Moontide

Moontide
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Archie Mayo
Produced by Mark Hellinger
Screenplay by John O'Hara
Based on the novel Moontide
1942 novel
by Willard Robertson
Starring
Music by
Cinematography Charles G. Clarke
Edited by William Reynolds
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • April 29, 1942 (1942-04-29) (premiere-New York City)
  • May 29, 1942 (1942-May-29) (United States)
Running time
 94 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Moontide is a 1942 American film directed by Archie Mayo, who took over production after initial director Fritz Lang left the project early in the shooting schedule. The screenplay was written by John O'Hara and Nunnally Johnson (uncredited) and based on the novel written by Willard Robertson, Moon Tide (1940). The production features French star Jean Gabin, as well as Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains.[1]

Charles G. Clarke was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Black & White. Despite charismatic performances by its leads, the film didn't make a big impact upon release, though now it's been critically lauded as a precursor to film noir.

Plot

After blacking out from an all-night drinking binge, dock worker Bobo (Jean Gabin) wakes up in a decrepit shack on a San Pedro Bay barge. He's hired to sell bait by the barge owner and fisherman Takeo (Victor Sen Yung) who informs him that local bar-fly Pop Kelly (Arthur Aylesworth) was strangled to death the night before. Bobo meets up with his friend Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) and Nutsy, the town watchman and amateur philosopher (Claude Rains) at a local boardinghouse. Despite assurances from Tiny that he didn't hurt anyone during his blackout, Bobo worries that he may have killed the man, due to violence in his past. As Tiny and Bobo talk, Nutsy realizes that Bobo is in possession of Pop Kelly's hat. That night Bobo plans to leave town but ends up rescuing Anna (Ida Lupino), who tries to drown herself in the surf.

Anna spends the night in the barge while Bobo sleeps on the floor. Although Bobo appears to have fallen for Anna, he once again sets out to leave town at the behest of Tiny, who wants to travel north for a job in San Francisco. Before he can go, Bobo helps repair the boat of a wealthy doctor (Jerome Cowan) and his mistress (Helene Reynolds). Anna returns to the barge to thank him and tell him her dream of settling down and creating a home, like the cozy barge across the bay. Tiny intervenes, calling Anna a "hash slinger" (slang for prostitute). Bobo leaves Anna and tries to spend time with Mildred (Robin Raymond), a prostitute he met during his drunken melee, but he can't stop thinking about Anna.

Bobo and Anna decide to settle down, buying paint and fabric to fix up the shack. Tiny once again interferes, accosting Anna and implying that he and Bobo have a history together. He tries to blackmail Bobo into going with him up north. Nutsy acts as a voice of reason, befriending both Bobo and Anna and encouraging their partnership. Unnoticed, Nutsy takes Pop Kelly's hat from the shack and later burns it on the beach.

Bobo and Anna get married on the barge. Dr. Reynolds sails by during the wedding and asks Bobo to once again help him fix his boat. With Anna's blessing, Bobo agrees and they set off. His happy married state encourages the doctor to leave his mistress and return to his wife. On the barge, Anna opens a gift from Bobo—a gaudy revealing dress, once owned by Mildred. Nutsy assures her that wives should leave modesty out of married life and Anna dons the dress, preparing for Bobo's return.

After Nutsy leaves Anna, Tiny shows up on the barge, drunk and angry that he wasn't invited to the wedding since Bobo has cut off contact with him. Tiny and Anna argue and she realizes that Tiny killed Pop Kelly. Enraged, Tiny attacks Anna. When Bobo returns, he finds Anna in the tackle box, badly injured. He takes her to the hospital and Dr. Reynolds promises to do he can for her. Leaving Nutsy to watch over Anna at the hospital, Bobo goes hunting for Tiny. He tracks a drunken Tiny to the water-break near the barge. He then stalks him down to the water while Tiny professes his innocence. Tiny climbs onto the rocks and is swept away by a wave.

After some time has passed, Bobo carries Anna, who is better but unable to walk, into their home on the barge. He's painted it and fixed it up so it looks like a house. Their favorite song plays as he carries her inside.

Cast

Production

Moontide was meant to be a star-making vehicle for Gabin, who was popular in his home country, but mostly unknown in the United States. The charismatic Gabin had been in a number of successful leading-man roles and had a hand in picking Robertson's story for adaptation to film. Willing to take a chance on him, Twentieth Century Fox bought the rights, despite the novel's themes of prostitution, rape, cannibalism and murder. The studio would end up censoring most of the story under the Motion Picture Production Code. Mitchell as the nefarious Tiny, was cast against type, having played a more lovable version of himself as Scarlet O'Hara's father in Gone With The Wind.

Soon after shooting began, director Fritz Lang left the project, rumored to be over friction he had with Gabin regarding Marlene Dietrich, who had been involved with both men. It's not known which early footage is shot by Lang or replacement director Archie Mayo. There were problems regarding the film's location on San Pedro Bay, which had to be scrapped after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the west coast was declared a security zone. A large studio set was filled with water for the barge scenes, giving the film an artificial, dream-like ambiance. The lighting, fog and wave effects, at times dingy and sinister or sparkling and romantic depending on the scene, led to Clarke's Oscar nomination for cinematography.

Surrealist Salvador Dali was hired to create the drunken montage at the top of the story but his sketches were deemed too bizarre, and the scene was shot with only some of his influence (most likely the close-up of the clock, the headless woman) intact.[2]

Reception

Upon release the film was not generally well-received by critics or audiences, deemed too odd a mix of genres and tones. Gabin was unhappy within the studio system and the pressure to do publicity, and after the war, he continued to work in France exclusively.[2]

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 hasn't 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."[3]

Moontide has recently been reassessed by critics. With its dark themes interspersed within a somewhat doomed love story, featuring a moody atmosphere and rarely featured underworld population, it's now seen as a precursor to Hollywood film noir.[2]

In 2013, Dave Kehr (also of the Times) 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."[4]

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."[5]

Accolades

References

  1. ↑ Moontide at the TCM Movie Database.
  2. 1 2 3 Mayo, Archie (Director) (1942). Moontide (Motion picture). United States: commentary by Foster Hirsch. Documentary: Turning of the Tide: The Ill-starred Making of 'Moontide.' (2008).
  3. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, April 30, 1942. Accessed: July 16, 2013.
  4. ↑ Kehr,Dave,. The New York Times film review, September 1, 2008; accessed July 6, 2013.
  5. ↑ Mermelstein, David. (September 2, 2008). Moontide DVD review. Variety. Accessed July 6, 2013.
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