La lune était bleue

THE MOON IS BLUE is a comedy based on a stage play about the kooky happenings one evening when a playboy bachelor brings an innocent young woman back to his apartment for dinner.

This racy comedy never earned a Production Code certification. It was very controversial in the 1950s for its frankness about sex and its use of taboo words like "virgin", "mistress", and "pregnant". It's nothing outrageous by modern-day standards, but it is noticeably up-front for '50s Hollywood.

The hijinks involves four characters: an architect bachelor (William Holden), a frank young woman (Maggie McNamara), the witty upstairs neighbor (David Niven), and his daughter, the architect's jilted ex (Dawn Addams). Both men find themselves strangely attracted to the girl, who bewilders them with her bluntness and honesty. The night is filled with misunderstandings and screwy surprises. It's a fun film, though stagey.

William Holden and David Niven bring A-list talent to the production, and neither disappoints. It's actually pretty cool to see their different styles on display in the same scene. The ever-smooth Holden, with his rain coat and masculine virility, and the delightfully witty Niven, with his proper grammar and trimmed mustache.

David Niven is by far my favorite thing about this movie. He is hilarious in his role as the ineffectual father of Holden's quasi-psychotic ex-girlfriend. He comes downstairs to Holden's apartment because his daughter has told him that Holden had "done her wrong". Holden defends himself, explaining that she'd spent the night in his bedroom while he slept on the couch. Niven ponders the situation and decides that maybe that *was* how Holden had "wronged" her. ("A very humiliating experience. I probably should beat you up anyway.") His comedic reactions throughout the film are great. Never far from a cocktail and never at a loss for an eloquent witticism, Niven's at the top of his game here.

I saw this rare film on TCM and the print was pretty poor. Aside from the dirty image quality, there were several abrupt cuts (missing frames/footage?) and even inconsistent audio levels. I guess this film wasn't taken very good care of over the decades. Still, the print is certainly watchable and the movie is an interesting piece of Hollywood history. And there are some real laughs, too.

I was a kid when I first saw it, and despite difficulty in following the plot, I knew this was a very likable movie. When I saw it decades later, all my early perceptions were amply confirmed. Of course, the writer deserves most of the plaudit. It's my favorite Maggie McNamara movie. Her death has not even registered on Hollywood's tragedy-recycling radars. Nor have many others. (Kevin Coughlin, Brandon de Wilde, Bobby Driscoll, Scotty Beckett). With disbelief I read that in her last years Maggie had to type for a living. She was a true, dedicated thespian without any vanity, a lady.

Maybe it's just me, but I am a "sucker' for these goofy films predicated on a chance meeting between the opposite sexes and what happens next! A sophisticated architect meets a gal, chases up the Empire State Building to catch her, does so and then......well, you'll just have to watch to find out what quirky things happen next. Suffice to say that Holden and Niven are great, and who would have expected the Catholic Legion of Decency to issue a "C" condemned rating for this film when Holden had actually said "no" to his girlfriend? A must-see on the history of motion picture ratings, if nothing else.

"The Moon is Blue" was denied a Production Code seal and the refusal was upheld upon appeal to the board of the Motion Picture Association, primarily because the character played by Maggie McNamara announced that she was a Virgin and intended to remain one until she was married. The words virgin and seduction were used frequently in this film that was mainly a comedy about being occupied or pre-occupied with sex and,for those reasons it was denied approval, and it was released and shown minus approval. It wasn't the first film to be denied a Production Code seal, but it was the one that led to the ultimate demise of the power of the Hays Office, the Legion of Decency and various local blue-nose censor boards to determine what could not be said or done on screen.

Long before Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks discovered they loved each other atop the Empire State Building, William Holden and Maggie McNamara met on the observation tower of the venerable skyscraper in the film version of the hit Broadway play, "The Moon is Blue." One of the best and most sprightly comedies of the early fifties, Otto Preminger had a fight on his hands when the film went before an aghast Production Code board.

The movie makes rather light of a young woman's commitment to chastity, suggests that seduction is an amusing and acceptable pastime for a single male and uses words like "pregnant" and "virgin" offhandedly. The lovely, talkative, self-assured Patty even demands to know the meaning of the charge, by her new boyfriend's barely ex-girlfriend, that she's a "professional virgin." Shocking stuff and approval was denied. Perhaps equally stunning to the Hollywood censors was Preminger's decision to release the film without approval, something he had the clout to do.

As it turned out, audiences were able to deal with this explosive material. :) And almost fifty years later, when virtually nothing remains to be said or done on the silver screen, this film retains its charm, humor and attractiveness because a superb trio of actors - William Holden, Maggie McNamara and an irrepressible David Niven, who steals some of the scenes - gives a timeless quality to their sterling performances.

The script hews pretty much to the original play with minimal set changes. The dialogue is witty and fast. Preminger knew he had created a gem of a romantic comedy and it's good entertainment today in a world where the values expressed by the characters seem as remote as the social customs of the Neandertals. I hadn't seen the film in decades - I rented it and I'm going to buy a copy. This is a true and timeless classic.

By the way, don't skip the trailer that precedes the film. It's very funny.