Moonfleet

source: Moonfleet

Well, I just watched Moonfleet and I'd say it was like watching a Disney movie with flesh and blood actors. An enjoyable experience if you want to watch something "relaxing" with a touch of nostalgia. I was surprised to see that Fritz Lang placed a full burning candle in the well, right where the marked brick lays, supposedly lit up years ago by the guy who hid the diamond? It's better than electricity! Also it is unclear what really happened in the past. The dogs thrown on Fox episode is unclear. Did his mistress marry "a cousin" because she was pregnant, how did Fox get the house he lives in later on? Where does his nobility come from? Is he a count or something, to be treated with such respect in high society? Lots of blanks...

This movie is very under rated. If you compare it with all of the highly rated movies, this is actually better. This movie is perfectly cast, especially with Melville Cooper as Granger's vicious partner in crime and Greenwood as Sanders' wife. If you see this movie in your local TV listings, tape in and keep it. You will want to watch it several times.

Moonfleet (1955) A Fritz Lang oddity. If you are an admirer of this director's best movies (there are several knockouts), then you might want to plod through this one just to see his range. But it's basically aimed at young people with some adult threads, a variation on a Treasure Island or Kidnapped theme (Robert Louis Stevenson, that is), and it's fairly limited in its emotional range and in its plot. It's not that it's poorly made. In fact, for an early leap into widescreen color it has a lot of very dark night shooting that works well, and basically does what it intends. The problem is that it doesn't seem to intend to engage an adult with much intensity, and I'd have to guess it also lacks the magic and adventure a child needs, too. There's almost a pirate version of Bronte going on here--the old family mystery, the conversations between outcast members of a storied family, and so on. It doesn't help that the child star is stiff and unsympathetic at times, even when he gets in deep trouble. He's not so cute, or so lively, or so daring as a child star ought to be. (This reminds me of the lead in "Shane," who also deadens that film.) There are a couple of actors I usually appreciate a lot, like the great George Saunders who is fine here but rather by the book, and Viveca Lindfors who is the little known import who I often really like beyond her small reputation, and who here is also playing it straight. Too straight. Suspense? Absent. Even mystery about the plot (the missing diamond) is a bit unmysterious. Why? Why all the restraint and routine playing out of fairly common conflicts? All in all a strange entry in Lang's canon. If you have other options I'd skip this one. Or see a few minutes if you are curious and then be assured, it doesn't get much different, or better, as it goes. And start to ask what it is about the business of movie-making that leads directors with the intensity and originality of Fritz Lang into this kind of vehicle. Which, by the way, lost money on its substantial budget.

I just watched Moonfleet for the first time and enjoyed it. I taped it one afternoon from the TV as it is not available on video. A young boy is sent to the town of Moonfleet by his dying mother to be looked after by an old flame of hers. While there, he gets into all sorts of adventures and dangers including smuggling, grave robbing and treasure. The cast includes a good performance by Stewart Granger and is joined by George Sanders, Joan Greenwood, John Hoyt and young Jon Whiteley. I read in one review that this move is family viewing but I thought some of the scenes in it including the dead man hanging from a pole at the beginning may be a little too scary for younger children. An excellent movie. Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Always having been a fan of Stewart Granger, of course I seized the opportunity to check out 'Moonfleet' the other night. When it was done, I turned the TV off with a strange feeling of emptiness -- this could have been a superb "swashbuckler noire", if it only had had a plot. The sombre mood created by the film, the dense fog of threat around the characters, Granger's ambiguous behaviour, his never fully revealed past, all this set the stage for a bleak but thrilling adventure... which just never happens. You sit through the minutes passing by, and here and there are little plot twists and intrigues trickling, a little bit of action (all very flat and predictable, though), but all the time you ask yourself, "Okay, what's it all going to be about?" And when finally the credits roll, you say, "Oh, that's been it." I feel like someone withheld a really good movie from me, and only showed me a 90 mins teaser.

