The Reckless Moment (1949)

A housewife (Joan Bennett) confronts a sleazy low life (Shepperd Strudwick) and demands he stop seeing her 17 year old daughter (Geraldine Brooks). Instead, he offers to stay away from the girl for a cash payment of $5000. When he contacts the girl at her lakeside home, fate steps in when he is accidentally killed. But when his body is found, the police consider it a murder. Based on the novel THE BLANK WALL by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding and directed by Max Ophuls (LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN). This is an expert slice of film noir. Ophuls takes a lovely everyday setting, in this case the (then) sleepy beachside city of Balboa in Southern California and turns it into a sun drenched nightmare. Aside from Bennett, the other central character is a blackmailer, superbly played by James Mason. He starts out with a heartless streak but as the movie plays on, we see him evolve into a more humane being. Remade in 2001 as THE DEEP END. With Roy Roberts and Henry O'Neill.