User Reviews

This is perhaps the greatest of the noir westerns. Director Robert Wise had been in charge of the mythical "The Curse of the Cat People," not a sequel to the horror classic, "Cat People," as the studio expected, rather a fantasy film highlighting the imagination of a little girl.

Working with darkness and shadows emphasizing the mood of the picture makes "Blood on the Moon" seem gloomy and pessimistic, but actually the film is more about the redemption of a hopelessly lost cowboy, Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum), who finds meaning in life through the love of a woman, also named Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes) as was the little girl in "The Curse of the Cat People." The opposite of Jim Garry is his so-called pal, Tate Riling (Robert Preston). Rather than redemption, Riling falls deeper and deeper into the maelstrom of depravity, murder, and deception. Even his romance with Amy's sister, Carol Lufton (Phyllis Thaxter), is a treacherous, deceitful one. Riling uses Carol for his advantage, at times against her own family, while she is truly in love with him. Riling has few redeeming qualities and is bad through and through. The relationship between the two, Riling had actually invited Garry to join him, knowing what an expert he was with a gun, is the crux of the film. The story about the feud between the homesteaders, pawns for Riling, and the ranchers is a superficial one. Character studies make the movie worthwhile.

Walter Brennan as Kris Barden, a homesteader fooled by Riling for awhile, has a pivotal role showing how Riling's double dealings and egomania eventually catch up with him and destroy him. "One may smile, and smile, and be a villain" only so long. Barden is a counterpart to Garry's character. Frank Faylen, as Indian agent Jake Pindalest, in collusion with Riling's schemes for self-aggrandizement, on the other hand represents a counterpart to Riling's character.

The title is one of the best ever for a western. Supersitition has it that when there is blood on the moon (a particular atmospheric appearance of the moon), it's a sign that someone is going to be killed. When I was a boy one of my friend's dads operated a movie theater. He had accumulated a closet full of movie posters over the years. One day he was cleaning out his closets and asked me if I wanted the old posters. I eagerly latched on to them. Two posters impressed me above all the others. One was " The Grapes of Wrath" poster; the other was the "Blood on the Moon" one. Something about those titles and the art work on the posters grabbed my mind and my imagination. I didn't get to see either film for many years, eventually seeing them on TV. To me the magic of the posters matched the magic of the movies.

The concept of the "noir western" is unthinkable without Robert Mitchum. Mitchum, who started his career as a heavy in B westerns and went on to be hailed as the "soul of film noir" for his world-weary cynicism and cool, doomed aura, defined the hybrid genre in 1947 with PURSUED, then followed with BLOOD ON THE MOON. The plot is essential noir: a man down on his luck is summoned by an old partner and cut in on a big deal; when he finds out that the deal is crooked and his friend is an irredeemable louse, he has to decide whether to accept his slide into corruption or fight to maintain his honor. The scheme just happens to involve cheating a man out of his cattle herd instead of some urban racket. The cinematography is literal noir; at least half the scenes take place at night, in a murk that rather obviously symbolizes the difficulty of seeing anyone's true nature.

None of the western clichés are here: there are no rowdy dance-halls or rip-snorting brawls or comical drunks, no steely sheriffs or white-hatted good guys. The mood is somber, tense and ambiguous, but the film does satisfy the requirements for a western: there are cattle stampedes, a savage fight, a gun battle and beautiful sweeping landscapes, including stunning scenes in a snow-bound pass, the white drifts sliced by the tracks of men and horses. All of the performances are restrained and natural. Barbara Bel Geddes and Phyllis Thaxter, as the daughters of the cattle baron targeted by the scheme, both avoid the glossy glamour that so often makes actresses look out of place in westerns. Bel Geddes is appealingly fresh, and does a good job with a character who starts out as a hostile spitfire in pants (she and Mitchum "meet cute" by shooting at each other) and then morphs into a gentle healer in a dress. Robert Preston is perfect as Riling, a smirking cad with an oily face and a plaid jacket; his former partner Jim Garry (Mitchum) sums him up with the classic line, "I've seen dogs that wouldn't claim you for a son." Walter Brennan adds seasoning as usual, this time poignant rather than comic.

