This film is about as different from a mainstream Hollywood movie as any you are ever likely to encounter. From stars, story, sets and photography, it more closely resembles one that might have come from France or Italy. While 20th Century-Fox would make an important series of highly regarded neo-realistic documentary-like nourish dramas shortly after WWII, Moontide is nothing like those films. Rather, it is (as others have noted) more like a throwback to the Frank Borzage romantic films of the early 1930s--plus a few plot elements that may relate to the earlier influence on the movie of Fritz Lang.
Jean Gabin was one of the greatest film actors of all time. His command of the film medium most closely resembled the work of Spencer Tracy in its emphasis on a natural, instinctive, humane and realistic style of acting. His American period in the early 1940s produced only two films, and while Moontide is a good movie in many ways--it really only illustrates some aspects of what under slightly different circumstances could have marked a major upward turn in his long career. It is a tragedy that this gifted artist was unable to achieve the success in Hollywood he so richly deserved.
While Gabin's command of English was not the best, it likely would have improved in time--much as did that of Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier. What he did have in abundance was a huge acting talent and a wide range of major cinematic accomplishments already under his belt.
Was there another Spencer Tracy working in Hollywood at this time? It does not seem so. Several years later, MGM did include another somewhat similar actor in its family--James Whitmore. But most people familiar with the work of both men would probably. agree that Gabin was the greater of the two performers.
This is one more item to add to the list of lost opportunities in the history of film in America.
Jean Gabin was one of the greatest film actors of all time. His command of the film medium most closely resembled the work of Spencer Tracy in its emphasis on a natural, instinctive, humane and realistic style of acting. His American period in the early 1940s produced only two films, and while Moontide is a good movie in many ways--it really only illustrates some aspects of what under slightly different circumstances could have marked a major upward turn in his long career. It is a tragedy that this gifted artist was unable to achieve the success in Hollywood he so richly deserved.
While Gabin's command of English was not the best, it likely would have improved in time--much as did that of Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier. What he did have in abundance was a huge acting talent and a wide range of major cinematic accomplishments already under his belt.
Was there another Spencer Tracy working in Hollywood at this time? It does not seem so. Several years later, MGM did include another somewhat similar actor in its family--James Whitmore. But most people familiar with the work of both men would probably. agree that Gabin was the greater of the two performers.
This is one more item to add to the list of lost opportunities in the history of film in America.