Nel mondo della luna

"Over the Moon" is a decent enough film, but in its present form it's a bit tough to watch. This is because a lot of conservation work needs to be done on it--at least on the copy shown on Turner Classic Movies (and usually they show the best copy available). The problems are with the picture and sound. The film is in early Technicolor but the print is so muddy that it's actually pretty ugly. Additionally, the sound is a bit muddy--making it very hard for non-Brits like me to understand everything they are saying. Cleaning the sound and/or installing closed captions would be a HUGE boon to watching the film.

The film also suffers from a bizarre problem--one that is even weirder than using Jean Harlow's double to finish "Saratoga" after she died part-way through filming. The star of the film, Merle Oberon, went through HUGE changes in her looks in the late 1930s--going from a somewhat unattractive lady to a more vivacious lady due to studio folks who saw her potential. Here is the problem with this--much of the film was made in 1937 and then the project was shelved. Then, two years later, she looked like a totally different lady--and that's when they filmed the rest!! So, in the '37 portions, she has shaved and penciled eyebrows (like Jean Harlow) and very unattractive hair that emphasized her large forehead. In the '39 portions, she has normal eyebrows and a much more becoming hairstyle--making it look like two different actresses played the role. And, since it was NOT filmed in sequence, it's very disconcerting--much like when Luis Buñuel DELIBERATELY used two different actresses to play the same role in "That Obscure Object of Desire". With Buñuel, it worked because he was a surrealist but in "Over the Moon" most viewers will just be left confused.

As for the story itself, it's a decent tale of a poor girl (Oberon) who instantly becomes a very, very, very wealthy heiress and how this helps to mess up her life. Lots of selfish hangers on suddenly become her 'friends' and her fiancé (Rex Harrison) is driven off by her new lifestyle and nasty friends. But, no matter how much charm and magic the film has, all the factors listed above do a lot to undo the good--making the film a bit of a chore to watch.

Though made in 1939 and released right after Hitler started his march through Europe, the Alexander Korda production Over the Moon actually looks older. That's because production started in 1937. It's in color with a very young Merle Oberon who, in the beginning, looks less like the Merle Oberon we knew once she came to Hollywood, but later has a new look, and a very young Rex Harrison.

The sound on this was fuzzy, so I didn't get all of it.

Anyway, Oberon plays Jane Benson who lives in the family home in Yorkshire. She's in love with the local doctor, Freddie (Harrison) and wants to marry him. They decide to marry, but then, Jane inherits an absolute fortune - 18 million pounds. Freddie dumps her. So right away, you know this isn't based on a true story.

Freddie feels her money would ruin his ambition, and he isn't interested in the trappings of money. Jane wants to spend about 2 million on frivolities and then give it all away. She goes on her spending adventure and attracts two men; meanwhile, Freddie has gotten a lot of attention for turning down an heiress.

Some gorgeous European scenery to be had here, but the film moves a bit slowly. Still, it's nice to look at, and it's always a pleasure to see Oberon and Harrison, two fine actors.

Over The Moon never became the comedy classic that Alexander Korda wished for his wife Merle Oberon. But it is a pleasant enough film showing the upper classes in the United Kingdom enjoying their privileges.

Dutiful Merle Oberon and Dr. Rex Harrison are attending Merle's grandfather until his demise. Grandpa never spent a dime and his only living heir inherits 18 million pounds. At the age she's at she will not hoard, but instead starts moving with the upper crust and gets a few upper crust admirers chiefly Robert Douglas son of the richest man in the United Kingdom.

Harrison gets tired though and wants to get back to practicing medicine. But Merle's just starting to go through the fortune and all the admirers it's bringing.

Harrison walks out but like Levi Johnson he's acquired some notoriety of his own and he gets an offer from some sanitarium that caters to the disgustingly rich to join their staff though he at first doesn't really know why.

Of course in the end it all works out. Over in America had this been done by a Leo McCarey or a Mitchell Leisen Over The Moon might have been a comedy classic. It had the makings, but it falls short.

In a small Yorkshire village, girlish Merle Oberon (as Jane Benson) tends to her bedridden grandfather. His country doctor, young Rex Harrison (as Freddie Jarvis), seems more interested in checking Ms. Oberon's heartbeat. Their pulses rise and a marriage is considered. Suddenly, Oberon inherits 18,000,000 pounds, courtesy of her penny-pinching grandfather. That should be happy news, but Oberon reacts with a perplexed look. After the riches sink in, she decides to join high society in London, Monte Carlo and Nice. Initially along for the ride, Mr. Harrison becomes bored with fancy cars, parties and glitter. Harrison leaves. Oberon parties on, but something is missing...

This film meanders along clumsily. It appears disjointed, and Oberon often looks less than her beautiful self. One reason for this is the fact that "Over the Moon" jumped around three production years. It was begun in 1937 and completed in 1939. Although Oberon had yet to appear in the classic "Wuthering Heights" (1939), she was already an established star, having received an "Academy Award" nomination for "The Dark Angel" (1935). Herein, it appears that filmmakers are still searching for the proper way to photograph Oberon. This may be due to the fact that "Over the Moon" was filmed in color. Some of the camera angles, lighting and takes used are not flattering.

*** Over the Moon (2/12/39) Thornton Freeland ~ Merle Oberon, Rex Harrison, Ursula Jeans, Robert Douglas

The exotic beauty Merle Oberon was primed by her producer husband Alexander Korda for great things (it was at his behest she changed her name from Estelle Merle Thompson to Oberon and they were married the year OVER THE MOON was released) but is today probably remembered for only a few of the more than two dozen films she made before World War II and the relative handful she made after it - none more than the first American film she made immediately after this release, WUTHERING HEIGHTS.

OVER THE MOON was a top drawer release in 1939 just as World War II was breaking out - it opened in London barely a month after Hitler invaded Poland - and well received. The story of a young doctor who rejects the image of marrying for money and the woman on the rebound having to cope with that money and all the advice, good and bad, that comes with it, allowed for ravishingly beautiful Technicolor vistas of European sights from Paris to the Riviera, Venice and beyond in a world still at peace.

If the film itself hasn't aged as well as, say, Bernard Shaw's THE MILLIONAIRESS, it is more because the writers were not in Shaw's league than any of the other elements. Truth be told, it may come across as a little dull for those not willing to go with the quiet pace of the screenwriters' telling of the Robert Anderson/Lajos Biro story. It would be interesting to know why such an apparently important film was released in Lisbon a full eight months before its London premiere - was there re-editing involved, or did the film when initially released cause reservations in the distributors and the London premiere only get pushed because of the War? Whichever, the result was successful at the time.

Nevertheless, OVER THE MOON (as of this date unreleased on video in the US - but available in a Greek PAL DVD release) is worth seeking out for the relatively early performance by Rex Harrison as the naive doctor (still two and six years before his career defining Shaw and Coward films, MAJOR BARBARA and BLYTHE SPIRIT) and an all too-rare performance by the great Elisabeth Welch (an expatriate American singer/actress renowned for creating "Solomon" in Cole Porter's NYMPH ERRANT in the original 1933 London production of that show) as a cabaret singer.

Minor OVER THE MOON may be today, but like its star, Ms. Oberon, it remains lovely to look at and a worthy diversion for a rainy afternoon.