The movie Moontide (1942) made a big impact on me when I first saw it nearly four years ago, as one of the earliest of Ida Lupino's films that I watched. What hit me were its touching romance, its wonderful performances, and its unique and memorable atmospherics—claustrophobic and dark despite its mostly outdoors seaside setting.
Moontide is the tale of the relationship between a drifter and the troubled woman he rescues from an attempted suicide, and the complications due to the jealousy of one of the drifter's companions.
The film was described as a "noir fairy tale" in the 2008 mini-documentary on the making of the film—a phrase which I find to be a concise and accurate description.
What follows is the story behind the making of this memorable film. It is based on what I have learned via press reports in newspapers, trade papers, and fan magazines from the time of the film's production—with occasional contributions from later sources. I would love to be able to explore documents contained in the 20th Century-Fox archives, but alas, that remains a task for some indeterminate future. Meanwhile, the mini-documentary, Turning the Tide: The Ill-Starred Making of Moontide, provides a window to some internal studio discussions.
The story is particularly compelling because the stars of Moontide, Jean Gabin and Ida Lupino, are both fascinating people who were at critical moments in their respective careers. And, among other things, production of the film coincided with the entry of the United States into World War 2.
Origins
The story of Moontide begins with the prolific character actor Willard Robertson, who had been a lawyer and playwright earlier in his career. Robertson wrote the novel, titled Moon Tide, while working on location on the set of the 20th Century-Fox epic Brigham Young. This was Robertson's first novel, yet upon its publication in the summer of 1940, it immediately attracted the attention of Hollywood studios. 20th Century-Fox soon purchased the rights for $30,000. (See this earlier essay for more on Robertson and his novel.)
Enter Jean Gabin
In April, 1941, Fox production chief Darryl Zanuck decided that story of Moon Tide would be ideal as the first Hollywood vehicle for the French star Jean Gabin.
Gabin had just arrived in Hollywood after several years of resisting overtures from American movie producers. At the time of those earlier refusals, Gabin had said, "I am happy in France. My friends and my people live here. Money is unimportant." But he changed his mind about working in Hollywood after the Nazi take-over of France.
A year before the Moon Tide announcement, Gabin was still in France, on a leave from the French navy, when the German invasion cut him off from his ship. He fled from his home outside Paris towards the south of France, literally a few minutes ahead of the invading forces—in a harrowing three-week journey along roads congested with refugees. By the time he arrived at the port of Toulon for his next Navy assignment, the French had signed an armistice and he was demobilized.
Before long, German officials approached Gabin and offered him the choice of putting his celebrity to use in making Nazi propaganda films or else risking confinement in a concentration camp. He decided this was the time to seek work in Hollywood. He contacted a producer friend, Andre Devan, who had moved to the American film capital before the war and now worked at 20th Century-Fox, for help arranging visas and transportation to the United States. Devan went to Darryl Zanuck, who jumped at the chance to sign the French star.
Gabin's signing by 20th Century-Fox was reported by Louella Parsons in late January 1941. Gabin traveled to Lisbon and sailed for the U.S. in late February. He arrived in New York City aboard the Exeter in early March, after what he described as "the worst trip I ever had in my life." Amongst the few possessions he had with him were his favorite bicycle and his accordion. He did not speak any English.
The press quoted him saying regarding the feelings of his fellow Frenchmen about the war:
Those who are pro-British say every night in their prayers, Please God let the gallant British win quickly. Those who are anti-British say Please God let the dirty British win right away.
Gabin's arrival in New York City was one day too late for him to attend the U.S. opening of his 1937 hit Pepe le Moko. (That French-made film had been re-made in Hollywood in 1938 as Algiers, starring Charles Boyer. To avoid competition, the original had been withheld from the American market for several years.)
After a week, Gabin left by train for California. He arrived on March 17, ill from a combination of flu and nerves. 20th Century-Fox took him to the desert in Palm Springs to allow him to recuperate for a couple weeks. The studio's plans were to give Gabin six months to learn English before they would expect him to start on any movies.
Gabin reported to the studio in early April and talked to the Hollywood press for the first time, using Andre Devan as a translator. A week later, Zanuck, with Gabin's approval, selected Robertson's novel Moon Tide for the actor's screen debut in America. Zanuck assigned Mark Hellinger as producer and John O'Hara to write the screenplay. A week later, Ida Lupino—a favorite of Hellinger's, who had worked with her on two films the previous year at Warner Bros.—was reported to be Gabin's co-star. (For more on the casting of Lupino's role in Moontide, see this earlier essay.)
