The Moon Is Blue (1953)

That was an excellent one.

Strictly average movie

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Donald Gresham (William Holden) meets young perky Patty O'Neill (Maggie McNamara) atop the Empire State building. They agree to go out to dinner...but no sex. Then Donald's ex Cynthia (Dawn Addams) won't let him go and her father David Slater (David Niven) gedts involved. Then HE falls for Patty and makes the moves on her.Once considered very risqué (for using the words "virgin" and "seduce") this is now very tame PG rated material. That doesn't mean it's bad though. The script is great, the acting on target (McNamara was nominated for an Academy Award) and it moves quickly. The sexual ;poltics in it are dated but the film IS over 60 years old. Worth a look.

Clicking through an endless guide that contained the typical TV offerings I was drawn to this by the description for such an older movie. I was interested to see what would be the content of such an older film with it's steamy description. To my surprised it was extremely entertaining and lighthearted... or am I just hardened by the times that we live in. Anyway... I enjoyed the situational comedy which in some ways reminded me of an Elvis Presley movie called "Live a Little, Love a Little" in the way that it changes pace but keeps the main characters interesting as they carry out the story. I also enjoyed seeing the way that a playboys life in the early 50's was perceived and I also enjoyed going back in time and seeing the behavior of the characters as they related to the story and it's topics. Had the industry not been so hard with its rating for this film... I think it could have been turned into a wonderful sit-com for TV in the 1950's... but that's just my opinion. Overall it was an enjoyable, light hearted comedy about sex (or lack of) that made me happy that I found it so late at night with all the other offerings that could have detoured my attention. This was only a few years before my days began but I could easily see these kinds of characters living out the story in real life as it was back in those days. The writers did a fantastic job with their use of language especially because had this been remade today most young people probably would be at a tremendous lost for words to make this type of film work as well as it did. There is much to learn about using language properly to tell a story... one that would have worked just as well if it were only on radio. Todays film values are all too visual and sorely lacks verbal entertainment which this film provides in great quantity and quality. I am glad to have found this gem in the rough.

This is a very surprising film to watch. After all, for 1953, it's amazingly frank about sex--a subject you just didn't talk about in films at that time due to the Production Code. However, somehow Otto Preminger got away with a very 'dirty' film--though by today's standards it's pretty tame.The film begins with William Holden trying to pick up a woman (Maggie McNamara). However, almost immediately it becomes obvious that this is a bizarre woman. She just isn't normal--and is very frank in discussing premarital sex with Holden, though she insists on retaining her virginity! In fact, it's one of the first films after the Production Code was enacted in 1934 to use the V-word---'virgin'! Holden takes her home--where it soon becomes apparent he is quite the playboy and has just broken up with another girl. Oddly, the girl's father (David Niven) drops in and stars making passes at McNamara and from then on, it's a contest to see which guy will get this girl by the end of the movie.Despite its blunt attitude about sex, the film is enjoyable and there is a quirky strangeness about McNamara's character that makes her likable. Not a great film by any standard, but enjoyable and an interesting film because of its moral compass...which is, apparently, a tad bent.

Watching The Moon Is Blue today is watching a rather ordinary comedy that had a respectable run on Broadway (924 performances in the 1951- 1953 season) that got blown totally out of proportion because of the attendant publicity.More tickets were sold for this film, more publicity was generated for this film than the hype of a dozen press agents by the actions of the censors, in this case the Catholic Legion Of Decency who objected to the words 'pregnant' and 'virgin' being in the script. But isn't that always the case, tell people something is banned and they flock to see it out of curiosity if nothing else.Otto Preminger directed the play on Broadway and brought it here to the cinema and expanded it a bit for the screen. The roles of the cab driver Gregory Ratoff, the TV singer Fortunio Bonanova, interestingly enough the daughter of David Niven, Dawn Addams did not exist in the original play. It was a four person comedy with a cast that included Barbara Bel Geddes, Barry Nelson, Donald Cook, and Ralph Dunn playing the parts that went to Maggie McNamara, William Holden, David Niven and Tom Tully.However Maggie McNamara did play the lead in the national touring company and Preminger did bring her to Hollywood. She even received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, but lost that year to a very similar actress in a similar role, Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday.The wolfish William Holden spots McNamara leaving his building and follows her up to the top of the Empire State Building observation deck. You know the old saying, he pursued her enough until she decided to let him catch her. They go back to his apartment where she also arouses the interest in an old roué in the person of neighbor David Niven. Holden was going out for a bit with his daughter Dawn Addams. The two pursue her for the rest of the film and you figure out who she winds up with.This is the plot of a gazillion comedies and the mere use of a couple of forbidden words elevated The Moon Is Blue to something way beyond what it actually merited. The Moon Is Blue also got Oscar nominations for the title song and for film editing.This film did not lead to a brilliant film career for Maggie McNamara. That tragic woman did a couple of better films Prince Of Players and Three Coins In The Fountain and then Otto Preminger also cast her in The Cardinal. All of those were better than The Moon Is Blue for which she was nominated.Looking at that film almost 60 years later, you scratch your head and wonder what the big deal was with his movie.