Moontide (Fox Film Noir)
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Movie Reviews of Moontide (Fox Film Noir)
Movie Review: Can't Help Lovin' That Gabin!
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been working hard for years to get my hands on every one of Jean Gabin's films still available in the US. I was pleased to finally see Moontide, his first American film. It's a strange little movie, with both predictable or sentimental touches (the doctor and his girlfriend, the bar girl who really does like Gabin), and some standout twists (the Dali-esque nightmare sequence, Claude Rains as the likeable pal Nutsy whose depth of understanding is head and shoulders above everybody else's [check out that weird speech to Ida Lupino when she's wearing that hot B-girl costume!], the two Chinese -Americans who employ Gabin at their bait shack and truly become part of his small circle of friends, the desperate yet adorable Ida Lupino, and the gut-churning fog and atmospherics of the fishing town). But this is Gabin's film. Although Moontide isn't really a major motion picture, he makes it far better than it should be. His face has a way of portraying Bobo's inner demons, and the surface cheerfulness hides a load of insecurities and fear. I finally converted my sister into a Gabin fan: she was won over by his charisma as demonstrated in a small but masterful gesture - motioning with his fingers for more money from his friend Tiny in the opening bar sequence. After you see Moontide, check out his French films of the same era (I particularly love the pain of Le Jour Se Leve (Daybreak). To see Gabin is to love him.Movie Review: A Pleasant Surprise
Summary: 4 Stars
I had never seen this movie before but found it to be very enjoyable. I do like Ida Lupino so I gave it a chance. Loved the story.Movie Review: mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
I absolutely adore old mystery movies. This one is great. Some things you see coming and others you don't. Enjoy it.Movie Review: interesting, entertaining, but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
As a big fan of noir and old black and whites, it's fun to still be able to find an old unknown to me movie like this one and be able to enjoy it. And I did enjoy it for some surreal and unpredictable scenes (such as the drunken night, the locker room, and an unusual wedding gift) and some actors (Rains seemingly a perfect fit for his part, lovable character actor Mitchell playing well against type here, Lupino solid given what she had to work with), but I thought Gabin was fairly clunky throughout and calling it a great film is seriously overrating it. I wouldn't call it noir either even though it's got a French actor, night scenes, and fog.
I haven't listened to the commentary yet, but there's a 25 minute documentary about how it came to be the film it is which I found at least as interesting as the actual movie. It talks about why original director Fritz Lang left, the many topics in the original source material which couldn't get past the censor (and yet somehow did in less obvious ways), and how the film is different from the original story as a result.
It's a fun movie and you'll probably like it. Just don't prepare yourself to see a classic masterpiece.
Movie Review: LUPINO NOIR FLICKS ARE OK . . . AND DON'T EARN A KISS OF DEATH
Summary: 3 Stars
The two new additions to the Fox Film Noir series are really fun and interesting. Neither could be called strictly noir, but with lots of noirish elements, both films will reward with a first or second viewing. Road House (1948) was dubbed a "sordid slashing melodrama," by one critic, and has Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde and Richard Widmark in a love triangle dripping with lust, betrayal and violence, as well as Celeste Holm along for the ride. Widmark continues his slightly-off, mostly insane characterizations that started with Kiss Of Death, and Lupino plays a bar canary who warbles Mercer's "One for My Baby" with B-girl authority. Moontide (1942) also stars Lupino and is illuminated by the performance of the great French actor Jean Gabin. Deeply moody and atmospheric, with a sense of doom and fate playing over all of the action, the film, set on the docks of a Pacific seaside town, seems like a dream half remembered. Co-starring Jerome Cowan, Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell, it's a strange---but very compelling---movie.