Events

Caught

When:
Tuesday, February 8, 2005, 7:00pm - 7:00pm
Description:

Like Max Ophuls' other obscure American feature, The Reckless Moment, Caught is a near masterpiece in the genre of dark melodrama that best expressed the quality of domestic American life in the late Forties. Caught touches on familiar Ophulsian love themes but for the most part it focuses on the diseased ambitions and social-climbing illusions in postwar American society. In its attention to socio-psychological detail, Caught reveals the sharp eye of an astute European observer. Barbara Bel Geddes plays a charm school graduate caught between her psychotic millionaire husband (Robert Ryan in a portrayal patterned on Howard Hughes) and a struggling young ghetto doctor (James Mason). Lee Garmes' camerawork is truly Wellesian in its unusual angles, deep focus, and expressive lighting. --"Treasures from the UCLA Film Archives," PFA Publication.

Introduction by professor Miriam Hansen, Committee on Cinema and Media Studies.

Directed by Max Ophuls. Written by Arthur Laurents, from the novel "Wild Calendar" by Libbie Block. (1949, 88 mins, 35mm, Print courtesy of UCLA Film Archives)