The Only Danger is Being Massively Confused
Today's review: Dangerous Moonlight.
Dangerous Moonlight gives every indication of being a typical war movie. It was made in 1941, the poster features airplanes, and while the title could easily be seen in other genres like noir, it works as a war film title when combined with the other elements. But while it occasionally feints in that direction, the movie actually turns out to be an unconventional version of the form. And even though I do like it when movies try something different, I don’t think it worked out in this case.
The movie does admittedly initially seem to be going in the direction you’d expect. In a British hospital, two doctors discuss the case of Stefan Radetzky (Anton Walbrook) a Polish composer turned pilot who is in the hospital in a state of shock. They’ve given him a piano to see if that can help him snap out of it, and as he starts to play one of his pieces, we transition into a flashback that takes up the bulk of the movie. But although this flashback begins with images of Warsaw being bombed by the Germans, it very quickly moves on to the real focus of the movie. It seems that shortly before Poland fell, Stefan had an encounter with an American woman named Carol Peters (Sally Gray), who was reporting on the situation, and they hit it off. Shortly thereafter, Stefan and his Irish friend Mike Carroll (Derrick De Marney) are sent out of Poland to Romania, eventually making their way to the States. Stefan resumes his job as a composer/pianist, playing concerts all across the U.S. to raise money for the Polish cause. In the process, he runs into Carol again, and they decide they love each other enough to get married. This is when the true conflict of the movie arises; Stefan wants to go out and actively fight against the Germans, but Carol wants to keep him with her because she doesn’t want to lose him. In short, the movie turns into a romantic drama more than a war movie, and does it in very bizarre ways to boot.
Before I really dig into the problems with the movie, I should acknowledge that it’s entirely possible that the copy I saw was incomplete. The credits feel like they were cut together in a patchwork way (most of them are displayed at the end instead of the beginning, when the latter was the normal way of doing things for movies in the 40’s) and there’s at least one scene that feels like some of the material was lost. All that being said, I find it hard to believe that all the problems I have with this movie can be attributed to missing footage. Even if the hypothetical missing footage was included, though, I don’t know if I would have thought the movie was that much better.
My two biggest issues with the movie are somewhat related; some things come out of nowhere, and other things are poorly explained. For example, it initially seems like Carol is just your average middle class woman working as a reporter. But then she takes Stefan to a big, fancy house, and while I initially assumed they were sneaking back into a reception after stealing some time together, it was quickly revealed that it was her (or rather, her dad’s) house, and that they were also rich enough to have a luxury cabin nearby. It’s not a huge plot point in the grand scheme of things (the movie would play out about the same if the Peters’ really were middle class, and there’s never any suspicion that Stefan wants her for her money), but the reveal was kind of jarring, especially since no attention is ever really drawn to it. Then you have the more serious problems. Mike expresses feelings for Carol, apparently sincere, but nothing ever comes of it. Carol calls Stefan “a struggling composer” when they first meet, even though he says he’s played for “the crown heads of Europe”, and then when they next meet, there’s no further discussion of the matter. Was Stefan serious, or joking? And if he was serious, how did Carol feel when she realized she’d been talking to, teasing, and insulting a fairly famous person? It feels like something that could have led to an interesting conversation that could have developed their relationship, but instead it goes nowhere. Most importantly, the main conflict never seems to have any real stakes. The discussions and arguments Carol and Stefan have about whether or not he should go fight in the war never feel heated, nor does it ever truly feel like Stefan feels true resentment/regret at not being on the front lines. This means that a big moment as we enter the last act of the movie doesn’t feel earned, because what we saw on screen didn’t warrant that kind of reaction. To say nothing of the fact that the reveal of what’s put Stefan in his catatonic state is…implausible, to say the least. There’s a good chance you’ll spend a large chunk of the movie going “Wait, what?”, which is generally not a reaction you want to have.
I think the bit that really sums up this problem comes early in the movie, though I’ll admit that some of this may just have been me not interpreting things properly. When we first meet Stefan, he comes across as egotistical about his various abilities, so he doesn’t give a great first impression. Later, his ego has softened into something more teasing, and he displays plenty of positive qualities to make you root for him, but that initial impression gives an unintended tone to what happens next. At the headquarters of the Polish pilots shortly before the country falls, the guy in charge talks things over with Mike, informing him that the other pilots want Stefan out of Poland and they want Mike to accompany him. Stefan is described as “not very practical” and Mike says “sorry for being difficult” in regards to himself. All of these little details combined to make me think the pilots wanted to get rid of Stefan (and perhaps Mike to a lesser extent) because he was annoying and/or likely to endanger the mission. Then, much later in the movie, Carol tells Stefan that while he’d thought his name had been drawn by lot, it had actually been rigged because his fellow Poles wanted him to be safe. I was so taken aback by that that I had to go back and rewatch the scene in the headquarters just to see if I’d missed something. To be fair, it does become more obvious on a second viewing that the other pilots want Stefan gone for more positive reasons, but I’m sure I won’t be the only one who has a different read on the situation. It certainly didn’t help me think the movie was any more well put together.
