Tonight's movie was "Moonrise" (1948), directed by Frank Borzage ,who made many well known pictures in the 30s and 40s. I found this film in a Library search for the latest Criterion releases, and boy is it ever a classic! An actor named Dane Cook, whom I hadn't heard of, stars as a troubled young man who lives with his aunt in a small town in Virginia. He is full of anguish because he has lived in torment since childhood. His father was a convicted murderer who was executed for his crime, and at the beginning of the movie, we see this. Then we immediately witness the malicious taunting his son Danny is subjected to at the hands of a child bully who is bigger than him. The bully uses cruel language to make fun of the fact that Danny's father was hanged, Danny is only about six years old, and this taunting has an enormous effect on his life, on top of what he has already endured as the son of a killer.
Cut to adulthood. Danny is now about 25 and alternately angry and depressed. His childhood tormentor still lives nearby and has grown into a tall and handsome man (Lloyd Bridges). They run into each other at local dances by a lake. Bridges has the prettiest girl in town (the tragic Gail Russell) ; Danny has no one. Even now in adulthood, Lloyd Bridges - the former childhood bully - cannot help but continue to taunt Danny about his father. Lloyd Bridges own father is the town banker, Danny's dad was an executed murderer. Bridges taunts Danny to make himself look big to his friends, and to his girl Gail Russell, but she sees how cruel he is in reality, and she begins to have sympathy for Danny.
Finally, at a nighttime dance by the lake, a fight starts between Danny and the much bigger Lloyd Bridges. It is at this point that the plot takes off in several directions and so I can't reveal any more.
But, I can tell you that everything about "Moonrise" is fantastic. The story itself is part Noir, part Gothic Romance. It is also a fugitive story about a man with a secret, and how his secret collapses in on him just as his life is getting better. The setting of the town is next to a swamp and almost everything is shot at night, and so there is a foggy, mossy, haunted look to the sets, from the old weathered mansion Danny resides in with his aunt, to the old wooden cabin owned by his friend and sometime employer Moses, an educated black man (played by Rex Ingram) who rents out his hunting dogs to the white folk, and who knows all their secrets.
The restoration by Criterion is top notch as usual, and they have really nailed the grey scale tones in the incredible black and white photography, which is some of the best I have ever seen in a noir.
The photography goes so well with the story that it becomes part of it.
I am a big fan of noir as you know, and so I was surprised that I had never heard of "Moonrise" prior to my Library search about a month ago. Perhaps it did not make as big an impression as it could have in 1948 because of it's different style elements. It has crime and a man on the run (noir), but it also has very tender romance and psychological soul searching dialogue, and on top of that the look of the film is pure Southern Gothic. And other than Gail Russell, it didn't have big stars. But it deserves to be seen, and now that it has a Criterion release it certainly will be.
Two Very Big Thumbs Up for "Moonrise", a minor classic that gets my highest recommendation. ///
Elizabeth, I saw a photo on FB Stories - a black and white photo :) - that looked like it was taken maybe in a University lounge, or maybe in the museum you visited the other day. There are chairs in the front and to the side, but what makes the picture are the images from the windows in back, of the trees and reflections of light given off. You even have some straight parallel lines of light running across the center of the windows, a detail that adds to this type of sunlight exposure. This is an example of what I mean when I say that black and white creates pure imagery, form as opposed to real time reality.
Hope you had a good day - keep taking pix!
We are gearing up for what is supposed to be a three day heat wave starting tomorrow.
They say it's gonna be 113 degrees, but as I write, I am not feeling it. I mean, I myself wouldn't mind 113, just because I'm a Heat Weirdo, but it just feels too cool now, late at night, for such a temperature to begin to develop by the time the sun rises.
I will predict a more moderate 105. We shall see in the morning, and I will report back tomorrow night.
Stay cool. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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