Main Cast: James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan, Ruth Brady, Curt Bois
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
It doesn't take a nuclear scientist to figure out that Smith Ohrig, the character played by Robert Ryan in Caught, is a thinly disguised takeoff of Howard Hughes. But whereas Howard Hughes was merely paranoid and eccentric, Smith Ohrig is an all-out psycho. Impulsively marrying ambitious model Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes), Ohrig keeps the poor girl a virtual prisoner in his palatial mansion, tormenting her with twisted mind games while he continues his premarital playboy activities. Coming to the realization that wealth and creature comforts are no substitute for stability, Leonora takes a "normal" job in the offices of society doctor Larry Quinada (James Mason). Falling in love with her boss, Leonora nonetheless returns to Ohrig when he turns on his patented charm. Only an act of God (accelerated by Ohrig's hedonistic lifestyle) rescues Leonora from a life of lavish bondage. Billed as Max Opuls on the credits of Caught, director Max Ophuls manages to implant his own distinctive style upon what is essentially a slick Hollywood studio product. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Max Ophuls' sudser about a woman who's terrorized by her wealthy husband is probably about as good a film as could be made from this '40s women's magazine-level script. Despite some interesting, subliminal suggestions about the American obsession with wealth and the way it shaped the way a certain stratum of women thought about themselves in the pre-feminist era, like many soap operas, it's basically an updated gothic romance about a woman who made a Bad Decision. Whether or not Robert Ryan's malevolent mogul was, as rumored, based on the character of Howard Hughes, his atrocious behavior toward his wife (Barbara Bel Geddes) certainly is consistent with the eccentric recluse's notoriously cruel treatment of women. Once again, he's excellent here, more clearly a victim of inner demons than in many of his villainous roles, his relationship with his wife more clearly defined by the vast tracts of space Ophuls' expressive compositions put between them than by their overwrought dialogue. Bel Geddes seems a bit too healthily stolid to be playing the victim here, and James Mason's world-weary sophistication is a bad match with the admittedly lame part of the benign ghetto doctor. Given the constraints of Hollywood, it's not surprising that Ophuls would soon return to Europe to make the best films of his career. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
F. Paul Sylos - Art Director, Jack Baur - Casting, Orry-Kelly - Costume Designer, Louise Wilson - Costume Designer, Max Ophüls - Director, Robert Parrish - Editor, Frederick Hollander - Composer (Music Score), Rudolph Polk - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gus Norin - Makeup, Lee Garmes - Cinematographer, Joe C. Gilpin - Production Manager, Wolfgang Reinhardt - Producer, Edward Boyle - Set Designer, Arthur Laurents - Screenwriter, Libbie Block - Book Author
Caught is a 1949Americandrama film based on novel written by Libbie Block. Directed by Max Ophuls, it is considered his most-successful American work. Caught has been released on DVD in the United States, France and the UK.
In the film, young secretary Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes) is married to millionaire Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan). She falls in love, though, with her employer, Dr. Larry Quinada (James Mason), and the film follows their affair until the two men are forced to confront one another.
Production
In Block's novel, the character of Smith Ohlrig is based on aviation tycoon Howard Hughes. She depicts him as a cruel narcissist, a characterization that Ophuls exaggerates in his film. It is well known that Ophuls and Hughes were on unfriendly terms, and that Ophuls had previously left RKO Studios after being insulted by Hughes during the filming of a different film. Caught is considered to be his revenge against Hughes, exacted on him vicariously through Ryan's character.
