Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

treywillwest I know there are those who hold this film to be a bona fide masterpiece. I wouldn't go that far. Many of its characterizations are hokey and it includes what might be the most troublingly nonchalant reference to sexual assault in all of cinema. Having said that, it is a memorable and unique picture. The opening scene is, admittedly, as aesthetically great as cinema gets. A luscious, mysterious credit sequence lays the groundwork for a series of dissolves between intricate shots, one more impressive than the other. It's not hyperbole to say that first scene is worthy of Wells or Tarkovsky. After that, the filmmaking comes down to earth, but there are other impressively shot scenes. The narrative is a strangely constructed anti-Noir that affirms humanity's difficult, perilous freedom. I wonder if Jean-Paul Sartre ever watched this movie. Bet he would have approved.

Alex da Silva Dane Clark (Danny) is an outcast in the town where he has grown up. He's been constantly teased, bullied, beaten up and he still lives there! Now add the peculiar decision to make him quite a confrontational, aggressive individual and things make absolutely no sense as to why he has still stuck around in the town. The film doesn't ring true right from the outset. He's also a thoroughly unpleasant character and so it is impossible to get on his side, no matter how hard you try. Why on earth would local girl Gail Russell (Gilly) have any interest in him? No idea. But she falls in love with him when he forces himself upon her. What is this total nonsense! The film rolls along with impossibly false situations like this over and over again. Another example is when Dane pays a visit to the village simpleton Harry Morgan (Billy) who has found Dane's knife near the scene of a murder. The question to ask is where was the knife found. It's obvious. But Dane goes round and attacks the guy instead. Who wrote this rubbish? Yet another example is the ferris wheel ride where Dane's actions once again defy belief.You watch the film to find out what will happen so its ok on that front but there is some confused moralizing. The ending reminded me a bit of the Defiant Ones (1958) when Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier wait to be caught by the sheriff's dogs and go off back to jail with a smile on their faces. Only in that film, the message is more powerful and more emotional as you actually care for the two leads and the film succeeds in putting the viewer on their side whilst they are on the run. This offering just doesn't hit the mark.Allyn Joslyn makes a nice sheriff, Ethel Barrymore is rather ridiculously given 3rd billing for appearing briefly right at the end as Dane's grandmother. She does ok here but Dane plays the lead character completely wrong. In reality, he would have gone straight to the police at the beginning of the film given that it is such a small town.

Leofwine_draca MOONRISE is a psychologically-focused film noir with a murder plot and bags of sleazy, fetid atmosphere. The main character is a malcontent who saw his father swing from a rope as a child, leaving him a legacy of bullying and shunning by the townsfolk. At the film's outset, he's finally had enough and commits murder, leaving a body in the woods. The typical suspense plot follows, mixing in a little romance with some police investigation, and you really wonder how it's all going to play out. The little-known cast members work hard to convince, but it's director Frank Borzage who does the finest job in terms of atmosphere.

secondtake Moonrise (1948)A small rural town is the setting for a man struggling with an ambiguous crime he has committed. It's a psychologically loaded movie, and the clues start with the first abstract frames and last through every scene to the end. There is enough simplifying going on to keep it from being a classic or having the inventive flair of some contemporaries (or like "Night of the Hunter" a few years later), but I was impressed again in this second viewing. One of the strengths here is certainly the mood created by all the richly blackened night scenes, both in the town and in the woods. The camera moves with unusual elegance and boldness through the scenes, or you might say through the shadows. The heightened angles and lack of faces in the first few shots is a sign of the atmosphere to come.The little known leading actor, Dane Clark, is almost perfect in his role, partly for doing a great job and partly for letting his awkwardness bleed through into the character's. You come to feel his circumstance as an utterly ordinary guy. The sheriff is a restrained character and the man's girlfriend has a wonderful simple presence as well.The real meat of it all is the trauma this man goes through bearing the guilt of his actions. He isn't so much pursued as just haunted by the thought of being caught. It's like the secret we all have had at some point and we get away with it for awhile, but it wears you out from inside until something has to give. One of his solutions finally it to run for it, and he has one last turning point near the end with his grandmother played by Ethel Barrymore. The folksy philosophy gets a little thick, I suppose, but by this point you go along with it because it's true. And it's not what you might think.If you don't like old movies this will feel clumsy at times. But if you do already have a hankering for film noir and other crime dramas, even ones with mostly unknown actors, give this a try. And keep your eyes open for some great photography by John Russell, who is as important as anyone in this production. On some level it's truly great stuff.