If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Never having met a genre he couldn't master, director Robert Wise graduates from the Val Lewton academy with honors thanks to a magical fantasy outing with Curse of the Cat People, getting one of the greatest performances of the career from Boris Karloff in The Body Snatcher, then applying his evolving talents behind the camera to the mean film noir Born to Kill with Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor (not to mention, helping to "assist" in the troubled production of The Magnificent Ambersons, which had Orson Welles' work raped of nearly an hour and destroyed without his input, and Wise directing additional footage at RKO studios' urging). In the Robert Mitchum oater, Blood on the Moon, Wise and director of photography Nicholas Musuraca make sure the film is viewed as dark and even a bit foreboding (notice early scenes where Mitchum is interrupted of his rest by a cattle herd moving through and a cowboy not realizing he was camping thereabouts, or Mitchum hiding amongst the darkened alleys of the town for which the characters frequent as Preston's gunmen are out to find him), with a strong sense of rising and accumulating tensions and anxiety (homesteaders are not quite happy with cattleman's land grazing herd, Preston wanting to capitalize on that while also using an Indian agent to utilize the army to enforce a mandate on getting the cows off of reservation land or else risk losing them, Mitchum coming to terms with how separate factions within a territory are fractured thanks to Preston, his own friend from the past, almost exclusively).Robert Preston gets a plum antagonist role as a manipulative scoundrel who will use his devious charm to turn the daughter of his rival cattleman against him, his influential voice to entrap the homesteaders into feeling accosted by the cattleman's "intrusive herding", and cunning to swindle cattle cheap by using resources (the army, his greedy gunmen to stir up the herd, and friendship with Mitchum to use his shooting abilities, as well as a middle man to negotiate the buy and sell of the cattle since the cattleman would never sell to Preston) available to him through various means.Phyllis Thaxton (Ma Kent in the Christopher Reeve Superman of 1978) is the cattleman's daughter seduced by Preston, Barbara Bel Geddes (Dallas, TV show) the other daughter who falls in love with Mitchum when his conscience convinces him to remove himself from Preston, and Walter Brennan as a homesteader who loses his son in the herd stampede orchestrated by Preston all co-star. Charles McGraw (of The Narrow Margin) has a minor part as another homesteader, with Frank Faylen (of "Dobie Gillis") as the corrupt Indian agent (working in cahoots with Preston over robbing the cattleman of the proper price for the herd, hoping to make a handsome profit with the army) and Tom Tully (as the cattleman, Lufton) round out the cast of recognizable faces you might see turn up on westerns and television during occasionally. The noirish look and feel of this western gives it a distinctive edge over westerns you might see with Randolph Scott around the same time or later (not discounting Scott's work with Boetticher, mind you). Also included is a marvelous round of fisticuffs between Mitchum and Preston in a saloon, just literally bringing the house down, and a shadowy gunfight at the end that mirrors the shootouts of gangster films just a decade or so (and during this period still with the detective/crime movies being released) in alleys or city streets. I saw quite a similarity between the dark-and-moody standoff in Blood in the Moon and about two decades later in the underrated and terrific Monte Hellman western, Ride in the Whirlwind.It's no surprise that Mitchum successfully carries the film, as he was just about three years removed from his star-making turn in The Story of GI Joe and one year after Out of the Past, considered a top three film noir classic. Bel Geddes matches him as the feisty love interest. Her ballsy gun-to-gun standoff towards the beginning is a real beaut. Mitchum having to tell Brennan his son's dead and, in turn, Brennan contemplating so much loss and little gain since listening to Preston is another key scene. Again, the mood lighting and use of shadow applied to this western certainly gives it a look that stands it apart from other westerns. A gem worth checking out.

This Western was directed by Robert Wise and has a fine, experienced cast. The story is a familiar one. One old chum (Preston) sends for another old chum (Mitchum) to offer him a job. The problem is that, though a juxtaposition of circumstance, it's a lousy job, even though it would pay well. Mitchum is supposed to help Preston and his gang of low lifes scam the local farmers, like Walter Brennan, and an honest rancher, Tom Tully, out of his cattle. The means are too complicated to bother explaining.It must be one of the least glamorous Westerns ever filmed. The opening shots are of Mitchum alone on horseback, riding over some dark hills in the middle of a torrent. He's drenched and uncomfortable. Few people in the story look comfortable. It's cold and turns snowy. The men are bundled up in winter clothing and wear tall ugly cowboy hats. They tend to wear chaps, which are really fit only for stylization, like Robert Duval's woolly chaps in the original "True Grit." In a minor role, Charles McGraw lumbers around in what looks like a bear costume, growling his observations.The women look delicate though. Barbara Bel Geddes is attractive and ends her lines with the terminal contours of an upper-class school girl from Rosemary Hall. Phyllis Thaxter, I think, is miscast as Preston's naive girl friend. She's purity personified and it's hard to swallow her attraction to a lying, mustachioed villain like Preston. Lust is not exactly her forte.Many of the scenes take place at night and everything looks depressing. It captures the atmosphere all right but the atmosphere is something from Dante's Purgatorio.In the course of the tale, Mitchum changes his mind, sides with the good guys, has a brutal fist fight with Preston, finally has a shoot out with the villains, and ascends Mount Purgatory to the peaceful summit, hand in hand with Bel Geddes.There's a lot of energy on screen but little of it looks original. Mitchum is a bit plump and sleepier than in some of his other work. But it must be said that after that unsparing, barbaric fight in the bar room, Mitchum and the make up department, allowed him to look like hell, his long hair hanging in strands over his ears, sweating and panting as the usual heroes never do. There are also some impressive shots of a pursuit through the snow. All of it might have been better done in color.

