bkoganbing 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.

MartinHafer Unlike many Europeans in the entertainment world who were displaced by the Nazis and came to America (such as Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder), Jean Gabin was handicapped as he was a leading man whose English was obviously poor. As for directors, the public would never know and with some other foreign actors, they were able to suppress their accents better. But, with his performance in "Moontide", you can see why the very talented Gabin made very few films during his exile from Nazi-occupied France. His English isn't terrible--but it isn't as good as an actor like, say, Charles Boyer. It's a shame, as his pre- and post-war films are often amazingly good.Bobo (Gabin) is a barge operator who likes to drink and fight--and you see him doing this when the film begins. After waking up from a binge, he rescues a woman, Anna, who is trying to kill herself (Ida Lupino) he takes it upon himself to be responsible for her--which is quite touching. However, the nasty character Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) is always nearby--because he's holding some secret about Bobo--and Bobo has to put up with Tiny--even though there isn't much to like about Tiny. And, when Bobo and Anna marry, Tiny is sure to let his malevolence boil over and tragedy ensues.This film is very much unlike a Hollywood film as far as the plot goes. It bears more similarity to some of Gabin's French-language films like "Port of Shadows" and "La Bête Humaine"--very dark films about madness and murder. So, while it's a bit like an early American example of film noir, it is more like a hybrid of this and the films than helped to make Gabin famous. Dark, brooding, very adult for the time and genuinely odd--this film is worth seeing--especially for its wonderful cinematography.By the way, who came up with the names for the characters in this film?! You've got Bobo, Tiny and Nutsy--an interesting assortment to say the least!Also, on the DVD is a documentary about the making of the film. It talks about the odd circumstances surrounding the film and its star. It turns out that the book on which the movie was based was MUCH more adult and never could have been brought to the screen at that time--though quite a bit of the book still made it to the film but was more implied than explicitly stated. It's well worth seeing.

MisterWhiplash Jean Gabin didn't star in many American films, and Moontide was the only one I could find from my local library. Maybe it was for the best; his presence on screen is very (and I mean this as a compliment) French in tone and inflection and even in style of speak. In English he fares reasonably well, and gives a solid performance as the "gypsy turned peasant" Bobo who saddles up with ex-suicide-attemptee Ida Lupino on a tiny bay community. This being said it's a kind of character that works for Gabin's limitations in the language. Because Bobo is a Gypsy it works that Gabin's English is only so fluent and has the kind of facial expressions that reflect that (as opposed to say Grand Illusion where he was so natural that it was staggering). Lupino, thankfully, is a great match, and the two have some very nice scenes together as a married couple who face trouble when one of Bobo's prior troubles comes back to haunt him, even as it wasn't his fault.The direction is competent and the writing has some moments of cleverness or tenderness or even insight. And as the drama ratchets up one gets involved if only on a perfunctory, conventional level. But the director Archie Mayo (replacing, of all directors, Fritz Lang) some moments that really stand out for me. One that I might never forget, and should stand up among some of the quintessential early 40s noir films, is when Bobo has his drunken binge the first night at port and after causing a ruckus in the bar with punching out the guy and making the girl upset goes from bar to bar. In a montage that provides a drunken angle to the camera and editing tricks, we see Bobo going further and further, hearing characters repeat things like "drink, drink" or whatever and it is purely intoxicating to see this. It's the kind of sequence, which lasts a good long 5 minutes, that almost promises this to be a great film.It isn't, but it was worth a shot, and for those who are curious or just big Gabin or Lupino (or Claude Rains) fans, it's worth a shot.

edwagreen Rather routine story of a dock worker who finds love with a hash slinger. The dull, somber mood is reflective of the period shown here.Ida Lupino is excellent, as usual, because she plays the role that she was so well suited to play in films- the unhappy, vulnerable woman, who finds love and then tragedy.As the heavy, Thomas Mitchell shows some fine acting but he is not acting exactly like his drunken doctor in "Stagecoach" or Gerald O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind."As the man of the docks, Jean Gabin is appealing in the romantic lead. Problem with this film is that it's so obvious. Jerome Cowan is the unfaithful doctor who realizes his shortcomings and helps Lupino survive.