Night of the Quarter Moon

Put two schlock masters together, Albert Zugsmith (producer) and Hugo Haas (director) and you come up with a total mess of a movie. This film is grotesque, even more so because it was made at MGM. Thankfully, it was the last time that these two gentlemen ever got their foot in the door of a major studio.

Basically, the story is about a young woman, who has African-American heritage but "passes" for Caucasian. She is played by the glacially beautiful Julie London, better known as a popular singer than a film star. She marries John Drew Barrymore, who just could never parlay his famous name, except as the son of John Sr. and the father of Drew. His character is from a socially prestigious family and when they discover that Ms. London is not "racially pure", you would think that World War III was imminent. The newspapers blow the whistle on her, her black relatives are beaten up and she ends up in court, stripping to prove that her skin is white. Absolutely unpleasant.....this film is exploitation at its worst and MGM should have been ashamed to release it. It's unbelievable.

They couldn't have set about to make a quality film about the social, cultural or civil rights issues of the 1960s. This movie is pure exploitation. Bad writing, bad acting. Gaping mistakes.

No doubt society was unenlightened and people were treated badly but this film doesn't properly delve into it. It is all over the top. The headlines of newspapers in the film are so rude they are laughing out loud. The stunts I'm the courtroom are so ludicrous they are laughable.

Then there is the acting. Julie London us horrible as always and Barrymore is worse. Agnes Morehead is mostly wasted.

The only good thing in this film is Nst King Cole.

With "Lizzie" ,Hugo Haas had begun to improve his cast : her habituée Cleo Moore and the love triangle she was part of with him and the likes of John Agar was replaced by great names such as Eleanor Parker , along with Richard Boone and Joan Blondell.

"Night of the quarter moon " can boast two famous singers :Julie London (also an actress) and Nat King Cole along with luminaries such as Agnes Moorehead. Both can be heard in the film.

The screenplay borrows one of the subplots of George Stevens' "giant" : Dennis Hopper and his Mexican wife Elsa Cardenàs who were snubbed by nouveau riche James Dean is his stately mansion ; Elsa Cardenàs was a true Mexican ,which is not London's case ,but the latter is convincing in this liberal melodrama. And heavy make -up helps.

Note that Miss London escapes a nude strip tease by the skin of her teeth for the second time (see also her western :"man of the west" by Anthony Mann)

Considering it was made in 1959 ,at the Civil rights Movement (1954-1968)time, it can be considered ,from that point of view,a courageous movie ; the trial is a good moment even though the judge seems a little too liberal ; another good idea is to show the wealthy family and the adamant mother replaced ,in the hero's delirium ,by his war enemies.

The ending avoids the de rigueur happy end : the fight has only begun for the couple.

It is very good motion picture about the subject of race relations and bigotry. Everyone should see this movie as it was very well produced and the acting was excellent It is too bad John Drew Barrymore did not stay in movies and television as he was a very good actor.

Jerry L Girocco

Here I am in 2007 replying to a post from the past, but whoever posted that first post was off! This movie was so true to life, it was scary to me, a Black-American, that it gave me chills. A friend has this movie in his "Black-Only" collection, along with other obscure movies I had never even heard of (such as "Up against the Wall" with Smokey Jackson)?? I ended up crying, wondering why any person of mixed heritage would go to such lengths to be accepted by another culture, especially one that is usually so adverse to the mixing of their blood with so called "inferiors", such as they called Black and other minority races! Love must surely be able to overcome many obstacles to flourish, but this is even too much heartache to have to live through, even for love! A very interesting and true to life story. The acting was wonderful, even if Julie London was only a singer, she seemed to convey the fact that she, as the character, loved above all else and John D. is just as good. His mother, played by Agnes Moorehead was a proper witch, and I wished someone would have looked into her background before we got to far into the movie, because of the saying "I think the lady doth protest too much". She may have had a touch of African blood in her lineage as well. I give this movie high marks for entertainment, and content.