The Moonlighter (1953)

the audience applauded

A Masterpiece!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Decent Western story that has all the known ingredients we are looking for such as horses, gunplay, drinking, good and bad guys a robbery that nets over 5k dollars (a lot for back then), a love interest, dust, scenery and good old fashioned Sheriffs trying to enforce the law. Add Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwick and Ward Bond plus other familiar faces and you have yourself another story involving the Wild West. Get your snack ready and saddle up here. Also I was surprised to see the words "intermission" come up on the screen. This must have been for selling snacks, drinks and bathroom breaks. BTW, if you don't know what a moonlighter is they explain it pretty good so.....

An interesting story. the film begins with the town-folk hanging a man. Anderson (MacMurray) gives the eulogy at the dead man's service, and throws in some lines about the deceased staying with us, even if he's dead. The ex-girlfriend "Rela" shows up, with her new beau, Wes' brother Tom. then old friend Cole (Ward Bond) shows up with a caper in mind. Then the troubles begin! Can they hold it together long enough to pull the job and get away ? It's actually quite good.. not " Double Indemnity" great, but still pretty darn good. a bit one dimensional, but good, for a western. and some great film locations as well.. if you haven't been to Corriganville (now a county park ), check it out. fun and historic. Directed by Roy Rowland, distant relative of LB Mayer. Story by Niven Busch, who had been oscar nominated for "Old Chicago" back in 1938. Also wrote many novels, and the screenplay for one of my favorites "Postman". This is worth seeing, even if only because it's one of the four film that Stanwyck and MacMurray made together.

Wes Anderson (Fred MacMurray) plays a "moonlighter," which is a person who rustles cattle by moonlight, that is arrested and awaiting trial when a lynch mob after his head storms the jail. The mob doesn't know which prisoner is the moonlighter, so they wind up hanging the wrong man while Wes escapes. He returns later to seek revenge on the members of the lynch mob. He's injured in the process which leads to his reuniting with his ex-girlfriend (Barbara Stanwyck), who is now engaged to Wes' younger brother.Disappointing 3D western that features the two leads from Double Indemnity but doesn't deserve to even be discussed in the same breath as that classic. It starts out well enough with an exciting opening twenty minutes or so but it all goes downhill after that and becomes a predictable and boring melodrama. The stars are better than this material. No clue why it was in 3D as there's nothing particularly impressive about any of the visuals.

I can't recall the last time I watched a film that so poorly served its stars.I can only imagine that Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray went home every evening, locked the door, pulled the shades and bawled their eyes out over THE MOONLIGHTER. It's a truly demoralising viewing experience so I can only imagine how terrible it must have been to actually work on it.Writer Niven Busch has given them practically every cliché in the Western genre to mouth, and he's so intent in cramming in every last hoary phrase that he doesn't even bother to ensure that it at least makes sense. In too many scenes Stanwyck and MacMurray appear to be talking across one another, reciting lines that have very little to do with what the other just said to them.This 1953 film is a tragic comedown for two stars who had set the screen alight 9 years earlier with their unforgettable portrayals of a weak willed insurance salesman and a murderously cold-blooded femme fatale in 'Double Indemnity.' If they'd never done anything else that film would assure them of a place in movie history, and after scaling those heights it can be difficult to understand why they would willingly plumb the depths with this sub-standard turkey.The answer, I'm guessing, is money and the need to earn a paycheck. In the early 1950s westerns were often the last stop before the despised medium of television for film stars on the slide (even Claudette Colbert made a western!). Neither Stanwyck nor MacMurray were box office hits anymore and I imagine they were grateful to accept the script when it was offered to them.One senses they both went into the project with the best intentions but neither of them sounds remotely convincing regurgitating the abysmal dialogue and there's absolutely no sense of the smoldering passion supposedly burning between them. MacMurray speaks mostly in a high pitch monotone while Stanwyck operates on autopilot. Given that this is the great Barbara Stanwyck it's high quality autopilot - better than many other actors on their best day - but still far beneath what's she's capable of.This black and white movie was originally released in 3D but it's hard to tell (I watched it in 2D) just how much use director Roy Rowland made of the special effect. Nothing comes flying out of the screen and there's few shots that would have benefited from the extra depth that 3D offers. My best guess, based on the slightly unusual lighting in some medium close up scenes of the two stars in a clinch, is that they would have appeared to be in front of the screen with the background further behind them than it actually was. If I'm right, it's really not worth the price of a pair of 3D specs.Unconvincing, implausible, boring, clichéd, embarrassing, demoralising and just downright bad, THE MOONLIGHTER is truly terrible in every regard and a stain on the reputation of its illustrious stars. The only saving grace is that it is almost completely forgotten today. I only wish I could erase it from my memory.Read more of my reviews at http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.com/