Moontide (1942)

Directed by Archie Mayo. Starring Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Claude Rains, Thomas Mitchell, Jerome Cowan, Ralph Byrd, Helene Reynolds, Victor Sen Yung, William Halligan.

Underseen noir-ish romantic thriller of longshoreman Bobo (Gabin) plagued by suspicions he committed an unspeakable act in a drunken stupor, falling in love with a suicidal woman (Lupino) rescued from a watery grave, and inspiring fear and jealousy in his “tiny” friend (Mitchell). Coming from the Hays Code-regulated era, virtually all suggestions of a love triangle with a homosexual hypotenuse are snuffed out, and Mitchell’s lunk-headed longing for his amigo is presented as strictly survivalist, even as he bad-mouths the “hash house harlot” to keep Bobo in his company. Gabin and Lupino don’t exactly light the nitrate aflame, but the atmospheric art direction and occasionally striking photography make an otherwise mundane murder mystery/conspiracy absorbing enough to stick through the slow spots and strained coincidences. Rains is the cast standout as another friend of Bobo’s, sad-eyed and philosophical. Original director Fritz Lang was replaced early in production.

67/100