Gabin was a big hit with the Hollywood press corps. "The man of the hour right now in Hollywood is Jean Gabin," wrote Dorothy Manners in early May. The gossip columnists noted that Marlene Dietrich had quickly become his primary public companion, though Ginger Rogers intruded occasionally. (Gabin was in a long-term separation from his wife in France, though the press often portrayed him as single.) The press frequently described Gabin as "the French Spencer Tracy". This moniker did not please Gabin, but he soon met with Tracy himself and the two became friendly.
By late May, some press reports suggested that 20th Century-Fox was considering putting Gabin into a different movie for his American debut—Swamp Water, to be directed by fellow French expatriate Jean Renoir. These notions were put to rest publicly by mid-June and Moontide was again the target for Gabin's first Hollywood production.
During these early months in Hollywood from the spring to the fall of 1941, Gabin learned English via his studio-assigned tutor, with significant assistance from Marlene Dietrich, and from studying the films of Clark Gable. He felt that to be effective he must be able think in English. Gabin was displeased with the initial script, and Nunnally Johnson was brought in to re-write it.
Ida Lupino: "The most sought after young actress in Hollywood"
For Ida Lupino, the months between her casting in late April and the eventual start of filming in November were eventful. As of April, 23-year-old Lupino was on a nearly year-long run of successful films at Warner Bros. since her career-making turn in They Drive By Night. She had done co-starring roles in High Sierra and The Sea Wolf, and was at that time wrapping up another one in Out of the Fog.
Lupino had the career foresight to avoid signing an exclusive contract with Warners when she hit it big there. Her next project was a starring vehicle at Columbia for her and her husband Louis Hayward—the thriller Ladies in Retirement. She had also signed a two-picture deal with 20th Century-Fox, of which Moontide was the first announced. In June, Warners started preparing their first starring vehicle for Lupino, The Hard Way, which initially was targeted to begin in September or October.
In July, Louella Parsons described Lupino as "the most sought after young actress in Hollywood". Parsons announced that 20th Century-Fox had another project for her, opposite Tyrone Power in Benjamin Blake (later renamed Son of Fury), a swashbuckling adventure film. This one fell through for Lupino, though—perhaps due to what happened next at Warner Bros.
Warners had additional plans for Lupino before The Hard Way. They wanted her to play a supporting role in Kings Row behind Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan. Lupino did not like the role or the billing. After heated discussions, she turned it down. Warners suspended her and assigned her the title role in Juke Girl. After more heated discussions, she also refused to do that one—and received another suspension in early October. (See this earlier essay for more on how these events almost cost her one of her iconic roles.)
Fortunately, within a few weeks, Warners and Lupino had patched up their differences. This likely smoothed the way for her to shift to 20th Century-Fox for Moontide before her scheduled return to Warners for The Hard Way.
On November 10, just a few days before she reported to Fox, Lupino co-presided at an event she had helped organize—to raise funds to help several dozen refugee European artists and scholars being held in Nazi concentration camps in occupied France to travel to the U.S. Columnist Cal York wrote in Photoplay, "Orson Welles and Ida Lupino presided and never has Cal heard more stirring speeches than the ones delivered by these two."
Production begins
Back in late September, on Nunnally Johnson's recommendation, Fox had hired famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali to construct a nightmare sequence for Moontide. The studio planned to evaluate the sketches Dali produced and then decide if it was feasible to reproduce them. In the end, the set carpenters were baffled by what Dali asked for and the nightmare sequence ended up being designed by others.
As November approached, 20th Century-Fox and Jean Gabin were ready to begin Moontide. Fritz Lang was assigned to direct. Thomas Mitchell was given the role of the jealous friend, while Claude Rains was cast as the "gentle philosopher". Gabin and Lang spent a day at the harbor at San Pedro gathering "color" for the film. For additional color, Lupino, in a story related by her biographer William Donati, took Gabin on a reconnaissance of the streets of skid row in central Los Angeles.
Lupino almost missed her first day of wardrobe tests at Fox in mid-November. When she didn't arrive on time, the studio called her house, and her house boy found Lupino unconscious in the bathroom, reportedly felled by ether fumes while cleaning her hair.
Shooting started the week of Thanksgiving, on Monday, November 24. The plot-line, as reported in the trade papers—involving a potential suicide by Gabin's character and the death of Lupino's character—was quite different from what emerged in the final product. That first week, Sen Young, a young Chinese actor playing the part of a Japanese fisherman, was quoted in the press discussing how the character he played was "unwholesome". He added, in apparent reference to the Japanese atrocities in China over the previous few years, "I think my countrymen will understand."
