Lune de sang

Set in the near future, American and Soviet mining companies have set up moon-bases. A murder happens and a KGB man is teamed up with a NASA investigator to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Murder by Moonlight is a TV movie whose limited budget is never disguised. It has some name actors in fairness, yet they don't contribute much. Brigitte Nielsen sports massive shoulder pads but gives a very weak performance, Julian Sands sports an over-done Russian accent but is also somewhat lacking, while the usually reliable Brian Cox has no more than a clichéd support role as a Soviet official. The two principals Nielsen and Sands are the sleuthing duo who, as is customary, begin at logger-heads with each other but gradually get to like one and other. They even go as far to develop a romance, which it has to be said was very unconvincing and lacking in any chemistry. Matters are also not helped very much by a cheap tinny soundtrack that constantly reminds you of how low budget it all is. I do like a murder-mystery but this one was handled in a somewhat dull manner, although I will give it credit for at least having a memorable culprit.

It's really too bad this movie was first aired the week before the Berlin Wall fell. It was a very well done mystery involving a murder on a commercial American moonbase located in Soviet lunar territory. Because of the jurisdiction problems, Bartok (CIA) and a KGB major were both sent to investigate.

They found more than they bargained for. Besides the original murder, there were others all aimed at covering up a truth both Soviet and Americans wanted revealed. Fascinating. Well worth watching.

The detail in this film is great. How would people live on a lunar mining station? The bar converts to other things, there's a library, and the quarters, while not spacious, are adequate. They didn't ignore the air situation or the gravity. And they DIDN'T have people exploding in decompression like they did in Outland. Very well done.

What a shame that somebody retitled this film to MURDER BY MOONLIGHT, which makes it sound like any bog standard murder mystery or film noir. The original title, MURDER ON THE MOON, is much better and a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of title: this is a straightforward murder mystery with the twist that the entire film is set on a Martian moonbase in the near future.

It's a straightforward effort, constrained by the nature of the TV movie into neither being particularly sexy or violent, but saying that it's a film which holds the attention throughout. The storyline sees an astronaut being murdered and an American (Brigitte Nielsen in an unusual casting choice) and a Russian (Julian Sands in another unusual casting choice) forced to team up to solve the crime.

The film keeps you watching throughout, even if Nielsen's acting ability isn't really apparent. Julian Sands is much better and it's fun to see him before he was typecast as a stock British bad guy in the movies. The British nature of this film means that there are supporting roles for people you wouldn't expect to see in this kind of production, like David Yip and Brian Cox, with Celia Imrie particularly incongruous. Even ALIENS's Ricco Ross pops up in an early cameo. American director Michael Lindsay-Hogg was best known for his work on the famous BRIDESHEAD REVISITED TV miniseries of the early 1980s.

This 1989 made for TV movie is worth checking out. Brigitte Nielsen gives an OK performance as the sleuth, but what kept my attention was the writer's attention to detail... In terms of the mystery. Science fiction fans will find a lot of aspects about this film (the political situation, the murder attempt in the library, etc.), a bit hard to swallow. But, hey, give these guys a break. The movie was made before the Berlin Wall fell, and as for the science, well, they don't attempt to explain anything away with technobabble, nor do they forget that the moon has no atmosphere. The love story between the investigators didn't gell, but again, they don't dwell on it. The resolution is a great twist on the concept of "hide in plain sight."

I liked this movie on many levels, despite the poor acting by Neilson. It had the flavor of a realistic moon base, and a mystery that made sense. It provided a haunting view of a political future and expected technologies. I think it was underrated and would like to see it shown on syfy channel. It is definitely as good as the current made for TV movies. As a who-done-it, it is moderate in its effectiveness, although it did take me a while to guess who the guilty party was. There were some surprising revelations along the way that greatly added to the quality of the story--revelations that were made in a low-key but effective manner and that served to define the politics and technology that made the story a true science fiction of the hard type.