Redundant and unnecessary.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

You want dark? It doesn't get much darker than this. Director Borzage seems to live for shadows and darkness in this Ozark thriller. A son of a murderer thinks he has bad genes (blood), but its all in his head. After killing Lloyd Bridges in self-defense, he goes about trying to figure out what he should do next. Dane Clark, who must be related to Clark Kent, because he is in a serious car wreak, jumps off a ferris wheel and is chased by a pack of hounds without a scratch from any of them. Even Clark Kent would have trouble doing that, Harry Morgan does a good job as well as Billy, a deaf and dumb simpleton, who finds Clark's knife at the scene of the death. Will he get parole with good behavior? Or will he hang like his daddy? Tune in for the exciting conclusion. Recommended.

Frank Borzage's 1948 film "Moonrise" is a little off his beaten path, but it shows more of his capabilities.This noir stars Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Harry Morgan, Allyn Joslyn and Ethel Barrymore.Dark and atmospheric, the story concerns Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) whose father was hanged for murder when Danny was just a child. His grandmother sends him to live in another town. There, he's made fun of and bullied his whole life because of what his father did.One night, the town's rich boy, Jerry (Lloyd Nolan) taunts Danny and the two get into a fight. Danny winds up beating Jerry with a rock. He doesn't admit it; at first people think Jerry has just taken off, and then his body is found. To make things look even worse if people find out the truth, Danny is seeing Jerry's girlfriend, Gilly (Gail Russell).Up to this point, Borzage's work had been somewhat romantic in tone. This film is harder hitting but there is a softness as well. Some have compared it to "The Night of the Hunter," one of the most beautiful films ever made -- a scary story lyrically told. I suppose in that respect, "Moonrise" is similar.Unlike "Night of the Hunter," it's about love, and the power of love to force someone from the shadows and into the world. It's expressionistic, especially in the beginning with the use of shadows.Dane Clark was a kind of poor man's John Garfield (and they loathed one another) who wound up doing a lot of television, but he does a terrific job here as a man with a quick temper, but a kind one, afraid that his heritage has negatively affected him. We see his fear as well as his gentleness.This film is four years after Gail Russell appeared in "The Uninvited." A beautiful, sad-eyed woman, she is about 27 here, and the radiance displayed in "The Uninvited" is already gone, thanks to her alcoholism. A case of someone not suited to film despite her looks. In a desire to help her family, she went into film, but her nerves couldn't take it. One of Hollywood's saddest stories, she was often in the news, once for driving her car into Jan's Restaurant.She gives a soft performance here, very sweet and believable. Ethel Barrymore comes on close to the end of the film and gives a strong performance.The film really belongs to Clark, a prolific actor who worked into his late seventies and was proud of being "Joe Average," which helped him get his big break at Warner Brothers. This was probably his best role. He was offered the role of Captain Smith in Titanic at the end of his life, but by then he was 84, and his health prevented him returning to the screen. Interesting man, fascinating film.

This movie is very confused. Let's start with the miscasting. The main character is a young man whose father was hanged for murder when he was a baby and who all his life has been ridiculed and mistrusted by the other residents of his small town, who think criminality is hereditary. It's a part that calls for a handsome, charismatic, troubled actor like Dean or Brando. But who do we get? Dane Clark, with the profile of a water vole and the attitude of a schlep. Instead of being dangerously, broodingly resentful, he is so whiny that one thinks, well why didn't you ever move away, then?In other parts, Harry Morgan, that byword for dry drollness, plays a deaf mute who is also simpleminded (oh, the pathos!), and the majestic Rex Ingram is given one of those awful condescending roles, the Wise Negro Hermit of saintly demeanor who lives in the woods and comforts the troubled. The sweet-natured, charming Allan Joslyn plays a grumpy sheriff who is permanently unshaven. On top of this, Clark's character rapidly wears out whatever welcome he might have by repeating his mistakes so often and so carelessly that whatever sympathy we might have turns to exasperation. And though he is a sorehead with no prospects, and not good-looking or sexy, the girl falls madly in love with him as soon as he kisses her, even though she is engaged to a handsome, rich boy with a completely different character. None of this makes any sense, and the filmmakers didn't seem to know what they were doing--right after we are trying to shiver ourselves out of a scene of gruesome violence, we are in a dance hall, where the bandstand crooner sings the romantic title song that one is not exactly in the mood to hear. I bet that tune never troubled the Top 40!

Two strengths of this movie are seen at a very early stage as it starts particularly strongly and also conveys a great deal of important information about the main character's history by using visual means. The opening montage is very effective as it sets the foundation for the story and also establishes the visual style of the piece. Appropriately, some impressive low key lighting is used which is totally compatible with the rather grim and troubling nature of the drama that follows.Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark) is the son of a man who was hanged for murder and during his childhood had regularly been taunted and bullied by his contemporaries. Some years later, as a young man, Danny gets involved in a fight with one of his childhood tormentors called Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges) and unintentionally kills him in self defence and dumps his body in a swamp. He doesn't realise that he's left his pocket knife behind at the scene of the fight and goes on to the local dance hall where he dances with Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell), a school teacher who's engaged to be married to Jerry.Danny has a close friend, an older man called Mose Johnson (Rex Ingram) who like himself is an ex-railroad employee. Mose lives in a shack close to a swamp and keeps a number of dogs which he uses on hunts for raccoons. On one such hunt, the dogs find Jerry's body which is duly removed and taken to the coroner's office.Danny and Gilly's growing relationship is noticed by the local sheriff Clem Otis (Allyn Joslyn) and when the couple are on a Ferris wheel ride at a fairground at the same time as Clem and his wife, Danny becomes overwhelmed with guilt, panics and jumps off the structure injuring himself in the process.A little time later, when he sees that Billy Scripture (Henry Morgan) who's a mentally retarded deaf mute has found his knife, Danny again panics and attacks his friend and almost strangles him to death. He then starts to feel that time is running out and that he'll soon be arrested and so goes to his grandmother's home where some information that she provides leads him to re-evaluate many of the issues which had affected him so profoundly over the years."Moonrise" looks as if it was made on a modest budget and very successfully evokes the sense of confinement that can pervade life in a small community. The acting is of a consistently good standard and the screenplay is entertaining with lines such as "sometimes murder is like love, it takes two to commit". This remark is typical of some of the more sagacious and philosophical outpourings which emanate from both Clem and Mose. These two men are colourful characters whose style is well fitted to the rather laid back pace of the environment in which they live.Danny is a genuinely tragic character who was unfairly stigmatised and abused because of something which was completely outside of his control. His torment and emotional turmoil ate away at him until he became convinced that he had "bad blood" in his veins and his outbursts of uncontrollable anger nearly led to Billy's death and also to three of his friends almost being killed in a car accident which he caused. Dane Clark portrayed the full range of his tortured character's emotions with great skill and authenticity in what was unquestionably, a very commendable performance.