What 1949 Max Ophuls noir is based on Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's novel The Blank Wall?

The 1949 Max Ophuls noir based on Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's novel The Blank Wall is The Reckless Moment.

Joan Bennett plays Lucia Harper, a California mother who becomes entangled in danger after trying to protect her daughter. James Mason co-stars as Martin Donnelly, a criminal whose involvement gives the film its tense moral and emotional center.

The film was directed by Max Ophuls, whose fluid camera movement and carefully composed staging turn an apparently ordinary suburban setting into a landscape of mounting anxiety. It was his last film shot in the United States.

The other choices are separate noirs: Caught was also directed by Ophuls and released in 1949, while Sudden Fear and The Prowler were made by different directors. The Reckless Moment was later reworked as the 2001 film The Deep End.