The Moon Is Blue
Reviewed in April 2010
Director: Otto Preminger. Cast: William Holden, Maggie McNamara, David Niven, Dawn Addams, . Screenplay: F. Hugh Herbert (based on his play).

Photo © 1953 United Artists/Carlyle Productions
WH whistling title tune while cruising MM in series of shops with plate-glass windows; excitable, infatuated score; WH: "Why were you in such a tearing hurry?" as flat as ever; razor blades and pumice stones; extremely sitcommy, chirpy music, light conversation; taxi to WH's apt in 15 minutes, so she can sew a button onto his coat (!); lots of short, impractical sucks of breath into her mouth; farce about who will see who at elevator; DN after a half-hour; loping, jaunty music; flat, unadorned, plainly synthetic set (any windows?); DN playing WH's prospective father-in-law? (only 8 yrs older) - "I mean you look awfully young, you ought to marry again"; "shall we turn on the television?" / "Is it in color?" / "Don't be silly, it won't be in color for years" / DN: "Let's wait till then"; MM to DN: "I like the way your eyes sort of crinkle, you're really very cute"; "ignoble desire to kiss you till your lips were rather bruised"; Holden/Niven : Holden/Guinness; wife should be half the husband's age plus seven; DN spanked first wife with hot muffin pan and got divorced; "Dopes who said No contributed quite a bit to human dignity, such as it is" (turning down gambling money $600); "I won it from a bloated capitalist who grinds the faces of the poor"; old mush-mouthed Tom Tully; DN: "I can't get to first base with her" (his daughter!); once in a blue moon; is he paying her to shut up?; title font like loopy string on the floor

M A G G I E     M C N A M A R A
going for pixie but with a rather gaunt, toothy face and storkish body; high, thin voice; $1.50 for Pastel Pink lipstick too dear for her; "I don't smile at men in front of jewelry shops"; "Well, how perfectly sweet of you" inside of 10 min; "I want to cry - for all those people" / What people? / "In Brooklyn" ... "those poor drab litte people," though she was born there; Stork Club, expensive - she's playing an actress; "The kind of men I want don't grow on trees"; "Affection but no passion - that's lovely, you could run for President on that!"; looks pregnant in her coat even though she's a stick; (don't just go around asking people if they have a mistress) "Oh I do, it saves so much time" - breathy and trailing; preoccupied with sex > occupied with it, and she isn't neurotic or innocent about it; and yet, blithely a ditz; "a perfectly beautiful oak tree"; knows how to cure hangovers; hopes he'll kiss her after steak dinner; oh, right, she's an actress; ketchup all over her breast; "your look of wholeosme rapture"; "OK, so you found me sitting on his knee and kissing him - is that so awful?"; Cynthia calls her a "professional virgin"; singing fairy ad for chlorophyll beer; "that's the kind of smile I'd like with my orange juice every morning" C+

Academy Award Nominations:
Best Actress: Maggie McNamara
Best Film Editing: Otto Ludwig
Best Original Song: "The Moon Is Blue"

Golden Globe Nominations and Winners:
★Best Actor (Musical/Comedy): David Niven
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