Frank Borzage's Moonrise has many elements of a masterpiece. It is visually intricate and even stunning at times. It has highlights of both melodrama and film noir, yet with deeply etched characters. The story is complex and deeply humane, recalling darker shades of Frank Capra's ethos. It has a raw quality, showing bullying, violence, poor self-control, borderline sexual harassment, yearning, love, and a deep, heartfelt sense of loss and burden that a young man carries from his family's past. Both the small town scenes and those in the swamps are believable. And it has not one but three moral compasses, Rex Ingram's majestic Mose, Allyn Joslyn's sheriff and Harry Morgan's deaf mute. Plus it's got some moments of 1940's jive talk that only young people could have brought to Borzage's attention. All of these brilliant elements are slightly undone by a less than convincing relationship between Dane Clark and Gail Russell, and by some too-abrupt changes in Clark's character.
Review of Moonrise
