Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 1-February-09
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Moontide (1942)

The plucky proletariat hero of Moontide is a Frenchman named Bobo (Jean Gabin) who has drifted into California on the bumpy road of life. Pursuing odd jobs by day and benders by night, Bobo takes pleasure as it comes and counts himself fortunate to be free of responsibility and care. He is not alone in the world, however, for he is followed around by a large dog and a man called Tiny (Thomas Mitchell), the latter being more dangerous than the former. Tiny is a bottom-feeder whose despicable nature is revealed as the story unfolds. He feels threatened when Bobo decides overnight to embrace marriage, domesticity, and the whole nine yards after rescuing a woman (Ida Lupino) from a suicide attempt. Suddenly Bobo has respectable friends (including Claude Rains as a grizzled philosopher) and dreams and ambitions, and he is going to have to fight for them with Tiny in the way.

Moontide feels like a film noir fairy tale: gritty, old-fashioned, and compact in scope. Almost all the action takes place in two locations, a seaside bar and a floating hut where Bobo has landed as a vendor of bait. The settings create a confined atmosphere (the equivalent of a forest in modern civilization) and illustrate the struggle between the bachelor recklessness of Bobo's past and the love and home of his future. What is most notable is how the movie portrays his happily ever after without a trace of cynicism. It mixes evil and murder with an unquestioning moral attitude as long-repeated fables are apt to do. Even though this prince has committed violence and debauchery; even though this princess is not the sharpest tool in the shed and tried to kill herself; even though their castle is a single room that smells like fish; the seekers of treasure in Moontide are exalted for choosing the right path. Like characters in a fairy tale, they are not lovable as people but powerful as representations.

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