There are a few other little things worth noting. Despite the fact that Stefan promises that he’ll return to Poland/Warsaw one day, he never actually does, making the line feel like an unfired Chekov’s Gun. I initially assumed that Carol was a fellow Pole when she was first introduced, because it sounded like she had an accent, and was then surprised when Stefan called her an American. Even after I knew that, there were times when she sounded like she had some kind of accent. I’m not sure if that’s a product of the middling quality of the print I was watching or if Sally Gray just had an unusual voice. On a somewhat related note, there’s a scene where a group of Brits working in a Polish air squadron claim they’re practicing their Polish, but even though the subtitles say “Speaking Polish”, they’re very clearly speaking French. Stefan doesn’t comment on this, so I can’t tell if they were joking or if the filmmakers didn’t think the audience would notice a difference. Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with Polish, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have a lot in common with French. It takes far too long for Carol to do the sensible thing after a big (supposedly) dramatic moment, even though she’s apparently rich and really cares for Stefan. I’ll acknowledge there may have been other circumstances making it more difficult than it looks at first glance, but she didn’t seem to be really trying to fix the problem all that hard. And finally, despite all the early indications that flying planes will be a big part of the plot, there are only a handful of scenes featuring them, and only one that could be called an action scene. I don’t necessarily mind this, but other people will probably be disappointed.
I definitely can’t recommend this movie. It’s not exactly bad, but the story never feels very impactful on either an action or an emotional level, and there are too many loose threads or randomly introduced plot elements to make the whole thing cohere in a satisfying way. On the bright side, at least it gave me a lot to talk about, which suggests it’s at least somewhat memorable. Probably not in the way the filmmakers would have preferred, though.
Note: The movie is apparently more commonly known as Suicide Squadron, which I think is actually a worse bait-and-switch. At least Dangerous Moonlight offers up some ambiguity as to what’s going on and relates to some lines in the movie. A title like Suicide Squadron promises a lot more action and war-centric material than the movie actually delivers on. Then again, it just goes to show that Hollywood has been giving out misleading information about movies for most of its life.
Dangerous Moonlight gives every indication of being a typical war movie. It was made in 1941, the poster features airplanes, and while the title could easily be seen in other genres like noir, it works as a war film title when combined with the other elements. But while it occasionally feints in that direction, the movie actually turns out to be an unconventional version of the form. And even though I do like it when movies try something different, I don’t think it worked out in this case.
The movie does admittedly initially seem to be going in the direction you’d expect. In a British hospital, two doctors discuss the case of Stefan Radetzky (Anton Walbrook) a Polish composer turned pilot who is in the hospital in a state of shock. They’ve given him a piano to see if that can help him snap out of it, and as he starts to play one of his pieces, we transition into a flashback that takes up the bulk of the movie. But although this flashback begins with images of Warsaw being bombed by the Germans, it very quickly moves on to the real focus of the movie. It seems that shortly before Poland fell, Stefan had an encounter with an American woman named Carol Peters (Sally Gray), who was reporting on the situation, and they hit it off. Shortly thereafter, Stefan and his Irish friend Mike Carroll (Derrick De Marney) are sent out of Poland to Romania, eventually making their way to the States. Stefan resumes his job as a composer/pianist, playing concerts all across the U.S. to raise money for the Polish cause. In the process, he runs into Carol again, and they decide they love each other enough to get married. This is when the true conflict of the movie arises; Stefan wants to go out and actively fight against the Germans, but Carol wants to keep him with her because she doesn’t want to lose him. In short, the movie turns into a romantic drama more than a war movie, and does it in very bizarre ways to boot.
Before I really dig into the problems with the movie, I should acknowledge that it’s entirely possible that the copy I saw was incomplete. The credits feel like they were cut together in a patchwork way (most of them are displayed at the end instead of the beginning, when the latter was the normal way of doing things for movies in the 40’s) and there’s at least one scene that feels like some of the material was lost. All that being said, I find it hard to believe that all the problems I have with this movie can be attributed to missing footage. Even if the hypothetical missing footage was included, though, I don’t know if I would have thought the movie was that much better.
