Once in a New Moon

Once in a New Moon is a 1935 British science fiction film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring Eliot Makeham, René Ray and Morton Selten. It is a quota quickie, made at Shepperton Studios.^[1]

Plot

When a dead star passes planet Earth, its magnetic pull dislodges the English town of Shrimpton-on-the-Sea and causes it to break away and become its own miniature globe in orbit around the Earth. The village is now an island, the only land, and the rest of the mini planet is water which can be circumnavigated in a day. Sail straight and you eventually find the town again. The sun rises and sets every few hours and the Earth can be seen as a new moon in the sky. Otherwise, life is as before.

As panic sets in, the upper and lower classes of the village set about forming a new government. However, stubbornness, snobbery, distrust, paranoia and petty jealousy soon lead the population of the newly-named Shrimpton-in-Space to the brink of civil war.

Analysis

The plot, like that of George Orwell’s Animal Farm has elements of political satire and parable. The lower class demanding their rights and rising up against the wealthy resembles the Russian revolution.

Cast

• Eliot Makeham as Harold Drake
• René Ray as Stella Drake
• Morton Selten as Lord Bravington
• Wally Patch as Syd Parrott
• Derrick De Marney as Hon. Bryan-Grant
• John Clements as Edward Teale
• Mary Hinton as Lady Bravington
• Gerald Barry as Col. Fitzgeorge
• Richard Goolden as Rev. Benjamin Buffett
• Harold Saxon-Snell as K. Pilkington-Bigge
• John Turnbull as Capt. Crump
• William Fazan
• Ralph Howard
• Frank Kelsey
• Vernon Kelso
• Cecil Landau
• Charles Paton
• Walter Roy
• Thorley Walters

References

Bibliography

• Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
• Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links

• Once in a New Moon on IMDb