''Nor the Moon by Night'' is a 1958 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Ken Annakin Kenneth Cooper Annakin, Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 August 1914 – 22 April 2009) was an England, English film director. His career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in 2002, and in the 1960s he was notice ...

and starring

Belinda Lee Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress. A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...

. It was based on the novel by Joy Packer and partly filmed in the

Kruger National Park Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends from north to south and from ea ...

, South Africa. The title is a quote from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

passage (

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

121:6); "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." The film was released in the United States as ''Elephant Gun''. It has several sections in Swahili but is not subtitled.

Plot summary

Two brothers, Rusty and Andrew Miller, are game wardens in Africa. Andrew's fiancée visits from the UK, and falls in love with Rusty. A broken headlight caused by a crashed

Land Rover Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...

starts a bush fire, and the humans try to beat it out as the wildlife stampedes to escape. Meanwhile, Andrew has tied himself into a tree to escape the lions but threatens to be burnt in the fire.

Cast

... Alice Lang * Michael Craig ... Rusty *

Patrick McGoohan Patrick Joseph McGoohan (; March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009) was an Irish-American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television. Born in the United States to Irish emigrant parents, he was raised in Ireland and Engla ...

... Andrew Miller *Anna Gaylor ... Thea Boryslawski *

Eric Pohlmann Eric Pohlmann (german: Erich Pohlmann; born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian theatre, film and television character actor who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. He is known for voicing Ernst Stavro Blofeld, th ...

... Boryslawski *Pamela Stirling ... Mrs. Boryslawski *

Lionel Ngakane Lionel Ngakane (17 July 1928 – 26 November 2003) was a South African filmmaker and actor, who lived in exile in the United Kingdom from the 1950s until 1994, when he returned to South Africa after the end of apartheid. His 1965 film ''Jemima a ...

... Nimrod *

Joan Brickhill Joan Brickhill (6 March 1924 – 15 January 2014) was a South African actress who worked in radio, theatre, film, and television. Together with her husband, Louis Burke, she founded Brickhill-Burke Productions, which produced ''Meet Me in St. Lo ...

... Harriet Carver *Ben Heydenrych ... Sergeant Van Wyck *Alfred Kumalo ... Chief *Doreen Hlantie ... Oasis

Production

Development

Joy Packer's novel was published in 1957. Film rights were bought by Sir John Davis of the Rank Film Organisation, in part because Davis' wife

Dinah Sheridan Dinah Sheridan (born Dinah Nadyejda Ginsburg; 17 September 1920 – 25 November 2012) was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films ''Genevieve'' (1953) and ''The Railway Children'' (1970); the lon ...

was a fan of the novel. Packer later wrote she sold the rights via a "contract which reduced me to nothing and made me feel like the man who sold his shadow to the devil". In the late 1950s, the Rank Organisation made a series of adventure films in colour shot on location which were aimed at the international audience. These included ''The Black Tent'', ''Robbery Under Arms'', ''

Ferry to Hong Kong ''Ferry to Hong Kong'' is a 1959 British melodrama/adventure film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Curt Jürgens, Sylvia Syms, Orson Welles and Jeremy Spenser. Plot Mark Conrad, a debonair Anglo-Austrian former playboy and junk owner, n ...

'', ''

Campbell's Kingdom ''Campbell's Kingdom'' is a 1957 British adventure film directed by Ralph Thomas, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Hammond Innes. The film stars Dirk Bogarde and Stanley Baker, with Michael Craig, Barbara Murray, James Robertson Ju ...

'' and ''Nor the Moon by Night''. The film was directed by Ken Annakin. He says that he did not really want to do the job. The film he really wanted to make was ''

The Singer Not the Song ''The Singer Not the Song'' is a 1961 British drama film based on the 1953 novel of the same title by Audrey Erskine Lindop that was directed by Roy Ward Baker and filmed in Spain. It stars Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, and Mylène Demongeot. Plo ...

