Max Ophüls directs Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Ryan and James Mason in this melodrama where a department store model marries a twisted business tycoon and finds herself trapped in a loveless union.

Shot like a noir but very much a soap. Ryan’s bastard man millionaire is based on Howard Hughes. He bullies and control everyone. He sees Barbara Bel Geddes as an object he owns, she tries to break free and restart her life but a contract is a contract… Not a million miles away from Ophül’s period romantic tragedies – just with a present day setting. The director is particularly good at sympathising with ladies in precarious situations and making his ornate set design tell the story as much as the actors. Here that story is a bit too thin to support the shifts and swerves but he directs the fuck out of it anyway.

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Perfect Double Bill: The Reckless Moment (1949)