A big Frenchman awakens on a barge in California, wondering if he killed someone in last night's drunken haze. 1942's Moontide never really clears that up completely, one of the things that make it such a fascinating film noir.
The Frenchman is played by French star Jean Gabin in his first Hollywood role. He's introduced stumbling into a dockside tavern with a big angry dog between his legs.
There's definitely a lot of symbolism in this movie, most conspicuously during the sequence of Bobo's (Gabin) bender, which was partly designed by Salvador Dali. The most striking image is of a prostitute, Mildred (Robin Raymond), fading in and out of existence but leaving her immodest dress behind.
This dress and its supposed sluttiness play a big role in the film. Sadly, the Hays code prevented the dress from being more risque than showing a little triangle of skin below the breasts. It's worn much later in the film by Ida Lupino, who plays Anna.
Bobo rescues her from suicide and brings her home the barge where he's stopped his life of drifting to settle down with a job of selling fish bait. He has a friend called Tiny (Thomas Mitchell), though, who keeps trying to get him to hit the road with him. It's hinted pretty heavily that Tiny is gay and in love with Bobo, which is part of the reason the film later tries to implicate Tiny in the murder Bobo committed. Intriguingly, though, the film still makes more sense if you see Bobo as the murderer.
Claude Rains is in the film, too, as a night watchmen, oddly taken to wearing a big Boss of the Plains hat. Maybe these two details are to show him as a moral authority of enough gravity to absolve Bobo of the sins that are never spoken of directly.
Director Arthur Mayo heads a nicely gloomy production after taking over for Fritz Lang, who departed early in production. Gabin and Lupino are terrific together.
Moontide is available on The Criterion Channel.
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