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| Moontide (Fox Film Noir) | 
 enlarge | Directors: Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang
Actors: Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, Claude Rains, Jerome Cowan
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.58
You Save: $7.40 (49%)
New (36) Used (11) from $7.56
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 7443
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 94
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: FOXD2252859D
UPC: 024543528593
EAN: 0024543528593
ASIN: B001CC7PLW
Theatrical Release Date: 1942
Release Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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Product Description
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 09/02/2008 Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Nr
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 One of the Most Astonishing of All Films Noir Finally Comes to DVD! August 5, 2008
30 out of 31 found this review helpful
My first introduction to the great French movie star Jean Gabin came not from his French classics like "Grand Illusion" and "Pepe Le Moko," but from this incredible, haunting overlooked gem -- one of the great lost classics of the 1940s -- which, thanks to Fox DVD, is no longer lost!
1942's "Moontide," one of only two American-made/English-language films in which Gabin ever appeared, is not only one of the most powerful and absorbing Films Noir you'll ever see in your life, but it's brilliantly made, as well: While the credited director of the film is Archie Mayo, Fritz Lang ("Metropolis") directed a handful of sequences, and Salvador Dali even contributed a great, surreal "drunk" sequence. The chemistry between Gabin and Ida Lupino is electric and, indeed, I can't speak highly enough about "Moontide," a film which will stay with you long after the final credits have ended. I'm excited that it has finally merited a DVD release, here in the US.
To read more about Jean Gabin and "Moontide," check out my book WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR: THE COMPLETE 95 FILMS (AND LEGEND) OF JEAN GABIN, VOLUMES ONE AND TWO, which is available at Amazon.com, as well as through [...].
Love barges in August 14, 2008
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
MOONTIDE was Jean Gabin's Hollywood debut. It's a nicely-paced noir about a longshoreman who, when sobered up after a drinking binge, fears he may have killed a man. To keep a low profile, the dockworker takes a job on an isolated bait barge, but love comes to him unexpectedly in the form of a woman trying to drown herself.
In Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA (1941), Ida Lupino received star billing over Humphrey Bogart.
Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.
(7.2) Moontide (1942) - Jean Gabin/Ida Lupino/Thomas Mitchell/Claude Rains/Jerome Cowan/Ralph Byrd/Victor Sen Yung/Tully Marshall
CAST AND CREW TRIVIA--
Was adapted for the screen by John O'Hara and Nunnally Johnson.
Archie Mayo also directed THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936) starring Humphrey Bogart, THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO (1938) with Gary Cooper, and the Marx. Bros. last film, A NIGHT IN CASANLANCA (1946).
Long-time star Jean Gabin (Bobo) resisted leaving France for Hollywood, until the German Army's occupation of his native country made the trip almost a necessity. Gabin acted in two American films before returning home in 1946.
Actress Ida Lupino (Anna) was also a successful director.
Thomas Mitchell (Tiny) originated on stage a role later played by Peter Falk on TV-- Lt. Columbo.
Claude Rains' (Nutsy) natural accent was the English dialect known as Cockney.
Ralph Byrd (Rev. Wilson) played comic strip crimefighter Dick Tracy in movies and on early TV.
 interesting, entertaining, but not great September 28, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
As a big fan of noir and old black and whites, it's fun to still be able to find an old unknown to me movie like this one and be able to enjoy it. And I did enjoy it for some surreal and unpredictable scenes (such as the drunken night, the locker room, and an unusual wedding gift) and some actors (Rains seemingly a perfect fit for his part, lovable character actor Mitchell playing well against type here, Lupino solid given what she had to work with), but I thought Gabin was fairly clunky throughout and calling it a great film is seriously overrating it. I wouldn't call it noir either even though it's got a French actor, night scenes, and fog.
I haven't listened to the commentary yet, but there's a 25 minute documentary about how it came to be the film it is which I found at least as interesting as the actual movie. It talks about why original director Fritz Lang left, the many topics in the original source material which couldn't get past the censor (and yet somehow did in less obvious ways), and how the film is different from the original story as a result.
