Moonfleet

The eighteenth century, the south coast of England. John Mohune is a small boy and his mother is dead. Before dying she gave him a letter; he is to find a man called Jeremy Fox in the village of Moonfleet. The boy sets out and reaches the village. Fox lives like a wealthy gentleman but his real trade is smuggling; he has an operation in the crypt beneath the village. He does not want the child. John stays all the same. There is a legend: a diamond that came from the Mohune family, and nobody knows where it is. Fox hears of it. Fritz Lang directs. Stewart Granger plays Fox; George Sanders, Joan Greenwood and Viveca Lindfors are in the cast. The source is J. Meade Falkner's novel. It was shot in wide format and colour; one of Lang's first works in that format. The studio altered it in the cutting and the ending is not as Lang wanted; the director was not pleased with the film. The matter it treats is a child attaching himself to an adult; Fox does not want it and the narrative keeps that resistance. The crypt and tunnel sections are its strongest side; the use of light and shadow recalls Lang's earlier work. The narrative does not use the child hero shape; John is often powerless and cannot direct events. The film drew little interest on release and its standing rose later. Its limit is structure; the plot is episodic and the characters' reasons thinly given. Who it is for: viewers who like Fritz Lang and classic adventure. Who it is not for: the narrative is episodic, the ending strained, and the characters not opened enough.