Moontide
7.2 /10 1 Votes
Duration Language English | 7/10 IMDb Genre Crime, Drama, Film-Noir Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Director Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang Release date May 29, 1942 (1942-05-29) (premiere-New York City)
May 29, 1949 (1949-May-29) (United States) Based on the novel Moontide
1942 novel
by Willard Robertson Writer John OHara (screen play), Willard Robertson (from the novel by) Film series 20th Century Fox Film Noir Music director Cyril J. Mockridge, David Buttolph Cast Jean Gabin (Bobo), Ida Lupino (Anna), Thomas Mitchell (Tiny), Claude Rains (Nutsy), Jerome Cowan (Dr. Frank Brothers), Helene Reynolds (Woman on boat)Similar movies 20th Century Fox Film Noir movies, Related Fritz Lang movies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bobo (Jean Gabin), a lonely longshoreman with a nasty drinking problem, awakes after a rough bender with no memory of the night before and an unsettling suspicion that he has killed someone. Deeply rattled, he buries himself in work on a remote barge and finds a new distraction after rescuing a suicidal waitress (Ida Lupino) from the cruel waters. Soon love blossoms between this melancholy pair, but Tiny (Thomas Mitchell), Bobos jealous pal, has dark plans to regain Bobos full attention.
Contents
Moontide is a 1942 American drama film noir directed by Archie Mayo and Fritz Lang, although Lang was uncredited when the film was released. The screenplay was written by John OHara and Nunnally Johnson (also uncredited) and based on the novel written by Willard Robertson (Moontide). The production features Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains.
Charles G. Clarke was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black & White.
After a drunken night out a longshoreman thinks he may have killed a man.
Plot
The film tells about a man who fears he has committed a murder when he was drunk.
Cast
Reception
When the film was first released, Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, questioned the direction of the film, especially its focus on actor Jean Gabin, writing, "But all of them need much more than a vague and irresolute script, much more than synthetic scenery and manufactured moods. Director Archie Mayo hasnt brought them into contact with real life. He has expended most of his energy in bringing the audience into contact with Mr. Gabin. And Moontide is too heavy a burden to be carried entirely by him, even though he is Charles Boyer from the other side of the railroad tracks."
More recently, film critic Dave Kehr (writing for the same New York newspaper) wrote, "Moontide, ... provides an illuminating link to one of the frequently overlooked sources of noir: the movement known as poetic realism, which flourished in France from the mid-1930s until the onslaught of war ... a rootless, hard-drinking French sailor, Bobo (Gabin), achieves a tentative domesticity operating a bait shack with Anna (Ida Lupino), a waif he has rescued from a suicide attempt. The story is so much in the foggy, claustrophobic, doom-laden spirit of poetic realism that at times it seems almost a parody of it. Fate is present in the form of Tiny (Thomas Mitchell), a blackmailer with knowledge of a murder that Bobo might have committed. A kindlier metaphysical force is represented by Claude Rains, playing a waterfront philosopher with the unfortunate name Nutsy."
When the DVD was released in 2008, critic David Mermelstein, writing for Variety, wrote, "A twisted romance set among waterfront lowlifes, the b&w pic resonated with neither critics nor auds, though as this DVD debut makes clear, there seems every reason to hope cineastes may now embrace it for what is always was: a keenly observed, highly atmospheric film distinguished by several superb performances and a captivating, if quotidian, mise-en-scene. Solid extras like a full commentary track and meaty making-of featurette should only help raise its standing."
Accolades
References
Moontide WikipediaMoontide IMDb Moontide themoviedb.org