Jean Gabin

Moontide (1942) starring Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell, directed by Fritz Lang   and Archie Mayo

Moontide is a variety of things — a forgotten movie with excellent acting, a character study, a film noir. It’s the story of a French wanderer named Bobo (Jean Gabin).  Bobo is a handsome, hard-drinking man who considers himself a wandering gypsy.  He wanders from place to place and job to job. His best friend Tiny (Thomas Mitchell) tails him.  But this friend is more of a leech.  He blackmails Bobo into paying his bills so that Tiny doesn’t have to work for a living.

Until they come to a small fishing town, and Bobo falls for a beautiful waitress (Ida Lupino).  And after Bobo rescues her from an attempted suicide by drowning, the two begin falling in love.  Then, Bobo begins to think about settling down for the first time … But that doesn’t fit in with Tiny’s plans. And an old man has been murdered. But Bobo remembers nothing about it since he was drinking at the time …