It's a fun movie and you'll probably like it. Just don't prepare yourself to see a classic masterpiece.
Hello, Dali September 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Back in 1941, director Archie Mayo (The Petrified Forest, Charley's Aunt, A Night in Casablanca) faced the unenviable task of stepping in to rescue a 20th Century Fox film project called Moontide, which had been abandoned by the great Fritz Lang not too long after shooting had begun. As one of the pioneering German expressionists, Lang was a key developer of the visual style that eventually morphed into a defining noir "look" (some of his pre-1940s classics like M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and Fury are generally considered seminal proto-noirs). Moontide was also to be the American debut for Frenchman Jean Gabin, already a major star in Europe (Pepe le Moko, The Grand Illusion, La Bete humaine). Needless to say, the pressure was on for Mayo to deliver. And "deliver" he did, with this moody and highly stylistic sleeper, ripe for rediscovery.
Gabin stars as Bobo, an itinerate odd-jobber (the type of character Steve Martin might call a "ramblin' guy") who blows into a coastal California fishing community with a parasitic sidekick named Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) in tow. Adhering to time-honored longshoreman tradition, Bobo and Tiny make a wharfside pub crawl the first order of business when they hit port. It is quickly established that the handsome, likable and free-spirited Bobo loves to party, as we watch him go merrily careening into an all-night boning and grogging fest. The next morning, Bobo appears to be suffering from a classic blackout, not quite sure why or how he ended up sacked out on an unfamiliar barge, wearing a hat that belongs to a man who has met a mysterious demise sometime during the previous evening. Taking a stroll along the beach in an attempt to clear his head, he happens upon a distraught young woman named Anna (Ida Lupino) who is attempting to drown herself in the surf. Anyone who has screened a noir or two knows what's coming next. Before we know it, Bobo and Anna are playing house in a cozy love shack (well, bait shop, technically). Of course, there is still that certain unresolved matter of Did He Or Didn't He, which provides the requisite dramatic tension for the rest of the narrative.
John O'Hara's screenplay (adapted from Willard Robertson's novel) borders on trite at times and could have done more damage to the film's rep, if it had not been for Gabin and Lupino's formidable charisma, as well as the beautifully atmospheric chiaroscuro photography (by Charles G. Clarke and Lucien Ballard) and assured direction from Mayo. There are several brilliant directorial flourishes; the montage depicting Bobo's fateful night of revelry is a particular standout. The surreal touches in that sequence were "inspired" by some original sketches submitted on spec by Salvatore Dali, who was slated to contribute art direction, but ended up dropping out for one reason or another. Great supporting performances abound, particularly from a nearly unrecognizable Claude Rains as a paternal waterfront philosopher who could have easily strolled off the pages of Steinbeck's Cannery Row. Moontide would make an interesting double bill with Clash by Night, another character-driven "cannery noir" set in a California fishing town milieu. The Fox DVD sports a great transfer and an insightful commentary track.
LUPINO NOIR FLICKS ARE OK . . . AND DON'T EARN A KISS OF DEATH September 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The two new additions to the Fox Film Noir series are really fun and interesting. Neither could be called strictly noir, but with lots of noirish elements, both films will reward with a first or second viewing. Road House (1948) was dubbed a "sordid slashing melodrama," by one critic, and has Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde and Richard Widmark in a love triangle dripping with lust, betrayal and violence, as well as Celeste Holm along for the ride. Widmark continues his slightly-off, mostly insane characterizations that started with Kiss Of Death, and Lupino plays a bar canary who warbles Mercer's "One for My Baby" with B-girl authority. Moontide (1942) also stars Lupino and is illuminated by the performance of the great French actor Jean Gabin. Deeply moody and atmospheric, with a sense of doom and fate playing over all of the action, the film, set on the docks of a Pacific seaside town, seems like a dream half remembered. Co-starring Jerome Cowan, Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell, it's a strange---but very compelling---movie.
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