Moontide

Gabin made two movies during his brief, unhappy stint in Hollywood. This odd little mood piece, an attempt to recreate the ambience of his pre-war poetic realist classics, was the first. Fritz Lang began this story of an itenerant fisherman named Bobo (Gabin) who, fearing he may have killed a man by accident, hides out on a barge and saves Anna (Ida Lupino) from a suicide attempt. He was replaced after four days by able hand Archie Mayo. Although the plot doesn’t quite add up, there’s something wonderful about this moody, fogbound melodrama, and Gabin and Lupino make a terrific couple. The level of talent on hand is considerable: John O’Hara wrote the script (with uncredited help from Nunnally Johnson), Mark Hellinger produced it, and it was was shot by the great Lucien Ballard. With Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains. —Film Society of Lincoln Center