Two men vie for the love or, at a minimum, the obedience of a poor girl who has just managed to graduate from charm school. One man is rich,bitter, domineering, and has eyeballs of steel. His name is Smith Ohlrig. The other man is a handsome, hard-working but poor doctor dedicated to serving the disenfranchised. His name is Larry Quinada. Guess which one wins her.

It's not as stupid as it may sound, for a couple of reasons. One is the performances, both as the roles are written and as the parts executed. Robert Ryan is Smith Ohlrig and there was no one better than Ryan at projecting a pungent hatred of humanity than Ryan. He was superb, for instance, in "On Dangerous Ground" and "Crossfire." Barbara Bel Geddes as Leonora, the blond in contention, is fine as the winsome young charm school graduate who is sufficiently attracted to the immensely wealthy Ryan to marry him, not knowing that he proposed on a dare from his psychiatrist. She's pretty too, though she sounds like she came from the kind of background that Ryan enjoys in this movie. Speaking of that, though, at the beginning the impoverished Bel Geddes is rooming with another girl who refers to their apartment as "this dump." That particular "dump" looks more spacious and well appointed than the dump my brother and I knew as children. Right, Bucky? If you're not careful, you could get the impression that production designers and set dressers in Hollywood don't have any real conception of poverty.

James Mason is not the stereotype he might have been -- you know, quiet, patient, understanding, "caring" -- and thank God for that. It might have been sickening. Bel Geddes has left Ryan and taken a job as Mason's receptionist. And when we first meet him, and more or less throughout the movie, he's impatient, scolding, and only rarely concerned about Bel Geddes welfare. He shows no appreciation when she works overtime or even stays all night at the office. At one point, he drives her to quit.

That's rather a nice touch, having the obvious winner of her love being a little nasty to her. Not TOO nasty. In that case, you might as well have called this movie "All Men Are Brutes." But just edgy enough so that he avoids the soap opera formula. He's strong enough to allow Bel Geddes the final decision, but he's not a sap either.

I'm afraid the script could have used a little more polish. Mason's character may not be a stereotype (neither is Ryan's flunky, Franzi),but Ryan's certainly is and, to an extent, Bel Geddes' is as well.

Some crises and some of the dialog are plain terrible. Bel Geddes is pregnant with Ryan's fetus, he apparently having reserved usufruct rights over her reproductive system, and he has her imprisoned in her room, torturing her by keeping her awake with constant calls and demands, while she lies sweating and helpless on the satin sheets. Here are some of her lines. "Don't take my BABY, Smith! Oh, Larry, please help me. I want you." I'm not making that up.

The direction is by Max Ophuls and it's above average, overcoming the benthic depths in the script. Nice shots of Ryan and the exhausted Bel Geddes speaking through a bedroom door ajar. And there's another scene that is quietly impressive. Mason is pacing around in his office. His partner, Frank Ferguson, is using an electric razor on his chin across the room. They are quietly discussing Bel Geddes, whom Mason has just fired. Mason is turning the affair over in his mind. The perceptive Ferguson makes an occasional remark. Meanwhile, as the two speak, the camera drifts slowly from one man to the other, each time crossing Bel Geddes' vacant desk which sits between them. As the scene ends, the camera slows to a halt, with the deafeningly empty desk in the center of the frame.

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")

I really loved the first 90% of this movie. The direction and writing were superb and had my full attention. In particular, I loved the juicy part played by Robert Ryan as the sadistic and sociopathic multimillionaire--he was in many ways a veiled portrait of Howard Hughes. This man had absolutely no ability to connect to others intimately but saw everyone as self-serving and to be feared. His money, it seemed, allowed him to make others bend to his iron will and "make them dance". The only trouble way, Barbara Bel Geddes soon tired of the dance and left him. Her part was excellent but at times a little inconsistent--strong and full of fire and at other times a bit of a wimp.

The problem for me is the pat ending. Robert Ryan's hold on her is gone at the untimely death of her baby--at which point James Mason's character announces that this is some sort of happy ending (?). It's just too quick and pat to seem believable and it was as if it was just pasted on because they had no idea how to end the film. It would have been 100% better if the film had ended AFTER Ryan collapsed on the floor and Barbara refused to get him the medication! Now THIS would have been much more powerful and satisfying.