Sky Full of Moon (1952)

Truly Dreadful Film

Fantastic!

best movie i've ever seen.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The best reason to watch "Sky Full of Moon" is so you can see old Las Vegas....and it's completely unrecognizable today. Throughout this film, Vegas looks like a western town...with a strong cowboy touch and with tiny casinos...and almost all of this was bulldozed decades ago.The story is very slight. Harley (Carleton Carpenter) has come to Vegas to enter the rodeo. Unfortunately, he's a bit of a rube and doesn't even have the money to enter the competition! So, after meeting up with a nice young lady (Jan Sterling), he goes about trying to gamble to increase his savings....but eventually the pair end up on an adventure.This movie is pleasant, undemanding and enjoyable as a time-passer.

If the information is correct on Carleton Carpenter's brief bio page here on IMDb, he's still alive and approaching his ninetieth birthday in a couple of weeks as I write this. I don't recall seeing him in any prior films, but probably ran across him in one of his Fifties appearances in a handful of TV Westerns. I don't know if you'd call this movie a Western as much as a bittersweet romance with a rodeo backdrop and a neat look at 1952 Las Vegas.Almost from the outset, the story looks like it'll end up with a walk down the aisle between Carpenter's character Harley 'Tumbleweed' Williams, and hash-slinger Dixie Delmar, nicely portrayed by Jan Sterling. That's even after we hear Carpenter sing the opening theme song, 'A Cowboy Had Ought to be Single'. Harley and Dixie actually looked like an attractive couple that were made for each other, but in the words of that famous and recently deceased New York Yankees catcher, Yogi Berra, when Dixie found a fork in the road, she took it.Anyone who's recently been to Las Vegas ought to get a kick out of this early look at the gambling mecca. Among the many sights, one will get a quick glance at such places as the Pioneer Club, the Golden Nugget, The Flamingo, The Thunderbird, Silver Slipper, El Dorado, and here's one that really got to me - the House of Jackpots. Personally, I can't say with any certainty if any of these might still be around. If I ever get to Vegas myself I'll have to check it out.The picture takes a bit of a surreal turn in the latter part of the story when Harley and Dixie take it on the lam for her involvement in a prior robbery and Harley's perceived theft of a one armed bandit. There's no way you would have gotten this viewer across that decrepit wooden bridge in the middle of the desert, and that careening downhill run by Dixie's jalopy was a bit over done. I remain mildly conflicted over the story's resolution since it didn't turn out to be a happy ever after affair, especially after Harley expressed his undying love for Dixie. I mean really, how does a gal give up on a guy after he tells her - "If you don't want to butcher the hog, I'll do it for you".

Some vintage Las Vegas location photography helps this slight romance of a green rodeo cowboy (Carleton Carpenter, in an understated bid for MGM stardom) and a conniving but warmhearted gambling-den floozy (the always underrated Jan Sterling). Vegas doesn't seem the big soulless megalopolis it grew to be, and Keenan Wynn helps out as the owner of an exceedingly modest casino. It turns into a road picture in the second half, and you get to see just how desolate the surrounding Nevada countryside was. Not a whole lot happens, and it's over before you know it, but it's refreshingly unpretentious, and it doesn't go for the expected happy ending. Nice little B picture.

This was really a charming and sweet adventure about a naive cowboy (actor/songwriter Carleton Carpenter)that comes into Las Vegas for the rodeo and has a lucky streak gambling. He comes to attention of a girl Oscar-nominated Jan Sterling (The High and the Mighty) that has been around the block a couple of times and is convinced to participate in a slot machine rigging.There are a lot of laughs as the cowboy manages to fall in love, lose at the rodeo, and lose the girls all in a short 73 minutes.Keenan Wynn provided good support as the slot house owner in one of his 268 roles.