MartinHafer The best reason to watch "Sky Full of Moon" is so you can see old Las Vegas....and it's completely unrecognizable today. Throughout this film, Vegas looks like a western town...with a strong cowboy touch and with tiny casinos...and almost all of this was bulldozed decades ago.The story is very slight. Harley (Carleton Carpenter) has come to Vegas to enter the rodeo. Unfortunately, he's a bit of a rube and doesn't even have the money to enter the competition! So, after meeting up with a nice young lady (Jan Sterling), he goes about trying to gamble to increase his savings....but eventually the pair end up on an adventure.This movie is pleasant, undemanding and enjoyable as a time-passer.

classicsoncall If the information is correct on Carleton Carpenter's brief bio page here on IMDb, he's still alive and approaching his ninetieth birthday in a couple of weeks as I write this. I don't recall seeing him in any prior films, but probably ran across him in one of his Fifties appearances in a handful of TV Westerns. I don't know if you'd call this movie a Western as much as a bittersweet romance with a rodeo backdrop and a neat look at 1952 Las Vegas.Almost from the outset, the story looks like it'll end up with a walk down the aisle between Carpenter's character Harley 'Tumbleweed' Williams, and hash-slinger Dixie Delmar, nicely portrayed by Jan Sterling. That's even after we hear Carpenter sing the opening theme song, 'A Cowboy Had Ought to be Single'. Harley and Dixie actually looked like an attractive couple that were made for each other, but in the words of that famous and recently deceased New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra, when Dixie found a fork in the road, she took it.Anyone who's recently been to Las Vegas ought to get a kick out of this early look at the gambling mecca. Among the many sights, one will get a quick glance at such places as the Pioneer Club, the Golden Nugget, The Flamingo, The Thunderbird, Silver Slipper, El Dorado, and here's one that really got to me - the House of Jackpots. Personally, I can't say with any certainty if any of these might still be around. If I ever get to Vegas myself I'll have to check it out.The picture takes a bit of a surreal turn in the latter part of the story when Harley and Dixie take it on the lam for her involvement in a prior robbery and Harley's perceived theft of a one armed bandit. There's no way you would have gotten this viewer across that decrepit wooden bridge in the middle of the desert, and that careening downhill run by Dixie's jalopy was a bit over done. I remain mildly conflicted over the story's resolution since it didn't turn out to be a happy ever after affair, especially after Harley expressed his undying love for Dixie. I mean really, how does a gal give up on a guy after he tells her - "If you don't want to butcher the hog, I'll do it for you".

Charles Reichenthal Carleton Carpenter had a wonderful charming personality that warmed up every film he made, beginning with the serious and underrated LOST BOUNDARIES. He did some fine work at MGM (delicious number with Debbie Reynolds in the Aba Daba Honeymoon scene and subsequent best-selling recording). But, here,in SKY FULL OF MOON, he turns in a superb, easygoing, depiction of a cowboy in the Las Vegas of the period. A natural ease and a clear nice performance make this film a winner. Of course, Jan Sterling, herself one of the unheralded 'greats' of the screen...and stage... brings her abilities to the pleasant story. The ending of the film is both proper, satisfying, and even tenderly sad. This film was made on a low budget at MGM just prior to Carpenter leaving the studio. But it is worth the search. You will find yourself smiling at the proceedings. You will admire the work of Carpenter and Sterling... and you will get a brief glimpse of Elaine Stewart, one of the screen's great beauties, with talent, who had a short film career. But you won't take your eyes off her during her brief scene. See this film, and relax at the work of pros with a simple, nice script and film.

theowinthrop This odd film was shown at the dinner hour tonight. Odd because it works but it is quite disparate in it's plot lines.Carleton Carpenter (who normally appeared in MGM musicals) is Harlan, a would - be rodeo cowboy, attending a rodeo in Las Vegas. He has been brought up in Kansas, and one of the girls he grew up with is Dixie (Jan Sterling). She is working in a gambling parlor run by Al (Keenan Wynn) but pretends that she is a potential dancer. When Harlan shows up for his rodeo he and Dixie reunite. Harlan leaves his gear at the gambling parlor (Al gives Harlan permission to do so). But what Harlan does not know is that Dixie has gotten involved with a fellow who is planning to rob the one armed bandits in the parlor. When this happens, Dixie is immediately suspected...and by extension Harlan. Instead of doing the sensible thing of confronting Al and the police and proving his innocence, Harlan decides to assist a panicking Dixie in fleeing Las Vegas and heading for the Utah border.Sounds serious, doesn't it? But much of the film's charm works on the interaction of Harlan and Dixie on the road, and how they have conflicting viewpoints but find they have strong feelings for each other. At one point Dixie drives off in her jalopy leaving Harlan behind in a ghost town. She did not like his idea of returning to confront the police. But she returns to pick him up and get him to Utah. She finds him on the side of the road nursing his aching toes. Hardly romantic, but cute as she convinces him to trust her again.It has nice desert scenery of some of the most isolated landscapes in America. And one of the worst to be stuck in. On the road to Utah the jalopy (with leaking radiator and threadbare spare tire put on the car) has to cross a rickety, condemned wooden bridge over a chasm. Later it has to be driven (with no break linings or working gears on the road) driving down a curving narrow mountain. In the end he offers himself to her for a life of ranching. But is ranching what Dixie would be happy with, including feeding chickens and possibly slaughtering an occasional hog (and living in near isolation for most of the year)? We are aware that they really like each other, but can Dixie make the leap that Harlan wants her to make?Wynn plays his role with more heart than one usually sees in his characters. So does someone else in the film, who really only has a small role here - Douglas Dumbrille as a rodeo official (with nothing up his sleeve like a secret agenda). On the whole the film is a sweet one, and if not an earth shaking piece of cinema worth a 90 minute viewing.