Mitchum makes a beautiful cowboy with his long hair and elegantly rugged attire, at once authentic (on seeing Mitch in costume Walter Brennan reportedly declared, "That is the goddamnedest realest cowboy I've ever seen!") and romantic. In one scene he confronts a gunman on a wide, dusty street and walks towards him—that's all he has to do, just walk towards him and the guy knows he's outclassed. (Mitchum's panther walk is one of the glories of cinema—I would love to watch a whole movie of nothing but Mitchum walking.) I don't think Jim Garry smiles once (though he comes close in a gentle scene where the heroine, tending to his injured hand, asks about his fight with Riling, and he answers, "It was a pleasure.") He conveys a profound inchoate sadness, but as always he uses dry humor to keep emotion at bay. He's contained, laconic, defended. Not merely stoic, he's strangely passive, willing to let things go; his strength is tinged with melancholy because he can "take it," but he also feels it. Lee Marvin (Mitchum's one-time co-star) said it well: "The beauty of that man. He's so still. He's moving. And yet he's not moving."

Mitchum is mesmerizing because you sense so much going on behind the cool, impassive facade. It's partly his film-style acting, which happens under the surface, not on the surface. But under-acting can't fully account for his mystery. There's something fundamentally inaccessible, unknowable about Mitchum's characters, and this is what makes them so real. You never feel they are underwritten or inconsistent; instead you feel he's a whole and complex person who can never be fully explained. Despite his much publicized contempt for most of his work, Mitchum brings this tremendous gift to the slightest and shallowest of movies. BLOOD ON THE MOON, however, is worthy of him.

"Blood On the Moon" is one of those psychological westerns that emerged in the late 40s. Director Robert Wise and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca were both graduates of the Val Lewton film noire school of film making. Photographed in the shadowy dark black and white common to film noire, this picture turned out to be a better than average western.

The story has drifter Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum) riding into the middle of a dispute between cattleman Lufton (Tom Tully) and a group of homesteaders led by Tate Riling (Robert Preston). Riling has hatched a scheme unbeknownst to all together with Indian agent Pindalist (Frank Faylyn) to cheat Lufton out of his cattle and sell them to the army at a huge profit.

Garry is initially hired by Riling but soon sees how Riling is fooling the homesteaders and changes sides. Helping him make this decision is Lufton's daughter Amy (Barbara Bel Geddes) with whom he falls in love. Lufton's other daughter Carol (Phyllis Thaxter) meanwhile, is in love with Riling and betrays her father in the process. This all leads to the inevitable showdown at the end.

The photography is at times spectacular. The outdoor panoramas are breathtaking. However, it is somewhat marred by the cheap looking back projection shots (especially during the stampede sequence) and several "studio exteriors". There also is an excellent graphic fight scene involving Mitchum and Preston.

Mitchum is excellent as the brooding drifter with a conscience. Preston makes a despicable villain using all around him to attain his goals. Bel Geddes is good as the heroine but Thaxter takes the female honors as the gullible sister.

The rest of the cast is comprised of many familiar faces to western fans. Walter Brennan, Charles McGraw and Zon Murray play various homesteaders, Bud Osborne is Tully's trail foreman, Clifton Young and Tom Tyler play Preston's gunslingers and Richard Powers (aka Tom Keene) plays Tully's ranch foreman. If you watch closely you'll also see Harry Carey Jr., Iron Eyes Cody, Chris Pin-Martin and Hal Talliaferro (aka Wally Wales) in various smaller roles.

An good western; a good example of film noire.

Blood on the Moon is directed by Robert Wise and is adapted from a Luke Short story by Lillie Hayward and Harold Shumante. It stars Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Brennan, Phyllis Thaxter, Frank Faylen, Tom Tully and Charles McGraw. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. Story has Mitchum as drifting cowboy Jim Garry, who after receiving a job offer in the mail from old acquaintance Tate Riling (Preston), finds himself pitched in the middle of a war between cattle ranchers and homesteaders.