The large boxer dog that accompanies Gabin's drifter character Bobo for most of the film was discovered by Fritz Lang one day when he was taking a shortcut across a neighbor's yard and was chased by it. Lang decided the dog, named Officer Smith, was a good symbol of Bobo, so he cast the dog in the film.
Jean Gabin's acting style led to some complications with his male supporting cast in the early days of the production, as related by Whitney Bolton of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
This is Jean Gabin's first American picture and the French star is a noted under-player. He speaks quietly, slowly and in low tones. ... Thomas Mitchell, next in rank, came on the set for work and saw Gabin—and heard him. "He's playing it down," said Tommy. "I'll show them what playing down really is." And he started underplaying. Claude Rains came on the picture the third day, quickly saw what he was up against, and set out to teach two seasoned under-players how really to underplay.
After a few days of this underplaying contest, Zanuck saw the rushes and sent out a short note, concluding with "Get that dialogue up to where we can hear what they are saying."
Pearl Harbor attacked, Fritz Lang departs
Less than two weeks into production, the country was shaken by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. was now at war, and the entire west coast, was gripped by fear of Japanese air raids or even an invasion. Los Angeles harbor was suddenly off-limits to filming, which made it fortuitous that producer Hellinger had earlier had a bait barge set built on the Fox studio lot. This set would end up a large part of the unique atmospherics of Moontide.
War, and the potential of air raids or invasion, did not catch Ida Lupino unprepared. For the previous six months, she had been training and serving in the local chapter of the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps. The training for the ambulance driving and dispatch duties had involved first aid, mechanics, and more. Lupino took her duties, including being on 24-hour call for emergencies, seriously and was commissioned a lieutenant shortly after the new year.
Around the time of Pearl Harbor, Fritz Lang was removed from the project and Archie Mayo took over the direction. Press reports initially suggested Lang and the studio differed over story development. A later column by Sheilah Graham suggested that Lang and Gabin had severe difficulties working together due to the language barrier. Gabin said, "When I started my first Hollywood picture, Moontide, I was nervous and couldn't understand a word anyone said." After Mayo took over, "suddenly I found I understood everything."
Story changes were indeed made to Moontide right after the Pearl Harbor attack. Fox chief Darryl Zanuck and Hellinger decided to make the ending more upbeat by not having Lupino's character die. Was this, on top of the language difficulties with the star, what led to Lang's leaving the film?
Assorted production notes
Despite the subtitle of Fox's mini-documentary on the 2008 DVD—"The Ill-Starred Making of Moontide"—subsequent proceedings on the set appear to have gone fairly smoothly.
Several press items cite that Ida Lupino's wardrobe for Moontide cost the meager total of $19.72. A column in Modern Screen magazine expanded on that, saying that "Ida admits depressing outfits have a bad effect on her—make her feel lowdown." So just before filming began, she bought a "luscious new wardrobe to help her shake her gloom after a day at the studio." But after the Pearl Harbor attack, she put her new clothes in a trunk and vowed to stick to her Women's Ambulance Corps uniform.
In mid-January, Thomas Mitchell was being affected by what he had to do for his first time playing a villain. After two days of filming a scene where he had to beat up Lupino and throw her into a tank of live bait, he was allegedly a "complete wreck". Interestingly, no such scene exists in the copy of the film available on DVD today—the beating is implied via editing. Was the brutal scene cut before or after the initial previews and why?
A few days later, Hedda Hopper reported that Lupino was "limping about with a gash on her leg caused by a fall off the moat on the set of Moontide". Can we presume this was not related to the beating scene?
Director Mayo adjusted his attitude to some repeated airborne frustrations while filming an outdoor scene, as reported by Paul Harrison:
Finally everything seemed to be straightened out for another try. Ida Lupino and Jean Gabin took their places. But as the scene began, Mayo spotted the approaching specks of a particularly big covey of Army planes. "Cut!" He screamed. "Here come some more Army bombers—"
But even as he yelled it, Mayo's expression changed and his rage subsided in a shrug. He grinned and added: ". . . thank God!"
On January 30, Ida Lupino filmed an exhausting scene where her character attempted to drown herself in the ocean—filmed in a pool on the lot. Oily scum, kelp, and other floating debris were added to the water to enhance the realism. As related by columnist Frederick Othman:
Inside, Miss Lupino was swimming and swimming and swimming. It was tough. Every time she was about to go under, something went wrong. An arc would burn out. The kelp would sink. The waves would be too high.
That worried Mayo, a kindly citizen. It pained him to see his leading lady shivering there between swims, and then to see her paddling down the middle of the pool. She already had a cold, and she was feeling badly. After nearly two hours of it, she was a weary lady. (The art of the motion picture sometimes is an exhausting one.)
