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Product Description
Idealistic Leonora is looking for the dream life and believes she's found it when introduced to millionaire Smith Uhlrig. Quickly married she soon discovers him to be a domineering tyrant. In trying to escape this loveless existence she finds hope in the arms of a caring doctor but her psychotic husband doesn't give up his possessions so easily. Ophul's film noir classic is an intense melodrama played to perfectin by the fine castig of James Mason, Robert Ryan and Barbara Bel Geddes.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Black & White, Commentary, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: It was her childhood dream come true. She had married a man worth millions. But her innocent dream became a tormented nightmare once she realized the truth about her husband. He was more than a millionaire, he was absolutely power mad and insane! Since he will not give her a divorce, she leaves a life of luxury and goes to work as a receptionist in an impoverished doctor's office in NYC's lower east side. After a temporary reconciliation (one night) with the rich husband, She conceives a child. By the time she finds out she is pregnant, she and one of the doctors (James Mason) have fallen in love, but she goes back to the mad husband so the child will have a wealthy background. Her sadistic husband is hell-bent on keeping her prisoner and keeping the child. The mad husband has a heart attack and she chooses not to help him, then suffers a miscarriage because of the shocking events. This movie is one of the few 'code' movies in which the death of an unborn fetus (the miscarriage) is seen as a way out for the heroine. ...Caught (1949)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By W. Hamilton
Format:DVD
No pun intended, quite the reverse. Ophuls was one of the best, and he stamped quality on most everything he did in cinema. This film tells the not-unusual story of a young woman caught in a disastrous marriage. Forget everything you have seen in many other cinematic passes at the subject-matter, and come to this drama ready to be intrigued and entertained. You won't be disappointed. Robert Ryan is powerful and menacing in the interesting psychological (much in the fashion of contemporary and later Hitchcock films) portrait of a man who must be obeyed. Barbara Bel Geddes is also excellent - another of Ophuls' self-absorbed victim-heroines. And James Mason provides the perfect foil for them both in a convincing character study of a doctor with a social conscience but no sociability. The transfer to DVD is excellent, and it comes with useful extra material (an intelligent discussion of the film, providing insights into Ophuls' methods and relating this production to some of his other work). Well worth having in the home video library.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
This movie stars the great James Mason, Robert Ryan and Barbara Bel Geddes. Barbara plays the new wife of a millionaire played by Robert Ryan who treats her very badly, so to get away from him she leaves her luxury surroundings to move to another low class town, she gets a job of a Doctors receptionist to Dr.Quinada played by James Mason,the obvious happens(they fall in love),only she can't stay with him as something happens that makes it out of the question! The whole cast is good especially James Mason,but I feel he should have played Robert Ryan's role of the evil millionaire rather than that of the wimpy angelic Doctor.The movie could have been a little better but is very entertaining and has it's moments!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By J. Mannix
Format:DVD
Being one of Ophuls few American films I was hoping for a clearer print. Most of the time it was a bit off focus. The best part was the additional short describing the aspects of Ophuls' other works in comparison to Caught. Even the clips showed are far sharper than Caught's video. Also my PAL converter created annoying speed up, slow down shudders during any fast movement. This was the first film to have this effect.
A truly great film,Caught [1948] [DVD] its print was far below standard.
A truly great film,Caught [1948] [DVD] its print was far below standard.
By Coral Newton
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the story of a young girl who is trying to better herself but her real ambition is to marry a rich man and live happily ever after. The former happens, the latter does not.
She finally leaves him and gets a job at which she is noit very good. However, she gets another chance and does better. The horrible husband decides he wants her back, so back she goes. More disasters follow. More drama ensues. I don`t think she is the brightest spark in the story.
James Mason is the doctor who gives her a job, Robert Ryan the husband, Barbara Bel Geddes the girl. Max Ophuls photgraphs Robert Ryan, making him look very large, and overpowering. He was always a good baddie and is here.
She finally leaves him and gets a job at which she is noit very good. However, she gets another chance and does better. The horrible husband decides he wants her back, so back she goes. More disasters follow. More drama ensues. I don`t think she is the brightest spark in the story.
James Mason is the doctor who gives her a job, Robert Ryan the husband, Barbara Bel Geddes the girl. Max Ophuls photgraphs Robert Ryan, making him look very large, and overpowering. He was always a good baddie and is here.
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not too much of a story going on here - Barbara Bel Geddes (Leonora) gets married to Robert Ryan (Smith Ohlrig) who doesn't really want to marry her. She feels trapped and decides to break away but Ryan is a rich, manipulative bully who wants his own way.
This film does not belong in the Film Noir category as is constantly being suggested - there are too many elements missing for it to be defined in this genre, most glaringly the lack of a 'femme fatale' and the lack of any murder victim. However, Ophuls does direct in a Noirish manner, for example there is a claustrophobic feel to many scenes. His direction provides a depth to many shots and this cranks the interest of the film up a gear, as ultimately, there is not a lot of plot (another element missing that would normally define a Film Noir). This film is about power in relationships and goes down the obvious preachy road of money alone can't make you happy.
