Moonfleet (1955 film)
Moonfleet | |
---|---|
Directed by | Fritz Lang |
Produced by | John Houseman |
Written by |
Jan Lustig Margaret Fitts |
Based on |
Moonfleet 1898 novel by J. Meade Falkner |
Starring |
Stewart Granger George Sanders Joan Greenwood Viveca Lindfors |
Music by |
Vicente Gómez Miklós Rózsa |
Cinematography | Robert H. Planck |
Edited by | Albert Akst |
Distributed by | MGM |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,955,000[1] |
Box office | $1,574,000[1] |
Moonfleet is a 1955 Eastman Color film filmed in CinemaScope directed by Fritz Lang which was inspired by the novel Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner,[2] although significant alterations were made in the characters and plot.
A gothic melodrama set in England during the eighteenth century, the film is about John Mohune, a young orphan, played by Jon Whiteley, who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with his mother's former lover, Jeremy Fox. Fox, played by Stewart Granger, is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman intimately involved with smugglers.[3] On the run from the law, Mohune and Fox must decipher a coded message in their pursuit of a fabulous diamond hidden long ago.
Cast
- Stewart Granger as Jeremy Fox
- George Sanders as Lord James Ashwood
- Joan Greenwood as Lady Clarista Ashwood
- Viveca Lindfors as Mrs. Minton
- Jon Whiteley as John Mohune
- Liliane Montevecchi as Gypsy
- Melville Cooper as Felix Ratsey
- Sean McClory as Elzevir Block
- Alan Napier as Parson Glennie
- John Hoyt as Magistrate Maskew
- Donna Corcoran as Grace
- Jack Elam as Damen
Production
MGM bought the film rights to the novel in 1951 and announced Stewart Granger as the star immediately.[4] Jan Lustig wrote the first script and John Houseman produced.[5]
Director Fritz Lang said the story "calls for mood, for atmosphere. The smugglers work in the dark, on hazy days. I plan to light my principals just as you would in a play, dropping shadows on the sides of the stage to concentrate on the main action and the players involved in it."[6]
The movie was shot almost entirely on the MGM backlot, augmented by a few shots of the California coast. During filming, James Dean visited the set; Stewart Granger said his manner was rude and dismissive.[7]
Granger later said "I hated working with Fritz Lang - he was a Kraut and it was a bloody awful film. I wanted to produce and act it in Cornwall and made them buy the book. MGM turned it into a big colour film. Moonfleet was not Lang's type of film - it is a romantic child's film. It wasn't a bad part."[8]
Reception
The film was a critical and financial failure on release. According to MGM records the movie earned $567,000 in the US and Canada and $1,007,000 overseas. It made a loss of $1,203,000.[1]
The film was released in France in 1960 and had 917,219 admissions.[9]
The prestigious French film publication Cahiers du Cinéma named Moonfleet as one of the 100 most essential films ever made, listing it at #32.
See also
References
- 1 2 3 'The Eddie Mannix Ledger’, Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study, Los Angeles
- ↑ Moonfleet at IMDB
- ↑ Halliwell's Film Guide, 6th edition, 1987, p. 703
- ↑ Hopper, H. (1951, Oct 20). Best seller story, 'moonfleet,' to be produced by metro in '52. Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/178171823
- ↑ Schallert, E. (1954, May 06). Drama. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/166625670
- ↑ By, M. A. S. (1954, Sep 05). VIEWS ON THE SCREEN DIRECTED BY FRITZ LANG. New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/113093247
- ↑ Bret Wood, 'Moonfleet' at Turner Classic Movies
- ↑ Brian MacFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema, Methuen 1997 p 231
- ↑ Box office information for Stewart Granger films in France at Box Office Story
External links
- Moonfleet at the Internet Movie Database
- Moonfleet at AllMovie
- Moonfleet at TCMDB
- Moonfleet at the American Film Institute Catalog