Moonfleet - Fritz Lang

(aka "Les Contrabandiers de Moonfleet" )

USA 1955

It’s appropriate that a movie like Moonfleet, which is so revered in France amongst Lang’s late movies (Luc Moullet, Bernard Eisenschitz, Godard…) should find a modest but satisfying DVD release in that country.

At the most obvious level Moonfleet joins a small band of adventure movies with children as central figures in some sort of journey from innocence to knowledge. The list is small but quite noble: Laughton’s Night of the Hunter, Ted Tezlaff’s The Window and Mackendrick’s High Wind in Jamaica among few others.

Lang’s film begins with orphaned John Mohune (Jon Whiteley) setting out to forge a relationship with his fabulous but unseen relative/father figure Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger.) Unlike the lone antiheroes of other great Lang 50s pictures – Glenn Ford in The Big Heat, Arthur Kennedy in Rancho Notorious – Mohune isn’t seeking revenge, but rather the affirmation of an idealized hero. In Lang’s Universe the reverse of character is often the truth, and in the course of Mohune’s two substantial scenes in the “underground” (the Pirate’s lair and the Well) Granger is precipitously forced into an ambivalently redemptive act of violence to save Mohune’s life. I wholeheartedly recommend viewing and reviewing Bernard Eisenschitz’s lucid and poetic short commentaries.

There is a pronounced thematic and formal circularity in Moonfleet harking back to the “enchanted Glade” of Siegfried and forward to the labyrinthine architecture of the Palace in Indian Tomb and Tiger of Eschnapur. Eisenschitz talks about the “tests” that Lang’s protagonists are obliged to undertake, through linear and temporal space, to reach some sort of knowledge of life and recognition of their destinies. Moonfleet joins other great Langs as a beautiful illustration of that lifelong theme in his work.

David Hare

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Theatrical Release: 24 June 1955

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DVD Review: Warner France - Region 2 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner France Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:22:32 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	2.35 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English DD 2 Channel Stereo; French Mono DUB
Subtitles	English, French, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner France Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35 Edition Details: • Featurette: Secret's From Underground • Fritz Lang's Messages DVD Release Date: September 24th 2003 Snapper Chapters 21

Comments:

This release of Fritz Lang’s 1955 picture from Warner France comes a few years before the exemplary Légendes du Cinema series, and its less than lustrous transfer, not to mention the snapper case belies its age. The disc is dual layered with the movie occupying one side of the disc with 4.13 Gig. The image quality is somewhat murky, image is a little soft and colors while clean have a brownish tinge. The print used is free of damage like speckles and surface marks but the DVD image is ultimately a slave to the typically early fifties Eastmancolor process. Nonetheless it’s a marked step up from Moonfleet’s only previous home video version on a 1995 Laserdisc which had dreadfully pumped up color with bleeding and sundry other problems. It’s a perfectly serviceable image, without ever looking brilliant, but I recommend it unreservedly for newcomers to the movie who are interested in Lang. And for Langians the disc is a no-brainer. Given the movie’s relative obscurity in English speaking repertory cinema I strongly doubt Moonfleet will see a major Region 1 makeover any time soon.

The two short bonus feature commentaries by Bernard Eisenschitz are lovingly and lucidly composed. Eisenschitz, like other French Langian cinephiles is able to probe and relate Lang’s thematic imagery and engage viewers effortlessly with the many levels of meaning in the picture. Happily the Shorts are also subbed (English only.) The original English Stereo soundtrack is clean and direct. And subtitles (I only checked French and English) are comprehensive.

- David Hare

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