That was an excellent one.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An American film starring Jean Gabin? Who's Jean Gabin? An amazing actor, that's who! But I had no idea prior to watching this. Apparently he was a huge star in France, he came to Hollywood for two films before entering World War II where he earned two medals fighting the Nazis for the Free French Forces. His two American films did not fare well at the box office but this one is quite a gem. The great Fritz Lang began filming and is uncredited as director for some scenes. The film was also nominated for Best Black & White Cinematography. Gabin is wonderful as is the female lead, Ida Lupino. Outstanding acting and a story so well directed! Absolutely recommended!7.2 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener!

This interesting and surprisingly effective 1941 movie was one of the first films noir. Partly directed by Fritz Lang -- who quit after a few weeks due to a conflict with Jean Gabin, who was romancing Lang's ex-girlfriend Marlene Dietrich -- and featuring an international cast with creative input by Salvador Dali (!), the movie is a seminal work that helped establish some of the stylistic elements of classic film noir.The lovely 28 year-old British actress Ida Lupino delivers a convincing performance as a suicidal teenage runaway, aimlessly passing through a Californian fishing village on her journey to nowhere.French actor Jean Gabin exudes charm and star quality as a womanizing drifter with an insane capacity for hard liquor, who gets into drunken fights that he doesn't remember. Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell round out the main characters with solid performances as Gabin's drinking buddies -- Rains as a failed British intellectual and Mitchell as a scheming Irish villain who is blackmailing Gabin. Dali's contribution to the movie is a startling scene where the drunken Gabin is conversing with a pretty prostitute whose head suddenly vanishes into thin air -- transforming her into a talking torso with surrealist images of spinning clocks.The direction is generally good. The cinematography is classic noir, especially the final scenes, which deliver an abundance of dark, haunting images as Gabin menacingly pursues Mitchell along the pier to his death. The Fox Film Noir DVD consists of a flawless high-quality print plus special features.

This film may not be a masterpiece when paralleled with other films by Fritz Lang, as well as other projects starring Jean Gabin, and also films in which Ida Lupino excels. ( "Road House", with Richard Widmark and Celeste Holm). As well as the wonderfully sinister "Ladies in Retirement", in my opinion one of Ms. Lupino's most brilliant performances. But give this film a chance, it has a few redeeming performances and interesting scenarios.Ida Lupino is believable as Anna, a down on her luck waitress who attempts suicide. Apparently in the 1940's police used to arrest suicides, rather than help them. Gabin helps Lupino out of the problem, and she helps him decorate his ramshackle cabin on the docks of San Pablo, California. They eventually marry.Claude Rains has a rather odd role as "Nutsy", a barfly and friend, and Tom Mitchell is "Tiny", the requisite villain.While the theme is a bit sketchy, the sets are interesting, if a bit improvised, and the film is an oddity worth seeing for Lupino. Of course, I may be a bit biased. 8/10.

After a three-year gap ,this was Gabin's return.It is hard to gauge it accurately cause in the 1937-1939 years ,an era when French cinema was arguably the best in the world ,he starred in at least five masterpieces ("la Grande Illusion" and "la Bête Humaine" by Jean Renoir,"Quai des Brumes" and (my favorite) "Le Jour se lève " by Marcel Carné ,and finally Jean Gremillon's "remorques") .All that he would do afterward would necessarily be a let-down."Moontide" is not in the same league as his previous French performances but it is nevertheless an interesting work for any Gabin fan.The actor integrates well in an American cast (and the cast includes earnest thespians such as Ida Lupino,Claude Rains and Thomas Mitchell)and his English is quite good (don't forget that Gabin was essentially an autodidact ,which is much to his credit;His contemporary equivalent for that matter is Gerard Depardieu) The screenplay may not be very exciting -and it's full of holes at that- but the atmosphere -which recalls sometimes "quai des brumes" - and Gabin's character -who,like Lantier in "la Bete Humaine" ,has an ominous past:wasn't his father a criminal brute?- are all that matters .For his second (and last) American movie,Gabin was directed by his compatriot (who put him on the map with "la Bandera" ) Julien Duvivier .