Effective and tightly crafted Western that has garnered many favourable remarks, due in the main to its ability to veer away from formula suggested by the plot and the technical film noir touches brought about by the great Musuraca. With Mitchum turning in one of his great screen dominating performances, film is driven forward by the psychological aspects brought about by thematics such as duplicity, split loyalties and moral quandaries. Director Wise does a good job of pacing the film, keeping it on the slow burn whilst dialling into Jim Garry's mindset, and picture is further boosted by a great knuckle fight and a rip-roaring siege shoot out at the end. But it's the mood created by Musuraca and Wise that is the real winner. With the film set 90% at night or in darkened rooms, shadow play is high and an oppressive feel adds weight to the psychological clocks ticking away in the narrative. In support of Mitchum, Geddes does spunky cowgirl well, while the presence of Brennan, Faylen and the gravel voiced McGraw is keenly felt.

Good story, well acted and visually potent. 7/10

The VHS video of this movie is a colorised version of the original thanks to Ted Turner. I refuse to watch it in colour, so I turn off the colour attributes of my TV and enjoy this movie in Black and White. Without the distraction of colour, one gets to enjoy a great story line, some wonderful performances by Robert Mitchum and Barbara Bel Geddes, and one of Robert Wise's directorial gems.

This is one of a notable group of westerns, such as Colorado Territory (1949), and Pursued (1947), influenced by the then-fledgling film noir style. They introduce introspection and fatalism into the sagebrush mix, anticipating the psychological concerns of the 1950s. Inevitably shot in black and white (although Turner Television have apparently broadcast a colourised version of the present title - a fact that might make purists shudder), and with a greater preponderance of night-set scenes, the noir western replaced a family-friendly wide open prairie, previously peopled with cowboys in white or black hats and clear cut moralities, with a fresh genre of altogether different concerns, reflecting confusions and uncertainties.

Director Robert Wise had previously made Curse Of The Cat People (1944) for Val Lewton, and would also helm Lady Of Deceit (1947), and The Set-Up (1949), respectively just before and after Blood On The Moon, so was already at home with the way of noir. He'd also been associated with Orson Welles - having been brought in to infamously 'finish off' The Magnificent Ambersons - and this influence can be seen in Blood On The Moon, especially in the saloon interiors, with their low angles and prominent low ceilings.

Wise's 1948 western stars noir icon Robert Mitchum as Jim Garry, a man with a suitably dubious past, sent for by former friend Tate Riling (Preston Foster) to take partnership in a grazing rights scam and to provide a strong arm for $10,000. Riling hopes to secure payment for a lucrative army cattle contract while convincing local farmers that his intentions are strictly honourable, and running off the current suppliers. At first Garry grudgingly goes along with the plan but then realises that he is not comfortable with matters, all the while growing a romantic interest in Amy Lufton (Barbara Bel Geddes) the daughter of one of the cattle farmers.

For my money, Blood On The Moon, while an excellent film, is not quite on the same level as the two other noir westerns mentioned above, having none of the haunting psychologies of Pursued (also starring Mitchum), nor the fatalism of Colorado Territory. But there are still many pleasures to be had here, not least a strong supporting cast that includes Walter Brennan and Charles McGraw as well as a splendidly duplicitous Foster who, in dark parallel of Garry's slow romance of Amy, feigns a love interest in her sister to oil along his malign plans.

Ultimately, it is Garry's realisation of his erstwhile partner's slipperiness which turns him against him, as he discovers "I've seen dogs who wouldn't take you for a son." But it is Mitchum's marvellous playing of a man with the troublesome "conscience blowing down his neck," that's at the centre of the film, as he turns from hesitant moral acquiescence to doubt, onto guilt, into action. As others have remarked, Mitchum's characteristic 'stillness' as a noir actor, whereby he characteristically says or expresses little, but nevertheless suggests inner turmoil, is shown at its best here. Such depth and moral equivocation would (his complex performance in Red River the year before, notwithstanding) probably have been beyond the range of a John Wayne.

I mention Wayne, particularly, since there is an interesting similarity between Blood On The Moon and Hawks' Eldorado, made a decade and half later. In both movies a gunfighter arrives by way of summons into a middle of dispute, and is bushwhacked by a woman for his pains. In the later movie Wayne's character makes a clear decision right away not to join one side before siding with the other. In Wise's work, Garry's process of realignment is much more slow and painful, but because of it, more human. And whereas Wayne enters the drama bolt upright on his horse, proud in his own self-esteem, we first see Garry caught in the rain, at night, bedding down within cluttered trees, streams and undergrowth - the uncomfortableness of which reflects the confusions in which he finds himself.

