Quand se lève la lune

Rising of the Moon, The (1957)

** (out of 4)

Anthology film has director Ford returning to Ireland but the end results are far from those of THE QUIET MAN. In the first story, "The Majesty of the Law" has a policeman going to visit an old friend, now living desperately poor due to something in his past but it turns out he does have the money to correct his wrongdoings but refuses. The second story "One Minute's Wait" is about a train that stops off in a small station but every time it tries to leave something else comes up preventing it from doing so. The final film, "1921", is about an American nun who helps a British man escape from be hung but this just leads to more problems. This here is one of the least known works by Ford and it's easy to see why as we really don't have any well-known actors in the three stories. We do have Tyrone Power showing up for brief intros to each story but this here certainly wasn't enough to bring people to the film. This is one of those movies that I just watched without ever getting fully entertained but at the same time I was never really bored. The film, on a technical level, is quite good as you can tell in each scene that Ford has a love for the subject matter. Each scene is beautifully filmed and the cinematography certainly picks up the beauty of the land. The film also works in terms of the performances. The cast are mainly unknown actors but they do very good work and they come across as real characters. Anytime you tell "short stories" within one film then you're already fighting an uphill battle as it's hard to create one equally flowing film. It seems reviews are really mixed on which is the best story but my vote would go to the final one. In his introduction Power says it comes from a story that "all Americans would know" but I doubt that's the case. The story is a mild crime drama but it contains some interesting set-ups even if it does end out of no where. In the end, this isn't a disaster or a good film but it's a minor work that will probably appeal to those with a major love of Irish stories.

.A movie made of sketches.which is pretty rare in the English/Irish films,except for the horror flicks ,and in Ford's filmography;French (Duvivier) and Italians (Risi) are more familiar to that kind of stuff.

Ford's film has one great quality:his shorts become better and better.

I must confess I found the first segment pretty boring:unlike the two others ,it does not have an "universal" appeal .It is very talky and only the splendid Irish landscapes (it was filmed on location,Tyrone Power told us so in his presentation of the film)redeem it a little.

Things go much better with the second segment:one minute's wait in a tiny railway station which actually will last a very looong time.Several miniplots intermix (a mature couple going to a wedding ,a ghost story ,marriageable son and daughter ,a hockey team whose bus has broken down,a she-goat,lobsters ,and more ) and the very last picture is worthy of a Tex Avery cartoon. "The quiet man" in miniature.

Ford saved the best for the last:mainly during the first half ,he has a very fine way to blend tragedy (an Irish rebel will be hanged by the English ) and comedy (those nuns are wearing high heels!).A positive "remake" of "the informer" this segment is witty,sometimes hilarious,and even suspenseful.It ends of course with the traditional song "rising of the moon" a policeman used to sing although he found it a bit subversive.

This movie is to Ford what the album "Irish Heartbeat " is to singer Van Morrison :a work of love for his homeland.

"The Rising of the Moon" is a very obscure Ford movie, the kind of picture Ford would say merely "a job of work". In other words, it is not to be taken seriously. I watched it the other night, wondering to find out why it is so overlooked among Ford's pictures. It is basically a disjointed, yet reflective poem on Ireland in a by-gone era that works if you are a hardcore Ford fanatic. It is based on three vignettes that are introduced by Tyrone Power. They are called "A minutes Wait", "The Majesty of the Law", and "Rising of the Moon" also known as "1921". It is not a great movie and certainly nowhere near the kind of movie it often evokes, the beautiful "The Quiet Man", but there are some nice and enjoyable moments, particularly in the vignette about the train that makes a stop for two hours instead of one minute.

This is only the hardcore Ford fans.

This trio of short stories, narrated by Tyrone Power, and directed by John Ford, is a delight to the eye and ear of the lovers of the Irish theater and story telling style. Each of the three stories is varied in its style and content. The title story, "The Rising of the Moon," is a patriotic drama taken from Lady Augusta Gregory's 1907 play of the same name. It accounts for a time in Irish history prior to independence from Britain. The small monologues between the hard-working Irish Catholic policeman (played by Ward Bond, if memory serves,) and his loyal wife are wonderful. "The Magesty of the Law" plays to the typical Irish satirical humor and warmth of spirit and "A Mintutes' Wait" is just wonderful, raucous Irish humor at its best. Each story is replete with Irish and Irish-American film and theater stars of that period who so often populate John Ford's films. Many are supreme character actors we know we have seen somewhere before... Truly a film style and an era long gone. Thank you, John Ford.

The Rising of the Moon (1957), directed by John Ford, is actually three short films about Ireland.

The first is "The Majesty of the Law," from a story by Frank O'Connor. O'Connor was an outstanding author, and the story itslef is worth reading. Ford keeps O'Connor's concept, but adds many embellishments. I wasn't impressed by these additions, but I was impressed by Ford's direction, which was outstanding in all three segments.

The second story, "A Minute's Wait," is by a less-known Irish writer, Michael J. McHugh. It's a fairly repetitious piece about a train that, for many reasons, never quite leaves the small station where it has stopped. It's the comic relief film. An English colonel and his wife are on the train, and they are presented as perfect stereotypes. At one point a sports team arrives, with great fanfare. The colonel tells his wife that it's probably the local cricket team. Of course, it's actually a victorious team that competes in the Irish sport of hurling. One reason not to fast-forward is to listen to the most bizarrely worded marriage proposal that you'll ever hear.

The third segment is adapted from Lady Augusta Gregory's play, "The Rising of the Moon." Lady Gregory was an English aristocrat who lived in Ireland, and adopted the Irish revolutionary cause as her own. She was the founder of he famous Abbey Theatre, which still exists today.

This segment has two serious plots. One is obvious--an Irish revolutionary is about to be executed. The other is less obvious but, in my opinion, it's the more important plot. It involves an Irish Constabulary sergeant and his wife. We see them first at the very beginning of the story, and again at the very end.

We saw this movie on the small screen, where it worked well. It's uneven, and not a masterpiece, but it's worth seeing. It has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.8. I think it's much better than that.