While researching one of my favorite movies—Moontide (1942), starring Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino—I ran across an interesting series of ads for the film in the trade papers. This 20th Century-Fox campaign is extremely focused on hyping up Jean Gabin as a new attraction for the female audience. They were attempting to build him into a new Hollywood leading man—to the extent that virtually nothing else about the movie is mentioned, but the proper pronunciation of Gabin's name is.
Gabin had been a superstar in French films for a few years, but was virtually brand new to American audiences. He had fled his home near Paris in mid-1940, as the German army conquered France, eventually finding himself in Vichy France for a few months. His life and career prospects in Vichy were poor, as he refused to make Nazi propaganda films. At that point, he accepted one of the Hollywood offers that had been coming his way for a while, but which he had always refused before the war.
Gabin arrived in the U.S. in April 1941 knowing just a few words of English. 20th Century-Fox put him on a crash course for several months before at last setting about to make his first American film, Moontide—based on a novel by actor Willard Robertson—in November 1941. The film was ready for release the next spring, by which time, the U.S., too, was at war.
Here are a series of ads that appeared in Motion Picture Daily and Motion Picture Herald in the second half of April, 1942, leading up to the world premiere of Moontide at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on April 29. The gallery below unfortunately crops each into a square, so be sure to click on each to see the full ad, or click on one on each row and use the arrow keys to navigate back-and-forth.
From mid-May, here is an ad with a different visual style and a large image of Lupino—but it is still all about Gabin. Ok, Ida does get one mention in a pull quote!
Anyway, Moontide is an unusual and great movie, with excellent performances, and an unforgettable atmosphere. You should see it!
Comments