The Moon's Our Home

Pleasant enough but fairly run-of-the-mill screwball comedy. The chemistry between Margaret Sullavan and Henry Fonda is fine, and there's some funny moments here and there, but the film just feels lifeless and enervated somehow. Too many far-fetched things happen, and nothing really leads you from one scene to the next. All the elements are there for a classic except for a believable and memorable story. A bit of a slog to get through, but nice to check out just the once.

Wow, was Henry Fonda cute. And when I see him in these old films, you can see that Jane looks just like him.

In "The Moon's Our Home" from 1936, Fonda stars with his ex-wife, Margaret Sullavan, in this delightful comedy. Sullivan is Cherry Chester, a brat of a movie star who is summoned by her grandmother so that she can announce her engagement to someone she doesn't want to marry.

At the same time, a popular author, Anthony Amberton (Fonda) is being chased around town by people - women - wanting him to sign his latest book. Anxious to escape them, he jumps into a carriage transporting Cherry. The two hit it off, but he leaps off of the carriage again when it's safe. All she has to trace him is a card with the address of a place in New Hampshire.

Cherry escapes her family and goes there incognito, using the name Sarah Brown. She finds Anthony there too, incognito using the name Smith. Neither has any idea of the other's true identity.

Meanwhile the newspapers are full of Cherry's disappearance - was it a kidnapping? I found this interesting because I just finished watching "Agatha Christie: Her Life in Pictures" which dealt with the publicity surrounding her 11-day disappearance in 1925.

Cute screwball with engaging performances by both stars. I always prefer Henry Fonda in his earlier films - for me later on he became too internalized.

The supporting cast is great - Margaret Hamilton, Walter Brennan, Henrietta Crosman, and Beulah Bondi.

Very entertaining.

If you like, as I do, the romantic comedies from the thirties and early forties then this movie might be a good choice. It's definitely lightweight, but Margaret Sullavan is utterly charming as a movie star with a sophisticated and elegant public persona, but a decidely klutzy and ditzy offscreen personality. Henry Fonda is the bestselling author, who has to run away from adoring fans in Beatlesque fashion (about twenty five years before they had to).

When they meet, they have no idea the other is really famous, and the silliness ensues. Henry Fonda is always worth watching, and the supporting cast includes some favorites like the Wicked Witch of the West herself, Margaret Hamilton, Beulah Bondi and of even in a brief part it's fun to watch Walter Brennan.

You can easily picture Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in these parts (all the way down to Sullavan's insistence on wearing pants). The resolution is a little weak, and at places the plotting tends to sag, but all in all, a fun time.

The Moons Our Home is one of my favourite super obscure films with only 139 users ratings on IMDB as of writing this review and a proclamation from Bill Murray as one of his favourite films (look up his appearance on the Siskel and Ebert Holiday Gift Guide 1988 in which he mentions he would like a video cassette of the film for Christmas). The Moons Our Home has only recently seen its due on DVD on the Universal Vault Series although when I watched the film I had to access it through a torrent. Not the greatest image quality but as a big fan Margaret Sullavan and a Henry Fonda enthusiast I was overjoyed to get a hold of the film and was not let down in the slightest.

What surprised me about Margaret Sullavan's performance as movie star Cherry Chester (real name Sarah Brown) is how much she reminded me of Jean Harlow, always changing mood within a split second. Sullavan and Harlow are two actresses I didn't think I would ever compare so it's fascinating to see this aspect of her screen persona I didn't even know existed. Right from the beginning of the film Cherry Chester is screaming, throwing tantrums and acting like an all-round pretentious drama queen. There is even a Hepburn-esque quality to her character with her fierce desire to be independent as well as clothing choices of a turtleneck and trousers.

Henry Fonda's role as the explorer Antony Amberton is very much the same as we are introduced to his character escaping from a group of screaming fans which he compares to his daring exploits from the jungles of Africa to the peak of Mount Everest like a male Greta Garbo. Also, notice how all his fans are giddy women, yeah I don't think he's exactly Roald Amundsen. Sullavan and Fonda had previously been married, making their pairing feel more tender and genuine with moments like their histrionics in the snow being as adorable as they are funny. The Moon's Our Home also features innovative use of split screen in which Sullavan and Fonda are given half of the screen to represent different rooms in which they move in parallel and symmetrical tandem.

The other aspect which so effectively carries The Moon's Our Home is all the great character actor moments with the likes of Beulah Bondi, Margaret Hamilton and Walter Brennan as the hard of hearing justice of the peace; a brief but very funny role. However, I think the best of these moments involves Charles Butterworth as Horace, the man who is chosen by Cherry/Sarah's grandmother as her arranged husband. This is despite in his many unsuccessful marriage proposals to different women. Listen to how mundanely and awkwardly he describes how he will "lift her off her feet" while being distracted by a game of solitaire. The Moon's Our Home is full of moments like this which are funny on different levels.

It's already a joy to discover a film I love, even more so when it's a film that almost no one else will watch in a million years. It gives me the sense that it's my movie. I guess this is what hipsters must feel like listening to bands no one else has heard off.

The Moon's Our Home is a fast moving, machine-gun fire paced romantic comedy from 1936. It is the story of the romance of Cherry Chester, a movie star, and Anthony Amberton, a travel writer. Ms. Chester, travelling under her birth name, Sarah Brown, can't stand the writings of Anthony Amberton. Amberton, using pseudonym John Smith, detests "marshmallow-faced" movie stars, most of all Cherry Chester. For better or for worse, however, Cherry and Anthony don't know the real names when they meet, and subsequently are able to fall in love.

The novelty of this film is that the two stars, Margaret Sullavan and Henry Fonda, were married and divorced by the time the production started. The fights (verbal and phsyical) seem wonderfully real and the love and chemistry seem genuine also. There is a bitter-sweet feeling with this bit of trivia, especially when the couple separates (a few times).

The cast, in addition to the leads, are wonderful. Especially Oscar-winner Walter Brennan, as the justice of the peace. In one of the best and funniest marriages ever to take place on the screen, Brennan recites the ceremony and Amberton and Chester have a fight. It just so happens, however, that each time the j.p. asks "do you take..." they just happen to say in their own conversation "I do." It's irresistable.

Although it rarely turns up, get your hands on this film by all means. Besides being a lot of fun, it is also the screwball comedy that has the most innuendo that seemed to sneak by the censors. Fonda's character "has conquered the highest peaks known to travellers." And a personal favorite, the fact that Cherry won't "mind the bumps" on a truck ride... Modern audiences may not get it, but to the keen ear, this film is a delight as well as to the eyes...

The Moon's Our Home is a classic example of Hollywood movie-making of a bygone era.