THE NIGHT OF THE QUARTER MOON
US, 1959, 96 minutes, Black-and-white.
Julie London, John Drew Barrymore, Anna Kashfi, James Edwards, Dean Jones, Agnes Moorehead, Nat King Cole, Ray Anthony, Jackie Coogan, Charles Chaplin Jr, Billy Daniels, Cathy Crosby, Arthur Shields, Edward Andrews, Robert Warwick.
Directed by Hugo Haas.
A number of reasons for seeing this film, melodramatic drama of 1959.
On the technical side, it is one of the last films to be made by Hugo Haas, who had a successful career as a comic in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s but fled his country and came to the United States in 1940, participating in many radio propaganda programs for his adopted country. In the 1950s he began a series of feature films, small-budget, with the touch of the exploitative, capitalising on the screen presence of Cleo Moore and Beverly Michaels. They were brief, melodramatic, usually including Haas himself as an older man entangled by scheming women.
This film was produced by Albert Zugsmith, better known as a producer of small-budget exploitation films. However, it was distributed by MGM and has a very strong supporting cast of character actors of the period.
However, the main reason for seeing the film is its treatment of race issues in San Francisco during the 1950s, prior to the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s.
Julie London,, actress but better known as a singer, portrays Ginny, a young Mexican woman whose father is an Irish captain (Arthur Shields) and whose mother came from Angola, descended from princely tribes in that country. John Drew Barrymore, in one of his better performances, plays a rich young man who falls in love with Ginny.
There is also a significant subplot about soldiers imprisoned in Korea during the war, the harsh conditions, the brainwashing and the eliciting of confessions as well as the subsequent mental disturbance when the soldiers returned home. Chuck is one of those soldiers and his family capitalise on this background.
The film opens with some racial prejudice, white neighbours throwing stones at the couple’s house, Chuck coming to the rescue and fighting the neighbours, and being arrested. It is in this context that there is a long flashback elaborating on Chuck and his brother Lex (Dean Jones) going to Mexico, Chuck encountering Ginny and falling in love with her, bringing her back to San Francisco to meet his wealthy and arrogant mother (Agnes Morehead), her initial acceptance but, with a photo in the papers showing the couple with Ginny’s cousin Maria and her husband, Cy, (Anna Kafshi and Nat King Cole), there is huge upset, the couple being ousted from the hotel, their attempts to buy a property to live in, visitors from neighbours who are objecting to the lowering of house prices because of their presence.
When his mother takes Chuck into care and he goes to a mental institution, Ginny tries to contact him but is ousted from the property. She goes to her cousin and Cy, rather unexpectedly, grills Ginny, implying that she had married Chuck just for his money and wanted a property settlement. Relenting, he gets the help of a lawyer friend, a very polished and dignified performance from James Edwards, and the rest of the film consists of a court case where Chuck’s mother has filed for an annulment of the marriage.
Edward Andrews is the lawyer for the family, asking all kinds of questions with insinuations. Ultimately, in a rather melodramatic way, the judge agrees that the only way to know whether Chuck had known of his wife’s ‘quadroon’racial status, the word used in the newspapers in the court, was for her to strip and to show the consistency of her skin colour – which begins to happen with Chuck relenting, saying that he only denied knowing the facts so that Ginny could be freed from him and live her own life.
Bonuses the fact of Nat King Cole’s presence and his singing.
Not a major film, but particularly interesting in retrospect in the history of civil rights in the United States.
1. A small-budget film of the late 1950s, the reputation of the director, small budget with the touch of the exploitative? His cast? The producer and his reputation? MGM distribution?
2. The San Francisco settings, the affluent suburbs and streets, the police precincts, the mansion, the court, the mental institution? The musical score (and the character played by Nat King Cole and his songs as well as Blue Moon at the club)?
3. The Mexico settings, idyllic, the water, fishing, homes?
4. The opening, Ginny and the neighbours throwing the stones, breaking the windows, her dismay, her wrapping her robe around her and the later accusations? The men tearing up the plants and the lawn? Her phoning her husband, his hurry in the car, the police pursuit? His anger, fighting with the men, the arrests? Ginny having to go to the police station?
5. The tone, the insertion of the long flashback, life in Mexico, Ginny and her Irish father, her mother from Angola, her grandmother a tribal Princess? Her explaining the racial situation to Chuck? Lex and his wanting to fish, his arrogance? Called back to Washington? Chuck and his deciding to stay, the two falling in love, swimming together, sharing, the proposal? The return to San Francisco? Going to see Cornelia, her wealth, her attitudes, her mother and her son, accepting Ginny? The news about the cousin and the club?
6. Ginny and Chuck going out, his mother’s fur, Maria, Cy, the welcome to the club, the souvenir photo, on the front page, the use of the word “quadroon�, the newspapers and Chuck anticipating the heading about the fisherman’s daughter hooking him, but not anticipating the racist attitudes?
7. The consequences, Cornelia and her interventions, the role of Lex? Coming to the police station, Chuck and the interrogations, the subtheme of prisoners of war in Korea, the long time, the brainwashing? Chuck and the dominance of his mother, brother and lawyer and doctor, remembering the interrogations in Korea? His being taken home? Ginny going to the house, climbing the fence, the security people coming, Cornelia ordering her away?
8. The experience of prejudice, being ousted from the hotel, trying to buy a home, the neighbours coming to complain about the lowering of prices in the neighbourhood?
9. Ginny, with the police, going over the story, her release? Going to see Maria, asking help? Cy and his harsh implications that she was on the make for money? His backing down? Getting his lawyer friend? The visit to the estate of the lawyer? The subpoena for the annulment?
10. The court proceedings, the judge saying it was a unique case? The issue of whether Ginny had not revealed the truth about her race to Chuck? The proceedings, the lawyers, the media? Cornelia’s lawyer and his questions and implications? Ginny’s lawyer, intelligent, good mannered, interrogations, his understanding of law, his decorum? Wanting Chuck to be present?
11. Cornelia and the interrogation, the inconsistencies in her testimony? Lex and his arrogant answers but having to admit he had no evidence about the relationship? Her going home, to the institution, Chuck wanting to know the truth? His mother urging him to do the best for Ginny – and let her go?
12. His coming to the court, his saying that she did not reveal her race to him? Ginny’s father and his outburst? Ginny and her testimony about her ancestry? Chuck and his denials?
13. Jenny’s lawyer, the issue of the swimming nude, her skin colour, Chuck having seen her? The melodrama in the court, the judge cleaning the court, Ginny willing to strip, her lawyer tearing the back of her dress, Chuck and his relenting, saving Ginny, and the truth?
14. The happy ending for the couple – but the uncertainty about racial attitudes, snobbery, the family, somewhere to live…?
15. The significance of this kind of exploration of racial themes and prejudice in the film distributed by MGM in 1959?
