Not even bad in a good way

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Robert Cummings (Lewis) is a crafty so-and-so. He's after some love letters that will make him a fortune and he's fully prepared to trick his way into their possession. However, we find that he does have a heart after all.Susan Hayward (Tina) is a nutjob whilst Agnes Moorhead (Juliana) is the knowing old aunt. The setting of the film is memorable but the story is familiar. It combines elements of other films and there is no real surprise. It is ok entertainment but just lacking a scary twist.

Let me mention Walter Wanger's chilling horror thriller THE LOST MOMENT. Much has been documented about the incredible transformation Agnes Moorehead undergoes in order to convincingly portray a 105 year old Italian woman. But it's the young leads, Robert Cummings and Susan Hayward, who capture and hold our attention, with their unconventional love story in this picture. Hayward has a particularly challenging assignment, playing a woman with multiple identities, but she does it masterfully. Though I think Cummings, who is often not given enough credit, has an equally vulnerable and complex character to play as well.The real star, though, of THE LOST MOMENT is the soundtrack-- where we are treated to all kinds of eerie voices and sinister tones that build to a strange rhythm and fill in the spaces. They reveal a hollowness to us in the form of Wanger's carefully designed Gothic set. There is one scene where Cummings has to run through a courtyard and up a winding staircase, on to a landing above, and over to a door. Of course, the door is bolted shut, but when he quickly looks up-- and we look up with him-- from the cylindrical space overhead we see fly down a frightened bird that dives at him in a state of abject despair. The sounds of the bird's wings flapping, heard as we are mesmerized by the wide-eyed expressions of Cummings, who is out of breath from ascending the steps so quickly, is at once disorienting and richly symbolic. THE LOST MOMENT is filled with many such choreographed scenes.And it is perhaps the final scene, where Moorehead's character, sensing the futility of holding on to love letters from the ancient past, that all the work that has come before in the picture pays off most dramatically. Watch this film and judge for yourself-- but only watch it when you have the uninterrupted time to totally appreciate what its makers are trying to accomplish with this superb cinematic adaptation of Henry James' The Aspern Papers.

Not since "Green Dolphin Street" have I seen such drawn out melodrama! YUCH! If this is Henry James, I'm glad I don't read his works.The plot is so highly predictable it takes any pleasure out of that aspect of the film. Each seeming plot twist made my nausea even worse. Not even the production values can rescue this laborious waste of time.Cummings and Hayward make a valiant effort, but this is not worth the film used to make it. Agnes Moorehead could have been replaced by Norman Bates' mother and still that would not have improved things any.There is ONE good thing I can say for it... it didn't beat Citizen Kane for dramatic cinematography. Do yourself a favor... SKIP IT SKIP IT SKIP IT!

This little film is bursting with atmosphere, brooding, wistful, corrupt, overflowing with decay, betrayal and regret. A studio better known for its westerns and horror movies is here responsible for a major gem of delicacy and suggestion.What makes all this remarkable is that the screenplay is a classic example of Hollywood's idiotic dumbing-down of a major work of fiction, Henry James's novella "The Aspern Papers" (based in turn on the life of Lord Byron). To compare James's brief story with the film is so sad it's almost painful, yet the movie survives and succeeds through sensitive style and sturdy professionalism.The studio sets are evocative of a time before Venice became an international theme park, and the director's experience in radio drama provides a more finely-judged soundtrack than was the norm. If your nerve-endings are not already terminally blunted through today's cinematic overkill, this film will prove richly rewarding.