Eleven a.m. came. The waves were exactly right. The arcs were primed. The seaweed was in the proper place. And there was Miss Lupino swimming wearily from her end of the pool toward the camera. She was using a kind of dog paddle, keeping her head high out of the scummy water.
"Get your hair wet, honey," called Mayo.
Miss Lupino tried, but she could not bring herself to go under—too tired, maybe, and too nervous. She got to the middle of the kelp and she almost passed out. "Archie," she called, "I'm all done in."
Two stalwarts in swimming trunks dived in and hauled her to shore. Mayo sent his assistant outside for a slug of brandy, strictly for medicinal purposes. The man brought back two glasses. One held the brandy, the other contained a water chaser. Miss Lupino gulped the brandy. Then she took the glass of water and poured it over her head.
Next she climbed into the ocean, paddled to the middle of it and sank. Perfectly. Everything exactly right, including wet hair.
This is another case where very little of this arduous scene appears to have made it into the final cut.
Gabin's brief shirtless scene early in the film was added at the insistence of his frequent companion Marlene Dietrich. She wanted to show off the muscles he had developed from bicycle rides around Beverly Hills.
Robin Coons related some good-natured ribbing while filming one day, as Gabin, with the dog beside him as usual, strode along the breakwater on the set. On the sidelines, Lupino watched him and said, "He's swell!" Mayo chimed in, "What a sweet guy! He's swell!" and other crew members then joined in a chorus of compliments.
Ida Lupino's friend Joan Fontaine was starring in This Above All on the Fox lot at the same time that Moontide was in production. One day, as Modern Screen reported, Lupino and Fontaine were having lunch in Fontaine's dressing room when Fontaine's co-star Tyrone Power asked to join them. The next day, Power brought Charles Boyer from the Tales of Manhattan set. As the days went by, more and more stars joined the group and it became known around the studio as the Fontaine salon.
During this period, Lupino and Fontaine wrote joint articles about each other and their friendship that were published in Hollywood magazine's June 1941 issue: "Loopy Lupino" by Joan Fontaine, and "Mad Pixie" by Ida Lupino. Amongst other interesting tidbits, Lupino wrote that they dropped into each others' dressing rooms daily, and one time they rhumbaed all through lunch before Archie Mayo came in saying, "Get some rest before I paddle you."
After production
As Moontide wrapped production in mid-February 1942, a new romance between Jean Gabin and Ginger Rogers was heating up in the press. The two had a few dates the previous spring when he was new arrival and knew little English. Then in January, he visited Ginger on the set of Fox's Tales of Manhattan. Now they were an item.
"When [Ginger] left by train for her Oregon ranch, it was Jean who had flowers wired to Ginger at every train stop!" reported the column May Mann's Going Hollywood. On February 17, Ginger arrived in New York on vacation and to attend the premiere of her film Roxie Hart. Jean Gabin arrived in New York the next day and was seen "here, there and everywhere" around town with her, according to Sheilah Graham. At the Roxie Hart premiere, they sat in the front row of the balcony and held hands. Gabin had his own press reception at the Waldorf-Astoria on February 20. Ginger was among those in attendance.
By mid-April, Fox had positive initial screenings of Moontide and had scheduled the official "world premiere" for April 29 at the Rivoli theater on Broadway. The studio launched a big advertising push almost exclusively focused on Jean Gabin and his sex appeal to women and his working-man appeal to men. They were clearly hoping that Gabin could be turned into an American star on the order of Clark Gable. The ads barely discussed the movie and only briefly mentioned Lupino and the top-notch supporting cast of Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell. (See this earlier essay for some examples of Fox's "Gabbin' About Gabin" advertising campaign.)
A statement about why women were attracted to Gabin was reportedly told by Lupino to producer Hellinger—and fit right in to the marketing: "First, it's his boyishness. You want to mother him to help him along. And then you feel you never know when you're going to get a punch in the jaw."
Gabin travelled to New York City to attend the premiere. Marlene Dietrich accompanied him, as his brief attachment to Ginger Rogers had ended by April. The American Theater Wing War Service sponsored the event, with proceeds going to their war relief efforts such as the Stage Door Canteen.
The premiere was the first to be held on Broadway under new war-time "dim-out" regulations. The dim-out was an attempt to prevent skyglow from city lights that led to enemy submarines being able to spot silhouetted allied ships far out at sea. The customary spotlights and other brilliant displays were not turned on—the only lights on the outside of the theater were the marquee, and those were turned off at 10 pm. Famed opera singer and movie star Grace Moore opened the festivities by singing the national anthem. More than two hundred members of the Free French movement were in attendance and the theater was "virtually filled to capacity".