Robert Ryan is the standout in the cast and every line he delivers is top quality. His role is based on Howard Hughes, who allowed the performance to go ahead provided that the film leave out any obvious reference to Hughes's business dealings and to his appearance. Ryan gets the ridiculous name of 'Smith Ohlrig' to depict a millionaire and I'm sure that it fooled nobody in it's disguise. James Mason as 'Dr Quinada' is watchable and holds the interest as Ryan's rival in love for Barbara Bel Geddes. He gets, for me, the best line in the film when he says to Bel Geddes on recently meeting Ryan "I've met that man for 3 minutes....and he's not normal..." It's funny because it could apply to so many people that I know - not me, of course.
However, there is something not quite right in the casting of Barbara Bel Geddes.... Read more ›
This film does not belong in the Film Noir category as is constantly being suggested - there are too many elements missing for it to be defined in this genre, most glaringly the lack of a 'femme fatale' and the lack of any murder victim. However, Ophuls does direct in a Noirish manner, for example there is a claustrophobic feel to many scenes. His direction provides a depth to many shots and this cranks the interest of the film up a gear, as ultimately, there is not a lot of plot (another element missing that would normally define a Film Noir). This film is about power in relationships and goes down the obvious preachy road of money alone can't make you happy.
Robert Ryan is the standout in the cast and every line he delivers is top quality. His role is based on Howard Hughes, who allowed the performance to go ahead provided that the film leave out any obvious reference to Hughes's business dealings and to his appearance. Ryan gets the ridiculous name of 'Smith Ohlrig' to depict a millionaire and I'm sure that it fooled nobody in it's disguise. James Mason as 'Dr Quinada' is watchable and holds the interest as Ryan's rival in love for Barbara Bel Geddes. He gets, for me, the best line in the film when he says to Bel Geddes on recently meeting Ryan "I've met that man for 3 minutes....and he's not normal..." It's funny because it could apply to so many people that I know - not me, of course.
However, there is something not quite right in the casting of Barbara Bel Geddes.... Read more ›
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Howard Chang
Format:DVD
A more of melodrama than so called 'film noir'. A Classic Max Ophuls' cinema with great performances all around. A must for Max Ophuls fan.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Alan Fair
Format:DVD
Caught (Ophuls 1949)
There are obvious similarities shared between this Ophuls' sophomore American work and his first stab at classicism, `Letter From An Unknown Woman' completed one year earlier. Like the earlier film `Caught' deals with female desire, that is to say that what drives the narrative is not so much the answer but Freud's exasperated question, "What does a woman want?" While the answer may initially be banal, `The love of a man', what Ophuls offers us is the more complex response, ...well if so, then what is that love, and more importantly who controls the machinations of its drama? To say that in both these films the woman, at least to begin with wishes to occupy that place par excellence that Mulvey so awkwardly describes as "to be looked-at-ness", what these women soon realise is the perverse masochism that will eventually lead to a tragic (certainly in the first film) outcomes. To enter into this labyrinth will be to recognise that it must be an Ariadne who can lead us out. In this respect the object cause of desire becomes the subject of desire in both of these films. What is revealed is not so much the end but rather the beginning, the beginning of a narrative that we might call a `woman's tale'.
While `Letter' from the beginning seduces us, through the ever moving lyrical acrobatics of Ophuls' crane shots, the second outing is marked by a more `classical' approach. While `Letter from an Unknown Woman' offers us a kind of delirium of desire, a mise-en-scène structured by the roving looks of subject and object of sexual longing, `Caught', despite its title, remains to a degree aloof from its diegetic world.... Read more ›
There are obvious similarities shared between this Ophuls' sophomore American work and his first stab at classicism, `Letter From An Unknown Woman' completed one year earlier. Like the earlier film `Caught' deals with female desire, that is to say that what drives the narrative is not so much the answer but Freud's exasperated question, "What does a woman want?" While the answer may initially be banal, `The love of a man', what Ophuls offers us is the more complex response, ...well if so, then what is that love, and more importantly who controls the machinations of its drama? To say that in both these films the woman, at least to begin with wishes to occupy that place par excellence that Mulvey so awkwardly describes as "to be looked-at-ness", what these women soon realise is the perverse masochism that will eventually lead to a tragic (certainly in the first film) outcomes. To enter into this labyrinth will be to recognise that it must be an Ariadne who can lead us out. In this respect the object cause of desire becomes the subject of desire in both of these films. What is revealed is not so much the end but rather the beginning, the beginning of a narrative that we might call a `woman's tale'.
While `Letter' from the beginning seduces us, through the ever moving lyrical acrobatics of Ophuls' crane shots, the second outing is marked by a more `classical' approach. While `Letter from an Unknown Woman' offers us a kind of delirium of desire, a mise-en-scène structured by the roving looks of subject and object of sexual longing, `Caught', despite its title, remains to a degree aloof from its diegetic world.... Read more ›
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