''Moonfleet'' is a 1955

Eastman Color Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

film shot in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

directed by

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary '' Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. ...

. It was inspired by the 1898 novel '' Moonfleet'' by J. Meade Falkner, although significant alterations were made in the characters and plot.

Plot

A gothic melodrama set in England during the 18th century, the film is about John Mohune, a young orphan (

Jon Whiteley Jon James Lamont Whiteley (19 February 1945 – 16 May 2020) was a Scottish child film actor and in adult life a distinguished art historian. Life and career The Monymusk-born Whiteley appeared in five films during his brief acting career, a ...

), who is sent to the

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

village of Moonfleet to stay with his mother's former lover, Jeremy Fox. Fox (

Stewart Granger Stewart Granger (born James Lablache Stewart; 6 May 1913 – 16 August 1993) was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame thr ...

), is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman intimately involved with smugglers. On the run from the law, Mohune and Fox must decipher a coded message in their pursuit of a fabulous diamond hidden long ago.

Cast

as Jeremy Fox *

George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...

as Lord James Ashwood * Joan Greenwood as Lady Clarista Ashwood *

Viveca Lindfors Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors (December 29, 1920 – October 25, 1995) was a Swedish stage, film, and television actress. She won an Emmy Award and a Silver Bear for Best Actress. Biography Lindfors was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the d ...

as Mrs. Minton *

as John Mohune *

Liliane Montevecchi Liliane Montevecchi (October 13, 1932 – June 29, 2018) was a French-Italian actress, dancer, and singer. Career Montevecchi took her first dance classes at 8 with Pierre Duprez, primo ballerino of the Opera in Paris, France. She entered the Co ...

as Gypsy *

Melville Cooper George Melville Cooper (15 October 1896 – 13 March 1973) was an English actor. His many notable screen roles include the High Sheriff of Nottingham in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), Mr. Collins in ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1940) and ...

as Felix Ratsey * Sean McClory as Elzevir Block *

Alan Napier Alan William Napier-Clavering (7 January 1903 – 8 August 1988), better known as Alan Napier, was an English actor. After a decade in West End theatre, he had a long film career in Britain and later, in Hollywood. Napier is best remembered for ...

as Parson Glennie *

John Hoyt John Hoyt (born John McArthur Hoysradt; October 5, 1905 – September 15, 1991) was an American actor. He began his acting career on Broadway, later appearing in numerous films and television series. He is perhaps best known for his film and TV ...

as Magistrate Maskew *

Donna Corcoran Donna Corcoran (born September 29, 1942) is an American former child actress who appeared in nine Hollywood films from 1951 through 1955. She notably appeared in two aquatic musicals that featured Esther Williams (playing swimmer Annette Kellerm ...

as Grace *

Jack Elam William Scott "Jack" Elam (November 13, 1920 – October 20, 2003) was an American film and television actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies (sometimes spoofing his villaino ...

as Damen * Gordon Richards as Marling

Production

The book was published in England in 1898 but not published in the US until 1951. Reviews were excellent. MGM bought the film rights and announced

as the star immediately. William Wright was originally going to produce. Then the job of producing went to

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with directo ...

. Houseman later recalled, "the novel was written back about 1890, was as successful as ''Treasure Island'' had been, and then was totally forgotten. The man . Meade Falknernever wrote anything else. It was a grim story, a realistic adventure story about pirates and a little boy who accidentally got himself involved with them. There was no sex. But then we began to have fun with it, and embroider it." At one stage Merle Oberon was going to be the female lead. Eventually Joan Greenwood was brought over from England. In October 1953 the film was officially put on MGM's schedule.

Shooting

Filming took place in September 1954. "We are trying to make it one of the best of its type", said Houseman. Director Fritz Lang said the story "calls for mood, for atmosphere. The smugglers work in the dark, on hazy days. I plan to light my principals just as you would in a play, dropping shadows on the sides of the stage to concentrate on the main action and the players involved in it." The movie was shot almost entirely on the MGM backlot, augmented by a few shots of the California coast. During filming,

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, '' Rebel Without a Caus ...

visited the set; Stewart Granger said his manner was rude and dismissive.Bret Wood, 'Moonfleet'
at Turner Classic Movies Houseman said, "I got along fine with Fritz Lang, even though we screamed and yelled at each other. But he was very anxious to make a picture at Metro, and he rather wanted to make a picture with me. On the whole, we managed to turn out something very much off the beaten track-and... we had a good time." Granger later said "I hated working with Fritz Lang – he was a Kraut and it was a bloody awful film. I wanted to produce and act it in Cornwall and made them buy the book. MGM turned it into a big colour film. ''Moonfleet'' was not Lang's type of film – it is a romantic child's film. It wasn't a bad part."Brian MacFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Methuen 1997 p 231 Houseman says one time during filming his associate producer, Jud Kinberg, "came down to the stage and heard this awful caterwauling. As he got near he heard: erman accent"You are not a professional! We pay you a lot of money to be a professional actor, and it seems to me you are stupid, you are lazy, you are nothing at all...!" Jud came around the corner, and saw that the recipient of this was a little boy of eleven!" The little boy being referred to was obviously Jon Whiteley, as he was the only boy actor in the film. But Jon was only nine years old during the filming and not eleven.

Reception

Houseman later said, "It ended up being rather a crazy type of picture – still much admired by European filmmakers – but, commercially, it was a disaster." The film was a critical and financial failure on release. According to MGM records the movie earned $567,000 in the US and Canada and $1,007,000 overseas. It made a loss of $1,203,000. The film was released in France in 1960 and had 917,219 admissions.Box office information for Stewart Granger films in France
at Box Office Story The prestigious French film publication ''

Cahiers du Cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab ...

'' named ''Moonfleet'' as one of the 100 most essential films ever made, listing it at #32.

References

External links

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Review of film
at Variety {{Fritz Lang 1950s adventure drama films 1955 films American adventure drama films Films based on British novels Films directed by Fritz Lang Films set in Dorset Films set in the 1750s Films set on beaches Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films American swashbuckler films Films scored by Miklós Rózsa CinemaScope films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films