Young John Mohune comes to Dorset to meet a man called Jeremy Fox who he believes was a friend of his late mother and will help look after him. Expecting a friend in Fox, John is upset to find an uncaring man who has no interest in John. He persists though in trying to gain the friendship and attention of Fox even in the face of great dissuasion. All Fox's acquaintances are rather desperate men, which fly in the face of his rather "proper" appearance. John doesn't suspect anything, being a child, but the area is famous for smugglers and Fox may be connected and perhaps be more dangerous than anyone realises – not least the innocent John Mohune. I watched this film simply because I was a bit taken aback by the fact that it was a Fritz Lang film. Not being a name I would have associated with a period film I decided to take a look and see what he did with it. In fairness Falkner's source material does give him something to work with and there are interesting themes and ideas running through it. It takes a little bit to get going but after a while the smuggling story and the relationships make for a good adventure that is brisk enough for children while also having a bit of meat for the adults. I quite enjoyed the sweeping adventure feel it had but I was more interested in the character of Fox, who is never a "good man" and is all the better for it (in terms of the narrative). Lang appears to be interested in this as well, and he does make Fox the biggest part of the film. Granger rises to this by turning in a solid performance where he is a rough character but not to the point where he loses the audience. The problem with the film is not with him – unfortunately it is with Jon Whiteley. He is too cute and very much a child actor – and I don't mean that in a good way. He isn't really able to emote and, apologies for the lack of intelligent criticism, but he just got on my nerves. I'm sure this film didn't want to go too deep but I would be happy to see a remake of this with a stronger and more natural child actor in the role, that may allow the relationship to be developed a bit further. Sanders is always a welcome presence but he is given very little to do. The rest of the support cast are all solid enough but the film is pretty much Granger's and he works it well even if Whiteley isn't up to much. Overall though this is a solid little adventure tale that makes for solid family viewing. It is brisk and swashbuckling enough to entertain children while the solid yarn will engage adults. The cast mostly give a good account of themselves and, while I didn't hate him, I must admit that Whiteley was annoying to me personally and his performance here suggested a good education but a limited ability.

This movie is very interesting. Although it is totally different from the novel, the story holds up to its promise. The cast is great, especially S.Granger. He is really a great actor. G.Sanders is very good as the corrupt nobleman. He is really a wonderful actor. The boy, whose name completely escapes me, was quite good. I usually hates kids in movies, especially American ones as they always seem to know better than grown-ups or they just won't listen to them ... how can a 8 year-old boy "explain" something to his father... I mean come on. In this movie there is no such a thing, it is quite realistic. The music and site views are really grand. I believe that Fritz Lang is really a great Director and he has proved it once again with this movie. I highly recommend this movie.

In the 50s, the great Errol Flynn was getting long in the tooth and Stewart Granger, tall, suave and incredibly "cool," by today's standards, was filling the role of the dashing adventurer in those halcyon days of moviedom before TV gutted the industry. This film directed by the venerable Fritz Lang is an immensely entertaining adventure with pirates, villains and intrigue all handled with dash and aplomb by Stewart Granger. Alas, no video but watch for it on the late night show and, as another reviewer has suggested, tape it for seeing again and again.

It is a long time since I read J Meade Falkner's novel, but I remember enough of it to realise that this film bears little resemblance to it. Around the middle of the eighteenth century John Mohune, the young son of a once-wealthy but now ruined aristocratic family, is sent after the death of his parents to stay with Jeremy Fox, the squire of the Dorset village of Moonfleet. Before her marriage to a cousin, Fox was the lover of John's mother, but they were prevented from marrying by the opposition of her family, who thought he was neither wealthy nor well-born enough for her. As the fortunes of the Mohunes have declined, however, so those of Fox have risen, and he is now the wealthiest man in the village, living in their ancestral mansion. Fox takes a liking to the boy, and a friendship grows up between them. Unknown to John, however, Fox is not the respectable country gentleman he appears. His main source of wealth is his involvement in the lucrative, but highly illegal, smuggling trade, and he has plans to go into partnership with Lord Ashwood, a local nobleman, in a venture which involves plundering foreign ships and which effectively falls little short of piracy. The debonair Fox is also something of a ladies man, with at least two mistresses, one of whom denounces him to the authorities when he tires of her. The main plot concerns Fox and John's search for a long-lost diamond which had once belonged to one of the Mohune family. "Moonfleet" has similarities to "Treasure Island" although it is set in Britain rather than on a remote tropical island. The relationship between the likable rogue Fox (a name presumably chosen because of its connotations of cunning) and young John parallels that between Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins. The film has been aptly described as situated on the boundary between a traditional cape and sword adventure and a Gothic horror movie. The style of acting is more that of the swashbuckling adventure. Stewart Granger, taking over where Errol Flynn left off, made something of a speciality of dashing heroes in historical costume dramas ("Blanche Fury", "Saraband for Dead Lovers", "Scaramouche" and "Beau Brummell" are other examples) and he makes an attractive hero here. The other contribution that stands out is from George Sanders, always a good villain, as the corrupt aristocrat Ashwood. Director Fritz Lang, however, brings a very Gothic look to the film. Moonfleet may be situated on one of the most scenic counties in England, but it is no picturesque village. The atmosphere is often a dark, gloomy one, with numerous shots of the shabby alehouse or the mist-shrouded churchyard. Fox may be a likable rogue, but the smugglers are for the most part dangerous ones who would have no compunction about murdering a child. (There is a fine duel between Fox and one of their number fought to decide whether John should live or die after he inadvertently overhears their plans). This is not a great film, but is nevertheless a well-made, watchable adventure. 6/10