Too much of everything

People are voting emotionally.

A Masterpiece!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This silly film need not detain us long. My only problem is that the movie has so many defects, it's difficult to decide where to start!But here in no particular order are some of its major problems:1. The script is absolutely ridiculous.2. The direction by Brian Desmond Hurst is less than competent.3. The acting by just about all concerned can only be described as not only laughably incompetent, but totally inadequate.4. The USA release title, "Suicide Squadron", is a cheap come-on.But on the other hand, the sets and the photography are sometimes attractive, and the music score, which includes the famous "Warsaw Concerto", is more than adequate.

What is wrong about this film? The story couldn't be better, and it is underscored by one of the best film scores ever made. Still, the film is far from a successful film.Whose fault is it? The director Brian Desmond Hurst made many films on the best of stories, but none of them really come alive, as if he was rather formally transferring a piece of literature to pictures without the capacity to make the actors transcend the story, as if their main task was not to act but only to sustain the story.Anton Walbrook makes the best of it, and he is reliable as in every film he ever made, but possibly sensitive to the director's limitations, he stays within himself throughout the film.Sally Grey just isn't enough. She is not well chosen for this role of a cool journalist of a millionaire's only daughter, rather spoiled and childish, and she is not psychologically convincing, just not living up to the profound and passionate romance that is presented in the first scenes in the ruins of Warsaw. After this film, she would make no other until five years later, but then she would be so much better in "Carnival".The main acting asset of the film is instead Derrick de Marney as Walbrook's colleague and best friend, who actually saves the film, although he is the only truly tragic figure.And how come that this outstanding music, by many deemed as the best film music ever made, doesn't succeed in saving the film? The guilty one here is actually Anton Walbrook - he is as far from convincing as a pianist as an actor could get. It's over-obvious that every single sequence with him playing the piano, and they are many, is faked. He is never seen to touch the keys, he is completely dispassionate sitting by the piano although the music couldn't be more passionate, and this is the main want of the film - the music is there, but it would have been better if we never had to see the pianist at work. It is recommended to close your eyes every time you see Anton Walbrook by the piano and listen to the real pianist instead of watching a painful fake.The story also saves the film. It is much deeper and more complicated than what it first appears like, and you need to see the film a couple of times before you understand it. The first time must be a disappointment. The second time you will understand everything you didn't understand the first time, and then you know how to deal with this - in spite of all - super-unique gem of a romantic war crisis film of patriotic passion and responsibility at stake on the altar of love.

It was inevitable that the piece of music Richard Addinsell composed for this film would become more popular than the movie itself, when it is heard over and over again in the 94 minutes original version or in the 82 minutes reduction made in the United States. Even at this shorter version, the movie seems overlong, because it takes too much screen time to tell a very simplistic patriotic tale. There is not enough passion transmitted by the Polish pianist and his American bride to carry on the movie, and on top of that, too much screen time is given to Derrick De Marney as an Irish suitor, who is supposed to be fiery and passionate but seems rather lame. Poor Sally Gray (25 years old) is trapped in the middle of Anton Walbrook who was 45 and De Marney, 35. The film is interesting up to the leading characters' wedding but after that, it becomes more routine than the previous first part. When Brian Desmond Hurt films the climatic concert as static and dull as he could manage, then you know there is not much to do, but wait for one air battle of the kind you have seen dozens of times. Only Addinsell was truly inspired when he worked in this production, so he deserves all the success of his «Warsaw Concerto».

Dangerous Moonlight is one of those almost completely forgotten films, apart from the music, and tracking the film down for the first time it is not particularly hard to see why that is.The music by Richard Addinsell is the one component that people remember about the film, and it is also the best and only outstanding element about it. The Warsaw Concerto is very popular, is a concert show-piece and is still heard on the radio a lot, and judging from the hauntingly stirring and quite oddly beautiful way it's written for good reason too. Anton Walbrook is typically suave (though this is a long way from being one of his better performances), while lovely Sally Gray brings some poignancy to her role and Derrick DeMarnay is a suitably sympathetic confidant, his chemistry with Walbrook being particularly strong. The film is sometimes moving, and the aerial combat sequences are quite good.On the other hand, Dangerous Moonlight was apparently made quickly and cheaply and it shows in some less than smooth photography, some choppy editing (like in the climatic dog fight) and some clearly artificial-looking sets. The script is lumbering and heavy-handed with some ham-fisted melodrama (Walbrook's dialogue is not always easy to understand too), the sometimes moving but thin story is really quite dull, over-dramatised and little more than nonsensical and heavy-handed propaganda, the film is routinely directed and the climatic dog fight agreed is choreographed pretty poorly. Apart from the three leads the rest of the acting is either wooden or overwrought, and Walbrook and Gray's chemistry while sometimes affecting doesn't ignite as well as it could have done.In conclusion, loved Addinsell's music, but Dangerous Moonlight as a film on the whole left me cold. 5/10 Bethany Cox