Reception
Reviews for Jean Gabin were almost uniformly positive. Lupino and the supporting cast were also very well-received. Reviews for the movie were frequently positive, but far more mixed. The mood, atmosphere, and romance that is so appealing to some, including me, was not universally so.
Film Daily wrote, "[Gabin] is a blessed relief from the pretty-boy type that has cluttered up American screens.Motion Picture Herald called him "enormously effective". Herbert Cohn of the Brooklyn Eagle said he is a "vastly appealing romantic actor". Walter Winchell wrote that Gabin "will be darling of the fan clubs when the femmes get over their gasps and organize".
Lupino was also singled out for her contribution. Showmens Trade Review said, "Ida Lupino achieves such a sensitive and deeply impressive performance of the outcast saved from self-destruction that one is easily tempted to single it out as the picture's finest." Wanda Hale of the New York Daily News wrote, "The role of the girl is in the hands of one of the best, Ida Lupino, who has been commanding lavish praise from critics since she gave up comedy for drama."
Overall, Motion Picture Herald said that "Moontide has the indelible touch of art, which assures its appeal to critics, but it also has the indelible touch of life, which insures a much wider audience." Photoplay magazine gave it their top rating of "outstanding" and placed Gabin and Lupino at the top of their list of "Best performances of the month".
Two prominent publications came down more harshly on the movie, however. Variety wrote that "as a box office and entertainment entry, the picture scores only moderately" and that "Gabin doesn't show the spark of Gable or Tracy". They did add that "Miss Lupino shows talent, freshness and perfect adaptability for her role." The New York Times, in the person of Bosley Crowther, described Moontide as a "ponderously moody film" and that "all of [the cast] need much more than a vague and irresolute script, much more than synthetic scenery and manufactured moods."
Moontide spent a bit over three weeks at the Rivoli, with what appears to have been relatively weak box office. It then opened across the country starting in late May. In some cities it did very well, but in others, not so much. Given the big marketing push 20th Century-Fox had put behind Gabin, this mixed box office showing must have been a disappointment.
Epilogue
After filming completed on Moontide, Ida Lupino went virtually immediately back to Warner Bros. to start on The Hard Way, which began in early March. 20th Century-Fox had designs for her as well, with a starring role in The Blind Man's House planned to start in April. (See this earlier essay for more on what happened to this project.)
Lupino became severely ill shortly after The Hard Way began and was unable to return to work until early June. Her next film for 20th Century-Fox, filmed in the late summer of 1942 after The Hard Way finally completed, ended up being the drama Life Begins at Eight-Thirty with Monty Woolley.
Gabin's plans at 20th Century-Fox were in flux. Shortly after the premiere of Moontide, he was quoted by Herbert Cohn of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle saying, "You know, I am a Westerns fan. I love them. Someday I want to make one like Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix. Maybe they will let me." That was not in the cards.
As of early in the production of Moontide, his next project was to be a former Tyrone Power swashbuckler Down to the Sea in Ships. As of the completion of Moontide, the plan was a project called The Night the World Shook, which Archie Mayo was assigned to direct thanks to his success working with Gabin. This project did not happen, though—nor did any other for Gabin at Fox over the next year. He spent a significant amount of time working at the Hollywood Canteen.
Gabin eventually bought out his Fox contract, made one more Hollywood movie at Universal—directed by fellow Frenchman Jean Renoir—then joined General Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces and was part of the division that liberated Paris in 1944. He eventually resumed his film career in France and became the legend that is known today.
"When will we have another like it?"
To close out the story of the making of Moontide, here is a quote from a theater exhibitor in Columbus, Kansas from the "What the Picture Did for Me" feature in Motion Picture Herald of November, 1942. It fits my own feelings well:
One of the finest entertainments we have played, which went straight to the hearts of all. Jean Gabin's acting marvelous, and this Lupino girl can act rings around many other stars. They're still talking about "Moontide" here and asking when we will have another like it.
Further reading and viewing
Watch Moontide itself on YouTube! Or buy it on the 2008 Fox Film Noir DVD while it is still available
"Turning the Tide: The Ill-Starred Making of Moontide", documentary, Fox Film Noir DVD of Moontide, 20th Century Fox, 2008
"Ida Lupino: A Biography" by William Donati, University Press of Kentucky, 2000
Sources
- Newspapers.com archives for United States newspapers
- Media History Digital Library archives of Hollywood fan magazines and trade papers
Other articles on this blog referenced in this article
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