My two biggest issues with the movie are somewhat related; some things come out of nowhere, and other things are poorly explained. For example, it initially seems like Carol is just your average middle class woman working as a reporter. But then she takes Stefan to a big, fancy house, and while I initially assumed they were sneaking back into a reception after stealing some time together, it was quickly revealed that it was her (or rather, her dad’s) house, and that they were also rich enough to have a luxury cabin nearby. It’s not a huge plot point in the grand scheme of things (the movie would play out about the same if the Peters’ really were middle class, and there’s never any suspicion that Stefan wants her for her money), but the reveal was kind of jarring, especially since no attention is ever really drawn to it. Then you have the more serious problems. Mike expresses feelings for Carol, apparently sincere, but nothing ever comes of it. Carol calls Stefan “a struggling composer” when they first meet, even though he says he’s played for “the crown heads of Europe”, and then when they next meet, there’s no further discussion of the matter. Was Stefan serious, or joking? And if he was serious, how did Carol feel when she realized she’d been talking to, teasing, and insulting a fairly famous person? It feels like something that could have led to an interesting conversation that could have developed their relationship, but instead it goes nowhere. Most importantly, the main conflict never seems to have any real stakes. The discussions and arguments Carol and Stefan have about whether or not he should go fight in the war never feel heated, nor does it ever truly feel like Stefan feels true resentment/regret at not being on the front lines. This means that a big moment as we enter the last act of the movie doesn’t feel earned, because what we saw on screen didn’t warrant that kind of reaction. To say nothing of the fact that the reveal of what’s put Stefan in his catatonic state is…implausible, to say the least. There’s a good chance you’ll spend a large chunk of the movie going “Wait, what?”, which is generally not a reaction you want to have.
I think the bit that really sums up this problem comes early in the movie, though I’ll admit that some of this may just have been me not interpreting things properly. When we first meet Stefan, he comes across as egotistical about his various abilities, so he doesn’t give a great first impression. Later, his ego has softened into something more teasing, and he displays plenty of positive qualities to make you root for him, but that initial impression gives an unintended tone to what happens next. At the headquarters of the Polish pilots shortly before the country falls, the guy in charge talks things over with Mike, informing him that the other pilots want Stefan out of Poland and they want Mike to accompany him. Stefan is described as “not very practical” and Mike says “sorry for being difficult” in regards to himself. All of these little details combined to make me think the pilots wanted to get rid of Stefan (and perhaps Mike to a lesser extent) because he was annoying and/or likely to endanger the mission. Then, much later in the movie, Carol tells Stefan that while he’d thought his name had been drawn by lot, it had actually been rigged because his fellow Poles wanted him to be safe. I was so taken aback by that that I had to go back and rewatch the scene in the headquarters just to see if I’d missed something. To be fair, it does become more obvious on a second viewing that the other pilots want Stefan gone for more positive reasons, but I’m sure I won’t be the only one who has a different read on the situation. It certainly didn’t help me think the movie was any more well put together.
There are a few other little things worth noting. Despite the fact that Stefan promises that he’ll return to Poland/Warsaw one day, he never actually does, making the line feel like an unfired Chekov’s Gun. I initially assumed that Carol was a fellow Pole when she was first introduced, because it sounded like she had an accent, and was then surprised when Stefan called her an American. Even after I knew that, there were times when she sounded like she had some kind of accent. I’m not sure if that’s a product of the middling quality of the print I was watching or if Sally Gray just had an unusual voice. On a somewhat related note, there’s a scene where a group of Brits working in a Polish air squadron claim they’re practicing their Polish, but even though the subtitles say “Speaking Polish”, they’re very clearly speaking French. Stefan doesn’t comment on this, so I can’t tell if they were joking or if the filmmakers didn’t think the audience would notice a difference. Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with Polish, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have a lot in common with French. It takes far too long for Carol to do the sensible thing after a big (supposedly) dramatic moment, even though she’s apparently rich and really cares for Stefan. I’ll acknowledge there may have been other circumstances making it more difficult than it looks at first glance, but she didn’t seem to be really trying to fix the problem all that hard. And finally, despite all the early indications that flying planes will be a big part of the plot, there are only a handful of scenes featuring them, and only one that could be called an action scene. I don’t necessarily mind this, but other people will probably be disappointed.
I definitely can’t recommend this movie. It’s not exactly bad, but the story never feels very impactful on either an action or an emotional level, and there are too many loose threads or randomly introduced plot elements to make the whole thing cohere in a satisfying way. On the bright side, at least it gave me a lot to talk about, which suggests it’s at least somewhat memorable. Probably not in the way the filmmakers would have preferred, though.
Note: The movie is apparently more commonly known as Suicide Squadron, which I think is actually a worse bait-and-switch. At least Dangerous Moonlight offers up some ambiguity as to what’s going on and relates to some lines in the movie. A title like Suicide Squadron promises a lot more action and war-centric material than the movie actually delivers on. Then again, it just goes to show that Hollywood has been giving out misleading information about movies for most of its life.