THE MOONLIGHTER: a 3D disaster - dreadful, dreary and demoralising

I can't recall the last time I watched a film that so poorly served its stars.
I can only imagine that Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray went home every evening, locked the door, pulled the shades and bawled their eyes out over THE MOONLIGHTER. It's a truly demoralising viewing experience so I can only imagine how terrible it must have been to actually work on it.

Writer Niven Busch has given them practically every cliche in the Western genre to mouth, and he's so intent in cramming in every last hoary phrase that he doesn't even bother to ensure that it at least makes sense. In too many scenes Stanwyck and MacMurray appear to be talking across one another, reciting lines that have very little to do with what the other just said to them.
This 1953 film is a tragic comedown for two stars who had set the screen alight 9 years earlier with their unforgettable portrayals of a weak willed insurance salesman and a murderously cold-blooded femme fatale in 'Double Indemnity.'  If they'd never done anything else that film would assure them of a place in movie history, and after scaling those heights it can be difficult to understand why they would willingly plumb the depths with this sub-standard turkey.
The answer, I'm guessing, is money and the need to earn a paycheck. In the early 1950s westerns were often the last stop before the despised medium of television for film stars on the slide (even Claudette Colbert made a western!). Neither Stanwyck nor MacMurray were box office hits anymore and I imagine they were grateful to accept the script when it was offered to them.
One senses they both went into the project with the best intentions but neither of them sounds remotely convincing regurgitating the abysmal dialogue and there's absolutely no sense of the smoldering passion supposedly burning between them. MacMurray speaks mostly in a high pitch monotone while Stanwyck operates on autopilot. Given that this is the great Barbara Stanwyck it's high quality autopilot - better than many other actors on their best day - but still far beneath what's she's capable of.
This black and white movie was originally released in 3D but it's hard to tell (I watched it in 2D) just how much use director Roy Rowland made of the special effect. Nothing comes flying out of the screen and there's few shots that would have benefited from the extra depth that 3D offers. My best guess, based on the slightly unusual lighting in some medium close up scenes of the two stars in a clinch, is that they would have appeared to be in front of the screen with the background further behind them than it actually was. If I'm right, it's really not worth the price of a pair of 3D specs.
Unconvincing, implausible, boring, cliched, embarrassing, demoralising and just downright bad, THE MOONLIGHTER is truly terrible in every regard and a stain on the reputation of its illustrious stars. The only saving grace is that it is almost completely forgotten today. I only wish I could erase it from my memory.

REMEMBER THE NIGHT: a romantic comedy that's more than a rom-com

REMEMBER THE NIGHT is a romantic comedy with everything that's lacking in 'No Strings Attached.'  Great performances, likeable characters and a story which moves forward rather than round in circles.
Made and set in 1940 it stars Fred McMurray as hot shot New York City district attorney John Sergeant who finds himself falling for the woman he's trying to put behind bars. Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) is a habitual shoplifter, but it's Christmastime and Sergeant knows that juries don't like to convict at this time of year so he gets her trial postponed. He arranges to have her released on bail but finds she's been entrusted to his care, so he invites her to join him on a roadtrip home to Ohio where they both have family. This is in the days before interstates so rather than heading straight down I-80 they face a painfully slow journey along back roads through small towns giving them time to discover a slow-burning attraction for one another.
MacMurray and Stanwyck would make film noir history four years later with 'Double Indemnity' playing a pair of immoral characters who absolutely deserve one another. Here, in their first on-screen pairing they are considerably more innocent and appealing but there's already an irresistible spark between them. Sure Stanwyck is a bad girl but she's got her reasons and they're mostly to do with her upbringing. It's circumstance rather than character that's driven her to steal, and as MacMurray discovers during their journey west it's frighteningly easy to cross the line from law abiding to law breaking.
With a script by Preston Sturges and direction from the stylish Mitchell Leisen, REMEMBER THE NIGHT is a warm and witty affirmation of the innate goodness in everyone, and the importance of family. The scene where Lee reunites with her estranged mother (a chilling performance by Georgia Caine) tells us all we need to know about why her daughter turned out like she did, and stands in stark contrast with the warm welcome extended to Lee by John's family.
Stanwyck is absolutely adorable as the young woman whose steely exterior conceals a tender heart. Inside she's just crying out for someone to give her the break which'll let her get back on the straight and narrow. MacMurray's image today is as a rather dull and bland leading man but he's surprisingly virile here and more than holds his own against Stanwyck's star wattage. There's no question that he's right for what's wrong in Lee's life.
Very few films released today come anywhere remotely near to creating the kind of uplifting magic that REMEMBER THE NIGHT achieves so seemingly effortlessly. That's why this film deserves to be called a romantic comedy and not just a rom com.

PUSHOVER: the magic of Fred MacMurray

Fred MacMurray was not an actor who made fans swoon or critics rave. For most of his long career he played solid dependable all-American types who were - frankly - dull. He was never as wooden as Dana Andrews, yet - despite a talent for light comedy - neither was he a bundle of fun. 
But on the rare occasions when he got to play against type it was fascinating to watch him peel away his surface veneer of solidity and predictability to reveal a conniving, calculating, amoral, cynical and murderous monster beneath.
He achieved this metamorphosis most memorably in the classic 1944 film noir "Double Indemnity,"  playing Walter Neff, the weak-willed insurance salesman who allows himself to be lead astray by scheming femme fatale Barbara Stanwyck.

Less well known but almost as rewarding to observe is his performance a decade later in PUSHOVER as Paul Sheridan, a cop who falls for the gangster's moll he's using to get to her boyfriend who's wanted for a bank robbery.
By no means is this simply a retread of "Double Indemnity" but there are parallels. In both stories the seduction of MacMurray's character sets alarm bells ringing with the attentive viewer although clearly not with Fred. Why would a woman as sultry and seductive as Stanwyck or (in PUSHOVER) a young Kim Novak fall so hard and fast for someone quite so square and average.? 
A man with the looks and charisma of Neff or Sheridan's gotta have a pretty big ego to believe such woman are melting into his arms solely because of his irresistible charms. With Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson we get a pretty good idea early on of her true intentions but with Novak's Lona McLane the motivation is much more difficult to discern.
She yields to Sheridan with alarming and inexplicable speed, all but drooling on his shoes and licking his face like a love-sick puppy in the process. Her expression as she does so is something to behold. Attempting to convey uncontrollable lust Novak succeeds only in looking slightly demented and rather boss-eyed. But I should give the girl a break. This was Novak's first co-starring role and she's actually not too bad for a 22 year old with just one uncredited bit part on her resume.
This lack of clarity in Lona's motivation for falling for Sheridan (it's clearly not love) is the film's major weakness, but it's not the sole factor undermining the story's effectiveness. The pace is a little too slow and the plot is pedestrian. It's reminiscent of a dozen other B-movie thrillers straddling the film noir and crime genres, shot cheaply and starring actors on the way down or who'd gotten as far as they were ever going to go, that were pumped out by Hollywood in the 1950s. 
What makes PUSHOVER stand out from the crowd is MacMurray's performance. He doesn't achieve the heights scaled in "Double Indemnity" but the peak is at least in view and that alone makes this a movie worth watching..