''. He agreed because it gave him the chance to see South Africa. Packer says producer John Stafford flew out to South Africa to meet with her and secure her help in making the movie. He showed her the script which she found "amazingly fresh and new. The basic situation and a few names and places were vaguely familiar. I recognised none of the dialogue and only part of the action, but the story sounded exciting." Packer felt Belinda Lee was physically miscast to play the role, but Annakin pointed out she was under contract and felt "she'll play Alice very convincingly. She's very intense - is Belinda". ''Filmink'' said "Lee’s part was in the "sensible girl" realm, a spinster who discovers love on the veldt in between being attacked by wildlife." Packer later wrote "none of the cast bore the faintest resemblance to my characters."

Shooting

Filming began on 23 November 1957 on location in South Africa. The unit was based at

Cato Ridge Cato Ridge is a town in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the Ethekwini Metropolitan Municipality as a suburb of the Outer West region. It is situated some 30 km south-east of ...

. The bulk of location shooting took place in the

Valley of a Thousand Hills The Valley of a Thousand Hills is a valley between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, South Africa. The Umgeni River meets the Msunduzi River ( Duzi River) in the valley, and the Dusi Canoe Marathon is run through the area every year. Geography The V ...

near Durban, with second unit work involving animals hear Johannesburg. At one stage the film was known as ''The Voice of the Lion''. Production was plagued by a number of difficulties. Belinda Lee left the unit during the shoot to see her married lover in Italy who had been threatening to commit suicide; they both tried to commit suicide. Patrick McGoohan suffered concussion after crashing his car. Anna Gaylor fell ill with dysentery. Director Ken Annakin had a number of issues with the crew; he later wrote that the electricians sabotaged director of photography Peter Hennessey's rushes with incorrect light filters, forcing him to be replaced by Harry Waxman.''Nor the Moon by Night''
at

BFI Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

The cast and crew consistently fell sick, with snake and spider bites, heat exhaustion, dysentery, rheumatism and chest complaints the chief cause. Michael Craig wrote in his memoirs that Annakin was known among the crew "not very lovingly" as "Panickin' Annakin". Lee returned from Italy on 2 February 1958 to recommence filming. She flew into Johannesburg Airport, then took a flight to Durban. Questions were asked in South African parliament whether Lee was given special treatment to get into the country as a customs and immigration officer went to meet her on the plane at Johannesburg airport so she could avoid the press. "I regret any harm I have done to anyone in Italy," she said. One of the cheetahs used in filming savaged its trainer. A bush fire got out of control. Michael Craig, although married, had an affair on set with a woman called Shirley. He also almost drowned crossing a river. At one point, Michael Craig was the only one of the four leads available at work. He later quipped "I'm left alone for three weeks with a film crew and a lot of monkeys." Annakin said "one day there was only me and a snake available to work."Brian McFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', 1997 p 27 However Annakin did meet his future wife Pauline during filming.Steve Chibnall
"Nor the Moon by Night"
Network Publishing, 3 August 2015 The unit returned to London in April 1958 where some additional scenes were shot, including a new ending. "I feel as if I have just come out of prison", said Lee on her return. "I have been watched and questioned all the time. I'm 22 and hope to marry again before I'm 80. Love is the important thing. I believe in letting my heart rule my head." Filming took around a month. The movie was completed over budget and behind schedule. Rank terminated Lee's contract, and she never worked for the studio again. The job of directing ''

'' was taken from Annakin and given to

Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker (born Roy Horace Baker; 19 December 1916 – 5 October 2010) was an English film director. His best known film is ''A Night to Remember (1958 film), A Night to Remember'' (1958) which won a Golden Globe for Golden Globe Award for ...

. Rank said the combined cost of the film and three others - ''Innocent Sinners'', ''The Wind Cannot Read'' and ''Night to Remember'' - was £1,100,000.

Reception

''Variety'' praised the photography but criticised the acting and script.Review of film
at Variety The film managed to recoup its costs in Europe and made a profit after its release in the United States. Annakin later said "the picture was a mediocre hotch potch."

References

Notes

External links

*

at

''Nor the Moon by Night''
at BFI *
Review of film
at ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''
''Nor the Moon by Night'
at ''Colonial Film'' {{Ken Annakin 1958 films 1958 drama films Films directed by Ken Annakin Films scored by James Bernard Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in South Africa Films set in South Africa Films based on South African novels British drama films Films about brothers 1950s English-language films 1950s British films