Boy With Green Hair, Bad Day At Black Rock) and Frank Ferguson.

Caught is a good way to spend an hour and half or so one afternoon or evening. Excellent.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Barbara Bel Geddes is "Caught" by Robert Ryan in this 1949 film also starring Robert Ryan and James Mason.

Bel Geddes is Leonora Eames, an attractive young woman who attends the Dorothy Dale Charm School, hoping to become a model and meet a rich man. She's encouraged in this goal by her sister, since they don't come from money.

Leonora ultimately becomes a store model. When she's invited to a party on a yacht, she hesitates, but her sister encourages her to go. She dawdles for so long that she ends up sitting at the launch by herself, hoping someone comes along to take her.

The man who shows up is Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), a very wealthy man, and soon, he and Leonora are married. Ohlrig, however, is a very disturbed, controlling individual and only proposes because he's angry with his psychiatrist.

Though Leonora has money, jewels, and a life of leisure, Ohlrig is rarely home and when he is, he is verbally abusive or neglectful. Leonora leaves him, turns her back on the money, and gets a job as a receptionist in a pediatric practice run by Dr. Quinada.

The doctor is James Mason. Hmm...nasty Robert Ryan with money...gorgeous, smooth-talking James Mason to whom money means very little...what's a girl to do. I only know what I'd do - in a heartbeat. Anyway, complications ensue, as Ohlrig tries to get his wife back, and she and Dr. Quinada fall in love.

Bel Geddes is appropriately sweet and vulnerable as Leonora, and of course, Robert Ryan made a career out of playing brutish, cruel men, and he's terrific. I understand that in real life, he was an absolute doll. Mason is gentle and sincere as Dr. Quinada.

Though the ending is a little contrived, this is still a good movie in the hands of this cast and director Max Ophuls, who makes the point that those who worship money as a god can easily find themselves -- well, caught.

Caught provides us with some really solid performances from Mason, Bel Geddes, Ryan, Ferguson, and Bois all deserve recognition. It was my first Bel Geddes film in which she is a lead character and I have to say I really enjoyed her here. Mason always seems to deliver great characters and his Dr. Quinnard is no different. The story is solid, the direction is smooth, and the overall pacing is just right. The whole production is very well done with the exception of the abrupt, and unsatisfying ending. It's a shame to end things as unceremoniously as they did here, but despite that Caught is definitely worth checking out.

In 1947, in Los Angeles, an ambitious waitress from Denver dreams on marrying a millionaire. She joins the Dorothy Dale's School of Charm with financial difficulties and after the conclusion of the course, she changes her name to Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes) and starts modeling in a fancy shop. She is invited by Franzi Kartos (Curt Bois), who is the assistant of the wealthy Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), to go to a party in the Ohlrig's yacht and she meets him in the harbor by chance. She refuses a one-night stand with Ohlrig and the powerful man decides to get married with her to have her. Sooner Leonora learns that money does not necessarily bring happiness and love and she unsuccessfully asks the divorce, but Ohlrig refuses. Leonora leaves Ohlrig and the luxury life in Long Island and finds a job of receptionist of the obstetrician Dr. Hoffman (Frank Ferguson) and the pediatrician Larry Quinada (James Mason) in the East Side. Leonora does not work well and she quits her job. Meanwhile Ohlrig visits her and tells that he misses her and Leonora returns to the mansion in Long Island. Sooner she finds that the invitation was just a notion of Ohlrig and she returns to the East Side. Dr. Quinada and she fall in love for each other, but Leonora finds that she is pregnant from Ohlrig. She feels divided between her love for Quinada and the security of her baby with Ohlrigand she needs to take a decision.

"Caught" is a melodramatic story about a woman whose dream is to get married with a wealthy man that finds that she has been bought by her husband to live as a decorative wife living like a prisoner in a golden cage. Robert Ryan performs another villain, as usual, and the cinematography in black and white and framing follow the usual standard of Max Ophüls. This film is wrongly classified as film-noir. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Coração Prisioneiro" ("Prisoner Heart")

Model Leonora weds an obsessive millionaire who did not marry her for love. Unable to accept his behaviour any longer, she leaves him and takes a job in a clinic where she falls for a doctor. Can she escape her past and find true love?

Rags to riches story which shows that money cannot buy happiness. The script could have focused more on the obsessive behaviour of the husband, played by Robert Ryan, but Barbara Bel Geddes fits the bill as the wife as does James Mason as the doctor.