Night in port
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Night in port |
| Original title | Moontide |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1942 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Archie Mayo |
| script | John O'Hara |
| production | Mark Hellinger |
| music |
Cyril J. Mockridge David Buttolph |
| camera | Charles G. Clarke |
| cut | William H. Reynolds |
| occupation | |
| |
Night at the port (AKA Moontide ) is an American movie from the year 1942. Directed by Archie Mayo play Jean Gabin , Ida Lupino , Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains star in this melodrama based on the novel Moon Tide of Willard Robertson is based.
action
The French- born dockworker Bobo travels the world and takes odd jobs where they can. Drinking parties are part of his life. In San Pablo , California , he meets his Irish colleague Tiny at the “Roter Punkt” tavern, who knows that people are wanted in San Francisco for good money. The men decide to introduce themselves there. Bobo spends most of the night with a lot of alcohol and a girl named Mildred. When he wakes up the next morning, he is on the boat of Henry Hirota and his son Takeo, who are trading in bait fish . Henry explains to Bobo that he dragged him aboard the ship, drunk, because he had promised to sell bait for him. Bobo vaguely remembers standing next to Pop Kelly, an old grumpy sailor, at the counter, but cannot explain why he is wearing his white peaked cap. When he overhears a police officer, George, telling Takeo about Pop Kelly's death, he is appalled and hopes that he has nothing to do with it. Bobo spends the afternoon with his friend Nutsy, a night watchman with philosophical tendencies and loyal to him. As the men roam the beach, screams make them aware of a woman over whom the waves crash. Bobo runs into the water and just manages to catch and rescue the passed out woman. The lifeguard tells him something about suicide out of lovesickness, but Bobo only listens with half an ear. So that the police do not interfere, he claims that it is his bride who has ventured too far into the sea. However, Anna, the name of the young woman, a waitress, is anything but enthusiastic about his interference. She wanted to finally leave her hard life behind. Bobo takes her to the barge , where he lets her have his bed to sleep on the floor himself.
As Bobo, who came early in the morning for Dr. Frank Brothers from the hospital repaired an engine, came back to the ship, Anna was already busy, tidying up, preparing breakfast and even selling bait. Bobo doesn't show how well Anna's care is doing him. The devious Tiny mocks Bobo and even says why he saved such a useless person. His allusions that Bobo might have something to do with Pop Kelly's death also become more direct. He wants to get his colleague by all means to accompany him to San Francisco. Bobo's friend Nutsy has now discovered Pop Kelly's hat on the cabin wall and quietly burned it. Bobo decides to stay in San Pablo. After he made another attempt to resume his old life with drinking bouts and women, he suddenly realized that he no longer wanted to live like that. He goes back to the boat to see Anna. She is the first woman who arouses feelings in him other than pure desire. The two want to get married. In order to be able to resist the temptation to become intimate with Anna before the marriage, Bobo goes with Henry and Takeo on the search for bait. During this time, Tiny sneaks onto the ship and tries to put Anna under pressure. He tells her about Pop Kelly and makes it clear to her that he has Bobo in his hand. In addition, he intimidates the young woman with an older story that would also prove Bobo's irascibility. Nevertheless, he cannot prevent Anna and Bobo from getting married. One celebrates a small party with Nutsy, Hirota, the host of the "Red Dot" and other people, but without Tiny. When Dr. Brothers Bobo asks for help because of an engine failure of his boat, he does not like to say no, also because he assumes that it will be done quickly, and follows the doctor to his boat. However, it takes longer and in the meantime the totally drunk Tiny appears at Anna's and reproaches her and tries again to blackmail her with threats. First Anna offers him hush money, but when he tries to kiss her, she tells him on the head that she thinks he is Pop Kelly's killer. This triggers a bad reaction at Tiny, pent-up hatred and jealousy end in the fact that he beats everything in the cabin and then attacks the young woman. Badly injured, he then leaves her on the floor and runs away. When Bobo comes back, he hears a faint whimper that doesn't bode well. He takes Anna to the hospital and has to fear for her life. Bobo tries to hold Tiny accountable and finds him at the furthest point of the pier , from which he slips into the sea when Bobo sees him. He can not swim. Bobo tries to get hold of him but fails. Back in the hospital, Nutsy holds out with her friend. Finally the redeeming news arrives that Anna is over the mountain. When Bobo fetches her from the hospital, he has to carry her because she won't be able to walk for a long time. He holds her tight because she is the dearest thing he has in this world.