Class A western with a great Robert Mitchum performance. Unlike other tall men riding in the films of that time, Mitchum's character is not a snow white hero coming to save the day,but a darkened figure just two steps from being an outlaw. Robert Preston is the charming,jovial wolf in a manner similar to Arthur Kennedy in Bend In the River and Robert Ryan's performance in The Naked Spur. Their epic brawl in an out of the way dingy saloon is one of the best movie fights ranking with John Wayne's and Randolph Scott's The Spoilers duel. Proves that RKO was for a time home to some true innovations in movie story telling. Mitchum's character will only go so far and thanks to Barbara Bel Geddes non Cathy turn as a frontier woman who gradually replaces her Calamity Jane-ish dress to become, seemingly, more domesticated in the manners of both typical western heroines and the mainstream movie going publics view of women after WWII ( Rosie the Riveter transforming into June Cleaver). The fact is though she isn't a screamer nor a corner huddler but equally as strong as Moody Bob. Great Western.

The novels of Luke Short paint a dark picture of the old west and Hollywood has made good use of them in making some really good westerns. Blood On The Moon is one of the best screen adaptations of one of his stories.

A quick cursory glance of the films made from his stories, Ramrod, Ambush, Station West, Vengeance Valley, Coroner Creek all of them are pretty dark, almost noir like stories set in the old west. Blood On The Moon has Robert Mitchum as a cowboy sent for by his friend Robert Preston to be part of scheme to grab the herd of cattle baron Tom Tully.

Not that Preston wants to do a little honest rustling, no his is a complicated plan involving getting the small ranchers and homesteaders riled up against Tully and getting a small range war started. He's even seduced one of Tully's daughters, Phyllis Thaxter, into betraying her father with promises of love and undying affection.

All of this is a bit too much for Mitchum for whom it is alluded was quite the hellraiser in earlier times, but now is just sick of it all. Tully's other daughter Barbara Bel Geddes is checking him out if he would only break with Preston.

When discussing this film in his book about Robert Mitchum, Lee Server makes the point that this film was far from what RKO planned for its star. Originally Mitchum was to be the white hat cowboy hero and successor as its B picture western star when Tim Holt went off to World War II. Little did they dream at RKO back in 1944 when Mitchum made his first with top billing, Nevada that he would be in this kind of western and do it so successfully.

Preston had finished with his contract at Paramount and was now freelancing. We now know him primarily for The Music Man, but in his early film days he played many a villain and this one is a study in malevolence. His superficial charm even carries menace with it.

Blood On The Moon enters that list of really top notch westerns that were originally authored by Luke Short. Try not to miss it when broadcast.

This film is a dark, brooding affair that has plenty of action and suspense and unfolds like an urban thriller. The story is lean and straightforward in its plot development of a range war, a staple of many westerns. Robert Mitchum is excellent as a drifting cowboy who gets caught in the middle of a feud between cattle ranchers and Barbara Bel Geddes matches him with her portrayal of a tough, feisty ranch girl. Robert Preston is also good as a rancher at odds with Tom Tully in their range war and there's a romantic angle that further complicates matters between the ranchers. The picture has crisp black and white camera work with noir shadings here and there and the music is also good. Of note in the film is a savage saloon brawl notable for its intensity, a brutal confrontation that ranks among the best in any western.

Cowboy Robert Mitchum comes to help old friend Robert Preston, only to find himself in the middle of a war between Preston and rancher Tom Tully. He soon realizes his buddy might not be the good guy in this particular fight. Excellent shadowy western from director Robert Wise with touches of film noir. Mitchum is solid. Preston makes an interesting villain. Nice support that includes Walter Brennan, Charles McGraw, Frank Faylen, and Phyllis Thaxter. Barbara Bel Geddes plays Mitchum's love interest. The abrupt change in her character's personality is one of the film's weaker points. She starts out as hotheaded tomboy then, without explanation, turns into a sweet, sympathetic lady. Fistfight in a darkened bar between Mitchum and Preston is a highlight. Western fans will enjoy this one a lot.

Robert Mitchum shows up in a western ranch town with written orders hiring him to work on a family's farm. While Tom Tully and Walter Brennan are fine with Bob's presence, Barbara Bel Geddes isn't happy, which clearly shows there's something wrong with her. If Robert Mitchum showed up on your ranch, would you complain?

