Ondata d'amore

After a three-year gap ,this was Gabin's return.It is hard to gauge it accurately cause in the 1937-1939 years ,an era when French cinema was arguably the best in the world ,he starred in at least five masterpieces ("la Grande Illusion" and "la Bête Humaine" by Jean Renoir,"Quai des Brumes" and (my favorite) "Le Jour se lève " by Marcel Carné ,and finally Jean Gremillon's "remorques") .All that he would do afterward would necessarily be a let-down.

"Moontide" is not in the same league as his previous French performances but it is nevertheless an interesting work for any Gabin fan.The actor integrates well in an American cast (and the cast includes earnest thespians such as Ida Lupino,Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell)and his English is quite good (don't forget that Gabin was essentially an autodidact ,which is much to his credit;His contemporary equivalent for that matter is Gerard Depardieu) The screenplay may not be very exciting -and it's full of holes at that- but the atmosphere -which recalls sometimes "quai des brumes" - and Gabin's character -who,like Lantier in "la Bete Humaine" ,has an ominous past:wasn't his father a criminal brute?- are all that matters .

For his second (and last) American movie,Gabin was directed by his compatriot (who put him on the map with "la Bandera" ) Julien Duvivier .

Moontide (1942)

What a surprise, and with some well known actors in little known roles. And one little known actor in the U.S., the great French star Jean Gabin. All put together in an elegant, fast, and sympathetic way.

The story is rather sweet, a love story between two unlikely loners, the charming and volatile hard drinking Bobo, played by Gabin, and the young and troubled Anna, played by Ida Lupino. Each of their pasts looms and interferes in the romance, mainly through the maliciousness of Bobo's old friend, another violent man played by Thomas Mitchell. And then there is the incomparable Claude Rains (you won't recognize him in the first scenes with his beard), who plays a truly good friend. All of this takes place in a little fishing shack at a big stone breakwater on the California Coast somewhere, and most of it takes place at night.

Archie Mayo, who made a lot of really good films and few if any masterpieces ("Petrified Forest" is his most famous, from 1936), really does show mastery of storytelling here. And with cinematography by Charles Clarke good enough to get an Oscar nomination (with some help by the more famous Lucien Ballard), you can see why this is better than most. Fritz Lang is shown as a co-director behind the scenes, and you get suspicious that the visual strength of all this is partly his doing.

But it is the story itself that might be the achilles heel here--it progresses with some twists that are suggested in the first few minutes, and that don't turn and surprise us later. The end is the end you expect, all neatly packaged.

Not that you don't mind so much--the leading characters are, if nothing else, very likable. But along those same lines, I think every scene is filmed by-the-book. Very likable, and competent, and rather beautiful all along, but lacking the edges of uncertainty, of emotional depths you would expect from these kinds of characters, even of drama in the few scenes of violence. "Moontide," with its poetic title, insists somehow that it is a just a performance and an entertainment, a light romance, even though it's just an inch from tipping into something much bigger.

One of two American made films that Jean Gabin did in Hollywood while in exile from his beloved France is this item Moontide. It's not anywhere in the class of The Grand Illusion, Pepe LeMoko, or La Bete Humaine in fact it goes over into melodrama. Still it's a good showcase for his talent and appeal.

Gabin is a happy go lucky sailor who is beached with his pal Thomas Mitchell in the small coast town of San Pablo in California. He's a nasty drunk however who can be provoked to violence and has been. Another waterfront denizen Arthur Aylesworth is killed and Gabin is tormented by the fact that he was on one big bender the night of the homicide and it could be him.

But that doesn't stop him from saving the life of Ida Lupino who tries to drown herself because of her own relationship problems. These two fall for each other and they plan to settle in San Pablo and marry. And of course there's no room for Mitchell in the new setup.

Which doesn't please Mitchell at all. He's basically a leech who's attached himself to Gabin and he doesn't want to give up his meal ticket. Claude Rains who is a droll waterfront philosopher calls him a pilot fish which is a fish that hangs around sharks and lives off the scraps they leave. Time for Mitchell to find another shark.

Given that this is the Code era and that a major studio 20th Century Fox produced Moontide the rather obvious homosexual attachment of Mitchell to Gabin is hard to miss. Perhaps that is something that the original director Fritz Lang might have explored a bit more. In fact the film could have been a classic had Lang stayed with it.

Still the cast acquit themselves well in Moontide and a film with Jean Gabin is always something special.

and a good one at that. Gabin plays a rough drifter along California's fishery coast who rescues a girl (Ida Lupino) from a suicide attempt. He takes her to his floating bait shack and the two fall in love. Unlikely storyline takes a back seat to the acting of Gabin and Lupino as well as Claude Rains as the local "failed intellectual." Great waterfront sets certainly help this moody tale. Only Thomas Mitchell seems to overplay his hand as the treacherous friend. Jean Gabin was a European favorite for 45 years, and it's easy to see why in this film. Too bad he didn't stay in Hollywood a little longer, but the war was on. Also in the film as Jerome Cowan (in a subplot that seems to have been trimmed), Tully Marshall, Vera Lewis, Helene Reynolds, and Victor Sen Yung.

As a not often seen curiosity, Moontide is as close as it gets to 'Hollywood come Parisian'. Perhaps it could even be hailed as one of 20th Century Fox's earliest entries into 'Noir' drama. During the time exiled French leading man Jean Gabin was taking refuge in the USA (escaping the Nazis) he made two movies, this, and 'The Imposter' 44 ~ both relatively undistinguished at the time. Gabin, known for his difficult, gruff nature may well have been playing himself with his role as Bobo, a sailor with self destructive drinking habits. Bobo has a change of heart when he saves the life of a depressed young woman, played by a 20 something Ida Lupino. Lupino is the whole show, proving she was not simply a pretty face but a sterling dramatist of the highest degree. She steals every scene with strong, heart felt professionalism, a pure joy to watch! Other cast members are also of a special class, Claude Rains gives a great out of character performance as the warm hearted Nutsy, with Thomas Mitchell memorable as the nasty big lunk known as Tiny. Another odd character played by Jerome Cowan as a Dr having marital problems, has the feel of a part that may have been reduced in post production editing (could be interesting to know...?).

Equally striking is the first class moody black and white (award nominated) cinematography of veteran Charles G. Clark, whose fluid camera weaves in and out of eerie fog bound waterfront settings. The interesting screenplay by talented, self opinionated, and somewhat self destructive, John O'Hara was adapted from the novel by writer/actor Willard Robinson. Some may know Robinson from his roles in: Deep Valley '47 and The Oxbow Incident '43, among many others. Portions of the screen play were penned (un-credited) by award nominated writer Nunnally Johnson, the multi-talented producer/screenplay writer of "The Grapes of Wrath" '40. Johnson was also hailed for his classic work as the writer/director of "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" in '56.

Direction is fully credited (wrongly) to veteran all rounder, Archie Mayo but the project was started under the call of Fritz Lang. Lang was sacked after disputes with the difficult Jean Gabin. It's easy to see why many attribute much of the films atmospheric feel as being due to Lang's involvement. The sets, while visually interesting, are somewhat claustrophobic due to budget constraints. The off-the-wall montage dreamed up by unhinged 'artist' Salvador Dali during one of Gabin's binges is eye popping. The only other I've seen this good (if not better) was in Carol Reed's unforgettable classic, "Odd Man Out" '47. Producer Mark Hellinger of "The Killers" '46 and "Naked City fame" '48 ~ gives us yet another compelling watch, for those who like to trace early offbeat ventures into American 'noir' dramas.

KenR.....