background
The film recordings were made between November 27, 1941 and February 9, 1942; further recordings were made on February 12, 1942. The recordings were made in Malibu , California in the USA and in the 20th Century Fox studios. The original plan was to shoot the film on location in San Petro , but this was not possible due to the entry of the USA into World War II and the resulting war regulations. Only a few initially filmed scenes and background shots could be incorporated into the film.
The film premiered in the USA on April 29, 1942 in New York . On May 29, 1942 it was released in cinemas in the USA. It started in Germany on June 13, 1947, in Austria on September 7, 1945.
Until December 8, 1941, Fritz Lang directed the film and Lucien Ballard worked behind the camera . Nunnally Johnson was involved in the script. The French actor Jean Gabin, who made his American film debut with Moontide , asked for Fritz Lang because he wanted a master director for his first American film, whose work he knew and admired. However, due to a disagreement over the treatment of the story, Lang switched to another film and was replaced by Archie Mayo. Ballard was also replaced, by Charles G. Clarke, who received an Oscar nomination for his work. There are also sources who want to know that there was a disagreement between Lang and Gabin over Marlene Dietrich , with whom both men were in love.
For the nightmare sequence in the film, the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí created five sketches and three paintings that were used in the corresponding scene. RKO Pictures was interested in the film rights to Willard Robertson's novel even before 20th Century Fox, but the studio was advised against because it was believed that because of the partly sexual relationships between unmarried people and other permissives, the film would have been in the USA since the middle the 1930s ruling Hays Code not be approved. Unlike in the film, Tiny kills the young woman (in the book she is called Ada ) in the novel. Twentieth Century Fox had the book defused and ultimately received approval for the film. The reviewers of the Motion Picture Herald pointed out, however, that the film "because of its strong images is aimed exclusively at an adult audience." On April 30, 1945, Humphrey Bogart and Virginia Bruce played the story at the Lux Radio Theater.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films said that it was "an attractively staged and played melodrama with a dark atmosphere."
Variety Staff believed that much of the film's success depended on Jean Gabin, who, however, was unable to project warmth and personal feelings on him. Gabin, who was mostly used as a natural actor in France, could only convince to a limited extent in this type of role.
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times ruled that Jean Gabin's masculine charm would now be presented to the American audience. Jean Gabin is the French Spencer Tracy. [...] There is no doubt that Gabin shows his potential and that his way of speaking English is fascinating. Ida Lupino's portrayal is also rated positively, as is that of Thomas Mitchell and Claude Rains. Some good actors are also represented in the supporting roles. It is criticized that Archie Mayo's handwriting is “vague and indecisive” and that a rather synthetic landscape hardly creates any mood. Real life is somehow left out. To have to bear the burden of Moontide almost single-handedly is too difficult for Jean Gabin.
Awards
At the 1943 Academy Awards , Charles G. Clarke was nominated for an Oscar in the category “Best Camera in a Black and White Film”. The trophy went to Joseph Ruttenberg and the film drama Mrs. Miniver .
Web links
- Night at the port in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Night at the port at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Night in the harbor at film noir.de. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Moontide at TCM - Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ Night in the harbor at film noir.de. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ^ Night in the harbor in the Lexicon of International Films . Retrieved January 23, 2013.
- ↑ Moontide ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Variety Staff , December 31, 1941. Accessed January 23, 2013.
- ↑ Bosley Crowther: Moontide . In: The New York Times , April 30, 1942. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
