Studying Film Noir: 'Caught' (1949)

I went on a Max Ophüls deep dive recently and discovered this noir-ish melodrama he made during his Hollywood years. 'Caught' (1949) doesn't quite have the elaborate camera moves that made Ophüls’ late career, European films so remarkable but this scene stood out to me for its blocking & staging. The character played by Barbara Bel Geddes is pregnant with the child of the sociopathic millionaire (Robert Ryan) who has lured her back to his mansion after she left him. Ophüls and his cinematographer, Lee Garmes, stage the characters so the power dynamic between then is visually clear but the sick thing is Ophüls makes her the size of the foetus they are arguing over- she even assumes the foetal position curled up on the stairs. As always; camera reveals psychology and we can trace the roots of forties Hollywood films back through film-noir, German Expressionist silent cinema to Freudian psycho-analysis. Star James Mason wrote this poem after observing the reaction of his director to the limitations imposed upon him by the studio:
"A shot that does not call for tracks
Is agony for poor dear Max,
Who, separated from his dolly,
Is wrapped in deepest melancholy
Once, when they took away his crane,
I thought he'd never smile again"

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