Friday, January 20, 2017

Dangerous Moonlight (1941)

AKA: Suicide Squadron

Director: Brian Desmond Hurst

Writer: Terence Young

Composer: Richard Addinsell

Starring: Anton Walbrook, Sally Gray, Derrick De Marney, Cecil Parker, Percy Parsons, Kenneth Kent, J.H. Roberts, John Laurie, Michael Rennie

More info: IMDb


Plot: During World War II, an American newswoman falls for a Polish piano virtuoso...who wants to go back and fight.



My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT (UK title) is a more appropriate title for this drama than SUICIDE SQUADRON (USA title).  The only action is in the final few minutes and the dogfight scenes are pretty good.  But then maybe I was getting a little bored of the melodrama that was unfolding for the previous 80 or more minutes.  It's not all that bad I suppose.  There were times when I liked Walbrook (in the lead role as Steve) but there were more spots where he came across as a bit too stuffy or drab.  The romance angle happens pretty quick and much of the film is spent on their slow descent into destroying their marriage.  And that wasn't done as well as it should have been which is the fault of the screenplay.  It's one of those cases where someone says the couple has to have a conflict and the conflict is poorly managed.  It's not worth spending any more time thinking about. 





No comments:

Post a Comment