Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Rainey Dawn 'The Lost Moment' is worth watching - not too bad of a film. It's a romantic-drama (with a bit of a mystery and with a dash of thriller). I was hoping for a bit more with the ending I guess because I was left with a disappointed feeling at the end of the film.Lewis Venable (Robert Cummings) is a publisher and he is after the love letters of an early-19th-century poet, Jeffrey Ashton, to his beloved Juliana Borderau (Agnes Moorehead). Lewis pretends to be a writer and rents a room from Juliana Borderau in hopes to gain the love letters. Juliana has a niece named Tina Bordereau (Susan Hayward). Tina has a split-personality: her real self, Tina, and that of her aunt Juliana. Tina thinks she is her aunt Juliana from time to time. Lewis finds himself in a mystery surround Juliana, Tina, and the love letters of Jeffrey Ashton. I enjoyed the film - I was just disappointed with the ending because we never got a real explanation about Tina - an explanation for the split in her personality. 7/10

JLRMovieReviews Publisher Robert Cummings is searching for love letters by a famous poet and writer. Agnes Moorehead was the objet d'amour in question. In his quest, he takes the cover of looking for a place to rent. As they are in need of money to keep their old homeplace and to keep away inevitable change, Agnes and daughter Susan Hayward charge an exorbitant amount, but he desperately agrees. In this otherworldly, haunting, and Gothic film, much of the film's appeal is its atmosphere and mood. But this has much to recommend it, the cast alone to begin with. In fact, this is one of those movies that film buffs go crazy over - the cast, the time and place, the search for love letters, the grasping for answers for things unexplainable. A true field day that delivers everything. Also, something else that was made a to-do over is the makeup Agnes Moorehead wears in this film that makes her look over 100 years old. Her subtle and understated performance gives the viewer just enough to want more. This was actor Martin Gabel's sole directorial effort, based on a Henry James novel. It was an exceptional tour-de-force for all and a true movie experience to behold. But what happens, you ask? It's just beyond your reach. We'll always keep reaching for things unattainable. The place has a hold on its inhabitants and the film has a hold on you. Don't you hear it? It's calling you....

bkoganbing As the great Frank Sinatra song says, "if you could survive to 105 look at all you'll derive out of being alive". Well in The Lost Moment Agnes Moorehead does survive to that advanced age, but she truly looks like she's not deriving much from her continued existence.The Lost Moment casts Robert Cummings as a book publisher who goes to Venice on a mission to get some rumored love letters of a famed poet who mysteriously disappeared in the last century. The great love of his life was Agnes Moorehead and she's survived him considerably. She lives in a decaying mansion with a many generations removed niece played by Susan Hayward. Cummings comes there with a ruse to rent a room from the ladies who are in genteel poverty, not that Moorehead is exactly a spendthrift at this point. Cummings pretends he's a writer trying to soak up some Gothic atmosphere, but he wants those letters to publish. The late poet wrote some of the best romantic words ever and these would be a find. Like a lost play of Shakespeare.The film is based on a Henry James novel and James would have to wait a bit for The Heiress for one of his works to get a really great screen interpretation. Everyone tries hard, but the emphasis in this film is on atmosphere and that seems to overwhelm the players.However fans of Cummings, Hayward, and Moorehead will approve.

theowinthrop The basis of this movie is a Henry James novella entitled THE ASPERN PAPERS. In the story, the narrator is a publisher who is trying to find a trove of love letters that were supposedly written by one of early 19th Century America's great romantic poets, Jeffrey Aspern. His search takes him to Venice, where he ingratiates himself into the household of Aspern's still living lover and her niece. He succeeds better than he expects, because the letters do exist - but to get to them he has to be nicer and nicer to the niece. Eventually he does read some of the letters, but his success is cut short - the niece is expecting the publisher is in love with her, and will marry her. This was not planned, and (reluctantly) he gives up his search. Then, a few years later, he returns after the aunt has died. The niece is still there, but realizing why he had been so interested in her she decided on her revenge (reminiscent, in it's way, to the the revenge of Catherine Sloper to Morris Townsend. in THE HEIRESS / "Washington Square"). She tells she burned all the letters. End of story.The movie expands the part of the aunt (Agnes Moorehead), making her the keeper of a grave secret. Susan Hayward properly shows the emotional problems of an attractive woman facing spinsterhood. And Bob Cummings is able to show that, for all his business interest in the literary find, he is not without a human side.Oddly enough the story was based on a true one, that is discussed by Professor Richard Altick's classic book THE SCHOLAR ADVENTURERS. The actual incident involved a cache of love and private letters of George, Lord Byron. Regretfully, they too were burned.