One of my all time favorites.

best movie i've ever seen.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Moonfleet (1955)A Fritz Lang oddity. If you are an admirer of this director's best movies (there are several knockouts), then you might want to plod through this one just to see his range. But it's basically aimed at young people with some adult threads, a variation on a Treasure Island or Kidnapped theme (Robert Louis Stevenson, that is), and it's fairly limited in its emotional range and in its plot.It's not that it's poorly made. In fact, for an early leap into widescreen color it has a lot of very dark night shooting that works well, and basically does what it intends. The problem is that it doesn't seem to intend to engage an adult with much intensity, and I'd have to guess it also lacks the magic and adventure a child needs, too. There's almost a pirate version of Bronte going on here--the old family mystery, the conversations between outcast members of a storied family, and so on.It doesn't help that the child star is stiff and unsympathetic at times, even when he gets in deep trouble. He's not so cute, or so lively, or so daring as a child star ought to be. (This reminds me of the lead in "Shane," who also deadens that film.) There are a couple of actors I usually appreciate a lot, like the great George Saunders who is fine here but rather by the book, and Viveca Lindfors who is the little known import who I often really like beyond her small reputation, and who here is also playing it straight. Too straight.Suspense? Absent. Even mystery about the plot (the missing diamond) is a bit unmysterious. Why? Why all the restraint and routine playing out of fairly common conflicts?All in all a strange entry in Lang's canon. If you have other options I'd skip this one. Or see a few minutes if you are curious and then be assured, it doesn't get much different, or better, as it goes. And start to ask what it is about the business of movie-making that leads directors with the intensity and originality of Fritz Lang into this kind of vehicle. Which, by the way, lost money on its substantial budget.

This is a late Fritz Lang effort for MGM, an odd assignment for him in that it's a Stewart Granger costume picture, not the sort of project one would expect the director to have been hired for. The film turns out quite nicely. It's a fairly conventional story of smuggler's on the English coast, features a fine cast of veteran players, many of whom had appeared in pictures of this sort before.That the story is presented in large part through the eyes of a small boy lends it a measure of distinction. We see Granger's character much as the boy does, as a hero, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. Granger is excellent in the lead. Despite what appears to be a modest budget, this is a handsome film, in the grand manner. That it's a back-lot picture, thus not a real spectacle, is more than made up for by Lang's manner of dealing with his material. The movie feels like a fairy tale. The ending is unexpectedly moving, surprised me, and is still vivid in my memory.While not a masterpiece, Moonfleet should satisfy admirers of its director and costume picture fans as well.

"Two hundred years ago the great heath of Dorsetshire ran wild and bleak down to the sea. Here in the hidden caves and lonely villages, the smuggling bands plied their trades. And here, one October evening of the year 1757, a small boy came in search of a man whom he believed to be his friend"This is the opening salvo for the MGM adaptation of J. Meade Falkner's novel of the same name. Miklós Rózsa's luscious sweeping score then tones down to let us read and savour, and from here on in we are hooked into this booming colourful adventure. With the makers practically overhauling J. Meade Falkner's novel, it's perhaps unsurprising that fans of the novel have no time for this. Thus if you have read the book and not seen the film then perhaps you best avoid it? Likewise those who are in to swashbuckling as a preferred genre, do not be lulled into the belief that because Stewart Granger is the lead character of Jeremy Fox here, that this is Scaramouche 2, because it has plenty of swash but not enough buckle for those of that persuasion. You witless, gutless misbegotten gallows-bait!Filmed in Cinemascope and Eastman Color, Moonfleet is a hugely enjoyable adventure that encompasses smugglers, rapscallions, wonderfully costumed soldiers, and crucially, an engaging bond between a man and his newly adopted son. The sets and Oceanside location are excellent, and the costumes from Walter Plunkett benefit greatly from the "coulourscope" filming process, Robert H. Plank's photography sharp and a treat for the eyes. Story wise there are plot holes to thrust your épée or foils thru, and goofs that have no place in a production such as this, but if a keg of smuggled brandy and a search for a hidden diamond has you interested? Well this will deliver without a shadow of a doubt. George Sanders, Joan Greenwood and young Jon Whiteley (excellent) join Granger in delighting to the end of this enjoyable piece. Fritz Lang directs and fuses Gothic traits with bravado adventure leanings and the results are very easy on the eye, go on, have a look see. 8/10 Hurrah!

The book Moonfleet, by John Meade Falkner, belongs in that category of boyish swashbucklers occupied by other titles such as Treasure Island, The Prisoner Of Zenda and Kidnapped. In fact, I'd probably rate the book as one of my all-time favourites. It's definitely, for me, the best of the four I have just mentioned. I approached the film version in a positive and excited frame of mind, firstly because I was such a fan of the book, and secondly because the film's cast and crew bore much promise. Seasoned actors like Stewart Granger, George Sanders and Joan Greenwood are always a pleasure to watch, and director Fritz Lang's work is usually very good. Alas, the film version of Moonfleet remains stuck in mediocrity for its entire 87 minute duration. Never so bad that it becomes unwatchable, yet conversely never quite good enough to wholly grab the viewer's attention.John Mohune (Jon Whiteley), a young boy, is sent by his dying mother to the coastal village of Moonfleet to find her former lover, a man named Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger). She promises the boy that Fox will take care of him once she has passed away. Young John does as he is instructed but soon discovers that Fox is not particularly the nice man he was expecting to find. Initially, Fox is very unwelcoming and uncaring towards young John, and spends much of his time either flirting outrageously with the female villagers or conspiring with various shifty-looking characters. Gradually young John comes to realise that Fox is in charge of a gang of smugglers, and is planning – with the aid of roguish local nobleman Lord Ashwood (George Sanders) - to step up into piracy. After a while a seed of friendship develops between John and Fox, and when the youngster reveals what he knows about a priceless diamond that once belonged to the Mohune family, they pair together to find the precious stone.Some aspects of the film work decently enough. Like so many films of this era, the photography (Robert Planck) captures the colours of the period beautifully and the music (Miklos Rosza) is typically rousing. Granger is a dab hand at these "likable villain" roles, and he provides yet another thoroughly enjoyable characterisation. On the flip side the sets are distractingly studio-bound, the narrative is rather muddled and the film tries unsuccessfully to improve upon the original source story (even though the original was fine as it was). I think movies adapted from books should remain at least partially faithful to the source - otherwise, what's the point? Wouldn't it be as well to promote the film as an original story and not claim it to be an adaptation? In the case of Moonfleet, the bare bones of the novel remain in place but an awful lot has been altered… and not really for the better. Perhaps if I hadn't read the book first I might have enjoyed the film more. On the whole, Moonfleet is a routine swashbuckler – it doesn't shine brightly as a leading title within its own genre, nor is it up to the high standards often attained by its director. Yet at the same time it doesn't fail so miserably that it is unworthy of a look.