Moonrise
Directed by Frank Borzage
Written by Charles F. Haas from a novel by Theodore Strauss
1948/USA
Republic Pictures/Marshall Grant/Chas. K. Feldman Group Productions, Inc.
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video
[box] “It is unfortunate that in most cases when the sins of the father fall on the son it is because unlike God, people refuse to forgive and forget and heap past wrongs upon innocent generations.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly[/box]
This is a poetic coming of age story, with touches of the Gothic.
The story is set in rural Virginia. Danny Hawkins’s father was hanged for shooting a doctor who refused care to his mother. Danny was haunted by the execution in his childhood nightmares and relentlessly taunted by his schoolmates by day. This has made Danny (Dane Clark) a bitter loner. His one real friend is Mose (Rex Ingram) with whom he goes coon hunting in the mountains.
When he is grown, he gets into a fight with the local banker’s son Jerry (Lloyd Bridges) on the subject and during the fracas kills him with a rock. Jerry is not a popular boy and at first investigators think his disappearance was due to embezzlement from his father’s bank.
That same night, he declares his love for schoolteacher Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell). She initially resists him but eventually succumbs. She does not understand why Danny wants to keep their relationship secret or why he acts increasingly disturbed the longer the investigation continues. With Harry Morgan as a deaf-mute, Allen Joslyn as a compassionate Sherrif, and Ethel Barrymore as Danny’s grandmother.
This is quite a beautiful movie to look at and has a kind of dream-like quality and lots of moonlight. The main link to noir is by way of the tormented protagonist. I enjoyed it.
Moonrise was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound, Recording.
Clip – Rex Ingram and Dane Clark – cinematography by John L. Russell