Don't let the whims of men fool yaThrough the opening credits Jim Garry (Robert Mitchum) arrives; a plains drifting stranger who we are immediately as unsure of as the other characters - this uncertainly of intent remains for the majority of the picture. Garry, hired by friend Riling, is invited to cheat the Lufton ranch of their cattle by forcing them to remain on government land, pressuring the Lufton's to sell cheap or lose everything. When the plot turns deadly Garry is forced to confront his friend's real intentions.Garry's independence is the focus of Blood on the Moon's reputation as a noir-ish western: Mitchum's character is not a traditional black or white, good or bad guy. He is a recognisable isolated cowboy freelancer, a hired gun willing to double-cross if it serves him well. But he is not amoral. Mitchum's laconic, too cool for you, persona is at full strength. In a couple of scenes he almost completely drifts into himself. Garry's motivation and alliance is ambiguous throughout, but is eventually tied up a little too neatly which detracts from the overall atmosphere, "you always had a conscious breathing down your neck".Aside from Mitchum's Jim Garry (and writer Luke Short), the 'noir' in Blood on the Moon comes courtesy of director Robert Wise and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (fresh from Out of the Past the previous year). Night shots with moon light tearing through the tree leaves, and in particular the barroom high-key lighting during an important fight scene are very reminiscent of film noir and serve this film very well.A dirty 'psychological western' where heroism and sacrifice are replaced by mistrust and revenge. The ending is fairly abrupt, disappointing the ambiguity wasn't carried through until the close. One review from 1949 makes reference to the original Saturday Evening Post serial, on which the story is derived, and the relative 'ordinariness' of the Hollywood- adapted film.Odeon Entertainment (UK) have released a good quality DVD edition, taken from a good US source. The picture does suffer from format conversion (some softness), certainly not enough to detract from the film. The only real damage is a mighty tear which only last a couple of seconds.Well, I'll drift...

This is one of a notable group of westerns, such as Colorado Territory (1949), and Pursued (1947), influenced by the then-fledgling film noir style. They introduce introspection and fatalism into the sagebrush mix, anticipating the psychological concerns of the 1950s. Inevitably shot in black and white (although Turner Television have apparently broadcast a colourised version of the present title - a fact that might make purists shudder), and with a greater preponderance of night-set scenes, the noir western replaced a family-friendly wide open prairie, previously peopled with cowboys in white or black hats and clear cut moralities, with a fresh genre of altogether different concerns, reflecting confusions and uncertainties.Director Robert Wise had previously made Curse Of The Cat People (1944) for Val Lewton, and would also helm Lady Of Deceit (1947), and The Set-Up (1949), respectively just before and after Blood On The Moon, so was already at home with the way of noir. He'd also been associated with Orson Welles - having been brought in to infamously 'finish off' The Magnificent Ambersons - and this influence can be seen in Blood On The Moon, especially in the saloon interiors, with their low angles and prominent low ceilings.Wise's 1948 western stars noir icon Robert Mitchum as Jim Garry, a man with a suitably dubious past, sent for by former friend Tate Riling (Preston Foster) to take partnership in a grazing rights scam and to provide a strong arm for $10,000. Riling hopes to secure payment for a lucrative army cattle contract while convincing local farmers that his intentions are strictly honourable, and running off the current suppliers. At first Garry grudgingly goes along with the plan but then realises that he is not comfortable with matters, all the while growing a romantic interest in Amy Lufton (Barbara Bel Geddes) the daughter of one of the cattle farmers.For my money, Blood On The Moon, while an excellent film, is not quite on the same level as the two other noir westerns mentioned above, having none of the haunting psychologies of Pursued (also starring Mitchum), nor the fatalism of Colorado Territory. But there are still many pleasures to be had here, not least a strong supporting cast that includes Walter Brennan and Charles McGraw as well as a splendidly duplicitous Foster who, in dark parallel of Garry's slow romance of Amy, feigns a love interest in her sister to oil along his malign plans.Ultimately, it is Garry's realisation of his erstwhile partner's slipperiness which turns him against him, as he discovers "I've seen dogs who wouldn't take you for a son." But it is Mitchum's marvellous playing of a man with the troublesome "conscience blowing down his neck," that's at the centre of the film, as he turns from hesitant moral acquiescence to doubt, onto guilt, into action. As others have remarked, Mitchum's characteristic 'stillness' as a noir actor, whereby he characteristically says or expresses little, but nevertheless suggests inner turmoil, is shown at its best here. Such depth and moral equivocation would (his complex performance in Red River the year before, notwithstanding) probably have been beyond the range of a John Wayne.I mention Wayne, particularly, since there is an interesting similarity between Blood On The Moon and Hawks' Eldorado, made a decade and half later. In both movies a gunfighter arrives by way of summons into a middle of dispute, and is bushwhacked by a woman for his pains. In the later movie Wayne's character makes a clear decision right away not to join one side before siding with the other. In Wise's work, Garry's process of realignment is much more slow and painful, but because of it, more human. And whereas Wayne enters the drama bolt upright on his horse, proud in his own self-esteem, we first see Garry caught in the rain, at night, bedding down within cluttered trees, streams and undergrowth - the uncomfortableness of which reflects the confusions in which he finds himself.