Bennett was the shrewish, cuckolding wife, Margaret Macomber, in Zoltan Korda's "The Macomber Affair" (1947) opposite Gregory Peck, as the deceitful wife, Peggy, in Jean Renoir's "The Woman on the Beach" (also 1947) opposite Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford, and as tormented Lucia Harper in Max Ophüls' "The Reckless Moment" (1949) as the victim of a blackmailer played by James Mason. Then, easily shifting images again, she changed her screen persona to that of an elegant, witty and nurturing wife and mother in two comedies directed by Vincente Minnelli.