Absolutely the worst movie.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I know there are those who hold this film to be a bona fide masterpiece. I wouldn't go that far. Many of its characterizations are hokey and it includes what might be the most troublingly nonchalant reference to sexual assault in all of cinema. Having said that, it is a memorable and unique picture. The opening scene is, admittedly, as aesthetically great as cinema gets. A luscious, mysterious credit sequence lays the groundwork for a series of dissolves between intricate shots, one more impressive than the other. It's not hyperbole to say that first scene is worthy of Wells or Tarkovsky. After that, the filmmaking comes down to earth, but there are other impressively shot scenes. The narrative is a strangely constructed anti-Noir that affirms humanity's difficult, perilous freedom. I wonder if Jean-Paul Sartre ever watched this movie. Bet he would have approved.

Frank Borzage was winding down his career when he made this item for Herbert J. Yates's Republic Picture. For Borzage this film is probably an afterthought, after all he made some great classic films like Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm for major studios like MGM and others. But what might be an afterthought for him, would be an acclaimed classic for most other directors.Moonrise is the story of a troubled young man played by Dane Clark who has been teased and bullied all his life because his father was hung for murder. A particular bully has been Lloyd Bridges who is the son of the town banker Harry Cheshire. What little we see of Bridges is that he's a real lout. At a social event Bridges starts again when they're outside and alone and in a fight where Bridges who is losing for the first time picks up a rock and goes after Clark who takes it away from him and kills Bridges with it. At first it's a missing person case and then its homicide when the body turns up. What to do for Clark who is not a criminal by nature. The rest of the film is a study of Clark and the troubled conscience he has.Moonrise has a frightening relevancy today when we are finally focusing on the issue of bullying. This film should be seen and seen again for the message it contains. Today the character played by Dane Clark as a teen might just be the perpetrator of a school massacre today.Gail Russell as the woman both Clark and Bridges were interested in and Ethel Barrymore as his grandmother are the ones who most influence Clark in the decision he must make. Such fine character players as Harry Morgan, Selena Royle, Clem Bevans, Rex Ingram are all in this film giving it a nice rural touch as it does take place in the rural South. Best of all is Allyn Joslin who plays a philosophical sheriff very much along the lines of Theodore Bikel in The Defiant Ones.This film could very well be Dane Clark's signature role in a career that never quite brought him superstardom. You'll not forget his performance and how so many emotions register on screen with a troubled soul.

Moonrise (1948), based on the novel of the same name by Theodore Strauss, directed by Frank Borzage, a man who won the Academy Award for Best Director twice, but was subsequently rather forgotten after his heyday, although his reputation has started to improve, thanks to the work of some dedicated film critics. This movie is generally regarded as his last great one. It stars Dane Clark and Gail Russell, two people who never made it big in films, and Russell's other famous movies now, is probably Budd Boeticher's Seven Men from Now, a brilliant revenge Western with Randolph Scott and Lee Marvin.The screenplay is good leaving room for a lot of stylistic scenes, especially the first few opening minutes, which are breathtaking in their beauty, something we should thank cinematographer John L. Russell, which illustrate the hanging of the temperamental and volatile Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) father for murder and his subsequent taunting right through childhood for this. One night, when he is a young adult, he gets into a fight with Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges), a person who has took delight in reminding Hawkins of his father, and he accidentally kills Sykes. He hastily covers it up and falls in love Sykes girl, the schoolteacher Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell), but the police are closing in on him.Absolutely filled with wonderful photography, it's hardly surprising this movie has become something of a minor classic with very good performances from its stars and Ethel Barrymore, Rex Ingram, Allyn Joslyn and Harry Carey Jr. the little seen but mysterious Charles Lane. The direction is tender and meaningful, making the ending seem perfectly right, whereas in other hands it might have seemed mawkish. All in all, a very great film noir that deserves its reputation and one that shouldn't be missed.

Two strengths of this movie are seen at a very early stage as it starts particularly strongly and also conveys a great deal of important information about the main character's history by using visual means. The opening montage is very effective as it sets the foundation for the story and also establishes the visual style of the piece. Appropriately, some impressive low key lighting is used which is totally compatible with the rather grim and troubling nature of the drama that follows.Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) is the son of a man who was hanged for murder and during his childhood had regularly been taunted and bullied by his contemporaries. Some years later, as a young man, Danny gets involved in a fight with one of his childhood tormentors called Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges) and unintentionally kills him in self defence and dumps his body in a swamp. He doesn't realise that he's left his pocket knife behind at the scene of the fight and goes on to the local dance hall where he dances with Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell), a school teacher who's engaged to be married to Jerry.Danny has a close friend, an older man called Mose Johnson (Rex Ingram) who like himself is an ex-railroad employee. Mose lives in a shack close to a swamp and keeps a number of dogs which he uses on hunts for raccoons. On one such hunt, the dogs find Jerry's body which is duly removed and taken to the coroner's office.Danny and Gilly's growing relationship is noticed by the local sheriff Clem Otis (Allyn Joslyn) and when the couple are on a Ferris wheel ride at a fairground at the same time as Clem and his wife, Danny becomes overwhelmed with guilt, panics and jumps off the structure injuring himself in the process.A little time later, when he sees that Billy Scripture (Henry Morgan) who's a mentally retarded deaf mute has found his knife, Danny again panics and attacks his friend and almost strangles him to death. He then starts to feel that time is running out and that he'll soon be arrested and so goes to his grandmother's home where some information that she provides leads him to re-evaluate many of the issues which had affected him so profoundly over the years."Moonrise" looks as if it was made on a modest budget and very successfully evokes the sense of confinement that can pervade life in a small community. The acting is of a consistently good standard and the screenplay is entertaining with lines such as "sometimes murder is like love, it takes two to commit". This remark is typical of some of the more sagacious and philosophical outpourings which emanate from both Clem and Mose. These two men are colourful characters whose style is well fitted to the rather laid back pace of the environment in which they live.Danny is a genuinely tragic character who was unfairly stigmatised and abused because of something which was completely outside of his control. His torment and emotional turmoil ate away at him until he became convinced that he had "bad blood" in his veins and his outbursts of uncontrollable anger nearly led to Billy's death and also to three of his friends almost being killed in a car accident which he caused. Dane Clark portrayed the full range of his tortured character's emotions with great skill and authenticity in what was unquestionably, a very commendable performance.