There's a bit of a love triangle between Barbara, Bob, and Robert Preston, and as the movie progresses, it seems like there's a deeper rift than just romance. Families are fighting families, friends are double-crossing each other, and poor Bob is caught in the middle. And since the girl his character is written to fall in love with is a royal pain-chewing him out in front of an audience and shooting at him point-blank range-how is he supposed to have any fun? Well, he has about as much fun as the audience does while watching it, which is, sadly, not much. Unless you're crazy about Robert Preston and want to see him in his pre-The Music Man days, you don't have to rent this one.

The movie is similar to the earlier Pursued, which is also starring Mitchum, but somewhat on the lighter side. The movie suffers a little from an uninspired end, but Mitchum's spectacular fall-out monologue in the saloon alone makes this movie worth watching (plus the good story, good acting, and spectacular scenery...).

First of all, this isn't a film noir. There's no femma fatale, for one thing. Robert Mitchum is also not a flawed hero nor an anti-hero. He merely walked into Act 1 without knowing what he was getting into, but changed his mind pretty quickly when he figured the good guys from the bad guys.

Anyway, Robert Mitchum is so cool it's almost unfair to every other male star at the time. But director Robert Wise also gets excellent performances out of the irrepressible Robert Preston, the unusually restrained Walter Brennan, and the super-cute Barbara Bel Geddes. Everyone knows Howard Hughes was a world-class nutjob but he was also a terrible judge of acting talent. He cut Bel Geddes contract after this film yet hung on to skanky Jane Russell.

The movie is impressively photographed. And there's an above-average bar fight, and an above-average climactic shootout. But the ending is trite.

Although RKO was a major studio, in the 1940s an unusually large proportion of its output was low-budget B-movies. And not just any B-movies – psychological urban horrors from the Val Lewton unit, and plenty of gritty thrillers of the type that would come to be known as film noir. There was also a brisk trade in Westerns at all the studios, and RKO was no exception, but perhaps no picture better demonstrates that the studio was practically stuck in "noir" mode than the literally dark Western Blood on the Moon.

Much of Blood on the Moon's bleak look is down to director of photography Nicholas Musuraca, who did the job on many of the Lewton horrors, including the seminal Cat People. Musuraca was quite capable of doing regular (and still very accomplished) cinematography – take a look at I Remember Mama, for which he received his only Oscar nomination – but his speciality was cloaking the screen in vast swathes of black. You would think this would be difficult in a Western, which ought to be full of vast empty plains and sunny skies. But Musuraca uses lighting techniques that can turn anything into a silhouette, or edges and corners into indistinct patches of darkness. He even makes clouds and buttes into foreboding black blobs. But he does not simply dim everything darker – his craft is very precise, and he is capable of throwing sharp white light where it is needed, or creating layers of grey amidst the gloom. Incidentally, while this adds immensely to the atmosphere, it is also probably part of RKO's general trend of hiding the lack of lavishness on a cheap production. After all, who needs a big town set when all you can make out is a door frame and a hitching post? Musuraca's partner in crime is director Robert Wise, another graduate of the Lewton unit. Wise adds to the atmosphere by composing tightly framed shots with bits of scenery and foreground clutter obscuring chunks of the screen. And look at how much of the movement is in depth rather than across the screen. Often characters are moving straight towards us, virtually staring into the lens, and this adds to the aura of menace. Just like in a well-made film noir (as well as those Val Lewton horrors) the overall impression is of a surreal nightmare world from which there is no escape. That is quite an achievement in a Western.

Wise was also an expert at handling the pacing of his pictures, here shooting intense and nasty action sequences, spaced out by moody and measured dialogue scenes. This latter actually gives room for some nice acting performances. Robert Mitchum – a man who made an art form out of laconic moodiness – is perfect for those quieter moments. Like Humphrey Bogart, he was at first mistaken for a supporting player, but film noir gave him a niche as a leading man. Barbara Bel Geddes seems really cut out as Mitchum's tomboyish love interest. Active and assertive parts like the one she has here did not come up often for women in this era, and she gives it her all. Best of the bunch though is Walter Brennan, who looks and sounds like the typical crusty old man, and as such played a part in dozens of Westerns in his time. But under his character actor exterior he could emote beautifully, and in Blood on the Moon you really believe his mourning for his son.

