Moonrise
Director: Frank Borzage
Year Released: 1948
Rating: 1.5
Picked on his entire life because his father murdered a doctor (and was hanged because of it), Danny Hawkins (played as an adult by Dane Clark) eventually retaliates against his biggest bully (Lloyd Bridges) and kills him, which (naturally) means he has to evade the authorities and suspicion. Perhaps the biggest problem with this picture is difficulty identifying with the Clark character, who comes across as stiff and remote - compounding that issue is the movie's tendency to drift into platitudes, with the character of Mose (Rex Ingram) turned into a kind of Biblical prophet. The weight of Borzage's direction sinks it into the swamp and the suggestion there's a kind of 'redemption' for Hawkins at the end is misguided - how is becoming a murderer like one's padre (and getting apprehended) supposed to be spiritually uplifting?
