Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The Unguarded Moment Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 22, 2023

Harry Keller's "The Unguarded Moment" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Pictures. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by author/critic David Del Valle and filmmaker David DeCoteau; new audio commentary by film scholar Jason A. Ney; and vintage trailer. In Engish, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

For approximately twenty minutes, The Unguarded Moment works very hard to convince its audience to like and, more importantly, side with its main protagonist. It was easy for me to do the former, but absolutely impossible to do the latter. However, the more time I spent observing her, the more I became convinced that liking her was a terrible mistake.

Lois Conway (Esther Williams) is in her late twenties, possibly early thirties, and she is a teacher at a not too big suburban high school. She is very, very beautiful and single, living alone in a large home that could easily accommodate an entire family. Because she is often asked to clarify her decision to be single, she has several short but outstanding answers ready to be dispatched.

When a secret admirer begins sending Lois letters telling her that they were meant to be together, she becomes annoyed. She quickly concludes that the secret admirer is one of her students but, despite trying, fails to guess his identity. Shortly after, the secret admirer challenges her to meet him, late at night, at the gym’s locker room where the two can finally connect. Still very annoyed but driven by curiosity and determined to put an end to the unnecessary drama that has overtaken her life, Lois heads to the locker room. While refusing to show his face, the secret admirer attempts but fails to rape her.

Soon after, Lois accidentally identifies the wannabe rapist after he breaks into her home, panics, and runs away. When a passing car nearly kills him, Lois is finally able to see his face.

It turns out that the secret admirer-wannabe rapist is Leo Bennett (John Saxon), a popular football player who does not have a girlfriend because his father (Edward Andrews), a wealthy widower, has some very big plans for him. In fact, the old man is so obsessed with Leo’s brilliant future that he routinely declares before him that he is his greatest investment and as such intends to protect it at all costs. Once Lois learns how Leo is treated at home, she refuses to press charges and becomes protective of him, but when the news about their experiences spreads like fire, virtually the entire school begins blaming the former for their “relationship”. Detective Harry Graham (Goerge Nader) also warns that the latter could very well be the vicious killer that has terrorized the area and his department is trying to nab.

Directed by Harry Keller in 1956, The Unguarded Moment is a conventional melodrama that behaves a lot like Douglas Sirk’s famous melodramas but lacks the stylish visuals to appear equally attractive. In The Unguarded Moment, the quality of the acting is on par with that observed in Sirk’s films.

The narrative is broken into two large acts. The second act is the one that makes The Unguarded Moment an interesting film because it effectively destroys the positive image of its female protagonist while she embraces her attacker and goes to work to convince that he is the real victim. Her transformation is a bit rushed and uneven, but the logic behind her actions is well-thought-out and very interesting to deconstruct.

At the center of this logic is the idea that an intelligent woman can successfully reset the mind of a young troublemaker who has started viewing women as sexual objects. Obviously, it is a deeply flawed idea, so the more “helpful” Lois becomes, the more she compromises herself and provides ample evidence that the opposite of what she argues is true. As if to underscore this very point, the film then refuses to convincingly exonerate Bennett and leaves him entirely alone to find the right path forward.

Before the end credits appear, the film supercharges another character to restore balance and make everyone else appear normal. It does not work. It just reconfirms what has been obvious for a while, which is that except for Detective Graham, the adults are not registering reality correctly.

The Unguarded Moment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Unguarded Moment arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a recent 2K master that was prepared at Universal Pictures. The film looks healthy and attractive, in some areas quite good, too. However, in order for its Technicolor visuals to look as good as they should, it has to be properly restored. No, I am not implying that you will be disappointed by the equality of the technical presentation, but if you know how good Technicolor films can look, you will quickly conclude that there are areas where a lot of meaningful improvements can be made. For example, density levels can be superior, and if they are, you will see several key improvements that will affect delineation and depth. While color balance is convincing, there are areas with minor registration issues, plus saturation levels could be better as well. Image stability is good. Some small blemishes and tiny specks remain, but there are no large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. All in all, this release offers a solid organic presentation of the film, but ideally its visuals could look quite a bit better. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Unguarded Moment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I did not encounter any serious issues to report in our review. I think that there are a few areas where the upper register could be a tad healthier, but the corrections that can be made there are what I usually refer to as cosmetic work. The basics of the lossless audio track are solid -- clarity, sharpness, balance, and dynamic intensity are all very good.

The Unguarded Moment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by author/critic David Del Valle and filmmaker David DeCoteau. There is a lot of diverse, very interesting information about Esther Williams' career and personal life (as well as her fascinating autobiography), some myths and half-truths about her, George Nader and John Saxon's work (and specifically the latter's difficult relationship with Universal), the odd overlapping of right and wrong throughout the film, etc.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by film scholar Jason A. Ney.

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for The Unguarded Moment. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

The Unguarded Moment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

More than two-thirds of the drama in The Unguarded Moment will not materialize if the supposedly very intelligent school teacher Esther Williams plays stopped "helping". As the drama begins to unfold, her reads of the rights and wrongs become so awful that the tragic events at the end of the film seem unavoidable. I think that The Unguarded Moment will appeal to folks that enjoy Douglas Sirk's melodramas from the 1950s, but it should be approached with modest expectations. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a slightly rough yet quite good recent 2K master that was prepared at Universal Pictures. RECOMMENDED.