What we have here isn't simply a case of Wise and Musurasca giving a mischievous murky makeover to a good ol' cowboy flick. It seems the project was in noir territory right from the outset. Lillie Hayward, who I don't recall seeing credited anywhere else, but seems to have done a top job, has really just given us a gritty PI thriller out West. Mitchum is not so much the iconic drifter and more a grudgingly moral gun for hire. There is little distinction between the cowpunchers and the homesteaders (although in any case these two groups tended to be fairly interchangeable as villains and heroes from one Western to another – a bit like the North and South in Civil War movies). And interestingly this is one of the few pictures of this time to feature bona fide cowgirls, who shoot, talk and ride like the men. Parasols and petticoats are out of the question in this Western.

Leaving aside all social context and genre subversion, the most important question is surely, is it actually any good? The answer is yes. Blood on the Moon does what any decently made B-flick ought to do – it is neither deep, moving or intelligent, but it gives a quick and reliable round of entertainment.

Robert Mitchum and Barbara Del Geddes star in this oater, with ample help from Robert Preston and the reliable Walter Brennan. Mitchum seems to sustain some type of injury every fifteen minutes in the flm, but also does some acting. Brennan does a great job , as usual, in a supporting role. The classic struggle between cattle barons and settlers is the primary thrust of the plot. Should the range be free or should it be privately owned by settlers? That battle took a few decades to decide in real life. An entertaining hour or so.

Blood on the Moon (1948) is a movie that I recently watched on HBOMAX. The storyline follows two old friends that find themselves on opposite ends of a small western town. On one side of the rivalry are the local townspeople; and landowners and on the other, is a corrupt cattleman. The two old friends will now be rivals themselves.

This movie is directed by Robert Wise (The Sound of Music) and stars Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear), Barbara Bel Geddes (Vertigo), Robert Preston (The Music Man), Walter Brennan (Rio Bravo) and Phyllis Thaxter (Superman).

A classic western from this era with solid settings, attire, backdrops and plot. The circumstances were very interesting and the intensity between characters is felt throughout the movie. The family storyline/manipulation was a solid premise for this plot. The dialogue is very good and Mitchum delivers an excellent performance. The entire cast is good. The final shootout is perfect and as you'd expect from this era.

Overall, this is a solid western that's worth a watch for fans of the genre. I would score this a 7-7.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

One of the best Westerns is unfortunately little known outside Film-Noir devotees and Robert Mitchum Fans. It is a darkly lit antithesis to most familiar Westerns of broad sun drenched landscapes and other clichés of the Genre. A brooding Character Study that anticipated the Mann/Boetticher personal Films of the 1950's.

This is one of the very few Westerns that can be placed in the Film-Noir Category without dissent. From the conflicted and sensitive Anti-Hero to the moody, gloomy shadows that drape almost every Scene, to the brutal and very violent brawl that takes place in a dingy Commissary, to the changing attitudes of the Players, this is definitely a Noir without apology.

The fine Acting, Cinematography, and Direction makes this stand out as a thoughtful, complex situation of Range Wars and Social alignments. A unique Movie that is mounted in a claustrophobic frame that goes against the grain of its setting. A sharply focused, but mysterious environment with Drifters and Cowgirls equally important to the Story.

Some heavy hitters in this western from RKO... Robert MItchum, Walter Brennan, Robert Preston, and a 25 year old Barbara BelGeddes. Even the director Robert Wise won oscars for biggies like West Side Story and Sound of Music. Garry is a drifter, who comes into town to help his friend Riling (Preston). there seems to be a land war brewing between Riling and local Lufton (tom tully). Garry thinks he's on the right side, but in this one, it's hard to tell who's right and who's wrong. and there are secrets boiling under the surface that nobody knows.. when some of these secrets come out, there will be even more arguments and gunfights. (if that's possible!) according to the trivia section, H Hughes canned BelGeddes right after this for not being sexy enough.... i would say she was TOO refined for westerns... her clothing, manners and speech are so smooth and gentle, it's actually hard to believe she's a woman living on the frontier. she was quite sexy, but so gentle and finished. i would have expected the women to be a little rougher to survive. it's okay. nothing too grand, even with all those big names.