Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Lawbolisted Powerful

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

kristin E. 10 Stars- I found no errors in this film. Memorable, plot is typical noir: mystery, a little suspense (not enough to raise your blood pressure) and of course a romantic interest.Women will love Bobo, the mysterious manly man with an accent, who can punch down bullying malefactors with no effort to save the dignity of any woman. Bobo is ever accompanied with his trusty and also-brave bulldog, who fights with him- the dog's doing so plays an important part in the mystery, which I will not divulge here so as not to spoil the ending. "Bobo" is a Gypsy, at least he calls himself one, with a tag-along leech by the name of Tiny. Tiny and Bobo are a couple of laborer types that take jobs here and there, Bobo is a strong and honest good natured fellow, both he and Tiny drink to excess and sometimes fight (with Bobo it's usually to defend a woman or a beaten man) Bobo is ever the quiet do-gooder, always happy to lend a hand or help the helpless. Tiny has a hold on Bobo, a scheme which unfortunately is a hold that Tiny uses to blackmail and control, up to demanding Bobo keep on moving along from town to town, never attaching to anyone or thing. But- Bobo falls in love with Anna, the gorgeous and smart Lupino (who wouldn't? She is as tiny as a wasp and so pretty) whom he rescues from a possible suicide by drowning (reason for this attempt is not really given in the film) Bobo and Anna become fast friends. Anna is a wayward girl with a history of taking low jobs like slinging hash, which Tiny warns Bobo that "she is a no-good hash-slinger!". I think there are aspects of the characters that are in the book "Moon Tide" that are not addressed in the film, but that's OK because the film stands on its own. I thoroughly enjoyed Moontide and I know that viewers won't turn away when watching it because it is one of those movies that come on late late at night but you dare not sleep because you don't want to miss ONE second out of it. Just a fun, memorable and romantic feel-good kind of thing, not schmaltzy- that embraces real noir and real romance in a fine way.A film that uses every bit of it's scenery even though it isn't much (you won't notice the spartan sets, only if you take the film apart, because the film 'takes you there')every craft in the film making was used to great advantage. In lesser hands this would not have been so good. The direction is expert: Fritz Lang uncredited, not sure why. Jean Gabin as Bobo was well cast, I'd never heard of him myself before, he is believable as Bobo the gypsy very well. He met Anna mere days ago but is well in love with her enough to marry her and she him and there is a degree of believe-ability here Both of them- Anna and Bobo I cheered for, wished well, and was in love with both of their characters so much, I wanted all of it to be true, in fact so much that it is as if one is watching a slice of life in a 1940s-era San Pedro dock, with the salty but good as gold characters who keep their mouths shut for the right reasons to protect their life long friends.

Michael Pendragon An impressive amount of talent was involved in this low budget film: Nunnally Johnson & John O'Hara, screenplay; Salvador Dali, nightmare sequence; Fritz Lang & Archie Mayo, direction; and a cast that included Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains, Jerome Cowan, Sen Yung, and Tully Marshall. The end result doesn't quite rise to the level of "masterpiece," but it's far from your typical Hollywood fare. It's got a European feel and sensibility to it, and mature themes, characterizations, and pacing. It's only missteps are in soft pedaling the seamier elements in an attempt to placate the censors. Savvy viewers can read between the lines enough to see that Ms. Lupino's character had worked as a prostitute and that Mr. Mitchell had a homosexual attraction to Jean Gabin. Unfortunately, the ending feels too compromised to be satisfying. I'm guessing that in the original story, it ended in rape and murder. The acting is first rate with Rains and Mitchell cast against type, but it's Gabin and Lupino who really shine. I haven't seen many films by Archie Mayo, but those that I have show him to have been a talented director. His Svengali seems more like it came from UFA than from Hollywood. With a stronger ending and a bigger budget this might well have been one of the greats.

writers_reign John O'Hara (1905 - 1970) was the finest American Short Story writer of the 20th century and one of the finest novelists. Virtually all of his novels were best-sellers but of the four (Butterfield 8, A Rage To Live, From The Terrace, Ten North Frederick) adapted for the screen only the latter - which won the National Book Award - was anything like satisfactory, whilst Pal Joey - adapted initially by O'Hara himself into the Book of a Broadway Musical with words and music by Rodgers and Hart, from his collection of stories written for The New Yorker - which appeared in an emasculated version of the Broadway musical in 1957 was a major hit mainly due to Frank Sinatra as the eponymous Joey Evans. Like most writers who came to prominence in the thirties O'Hara had several spells in Hollywood and though he only received a sole screenplay credit twice - this film and The Best Things In Life Are Free - he drew on his time there for some of his finest short stories, one Novella, Hope Of Heaven, and one novel, The Big Laugh. Fox paid him $1,250 a week to adapt Willard Robertson's novel for the screen and he worked on it from May through July of 1941.What emerged was a mixture of several elements; San Pablo an inlet in Southern California is Steinbeck country and its denizens are akin to those inhabiting Cannery Row but without the humour; top-billed French star Jean Gabin enjoyed one of his biggest successes in the Carne-Prevert Quai des Brumes, also set in a foggy port and involving violent death, and there's also something of Irwin Shaw's The Gentle People about it (After O'Hara Shaw was the second finest American short story writer of the 20th century but he wrote The Gentle People as a stage play).Lawyer-turned-actor Robertson appeared in more than 100 movies but put pen to paper only three times and Moontide was his only novel. It's a simple premise; gentle giant Bobo (Gabin), a drifter, is prone to getting drunk and blacking out and relies on 'minder' Thomas Mitchell, to keep him out of trouble and find him work (shades of Lennie and George in Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men). In the past he had strangled a man (a nod to La Bete Humaine, another Gabin movie) and Mitchell was privy to this and uses it as a lever to live off Gabin's labour. In the first reel a minor character, Pop Kelly, is strangled whilst Bobo is drunk and Mitchell allows him to fear the worst. The fly in the ointment is Anna (Ida Lupino) who Bobo rescues when she tries to drown herself. They fall in love, marry, and Mitchell attempts to destroy them. Robertson wrote a realistically tragic ending but Fox weren't buying that for birdseed in 1941 so it's a case of all's well that ends well as two dysfunctional people find hope in the haven of a bait-shack on the California coast. All O'Hara fans will want to see it but probably not all of them will enjoy it.

dbdumonteil After a three-year gap ,this was Gabin's return.It is hard to gauge it accurately cause in the 1937-1939 years ,an era when French cinema was arguably the best in the world ,he starred in at least five masterpieces ("la Grande Illusion" and "la Bête Humaine" by Jean Renoir,"Quai des Brumes" and (my favorite) "Le Jour se lève " by Marcel Carné ,and finally Jean Gremillon's "remorques") .All that he would do afterward would necessarily be a let-down."Moontide" is not in the same league as his previous French performances but it is nevertheless an interesting work for any Gabin fan.The actor integrates well in an American cast (and the cast includes earnest thespians such as Ida Lupino,Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell)and his English is quite good (don't forget that Gabin was essentially an autodidact ,which is much to his credit;His contemporary equivalent for that matter is Gerard Depardieu) The screenplay may not be very exciting -and it's full of holes at that- but the atmosphere -which recalls sometimes "quai des brumes" - and Gabin's character -who,like Lantier in "la Bete Humaine" ,has an ominous past:wasn't his father a criminal brute?- are all that matters .For his second (and last) American movie,Gabin was directed by his compatriot (who put him on the map with "la Bandera" ) Julien Duvivier .