The Moon Is Down

The film's title card reads, "Twentieth Century-Fox presents John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down." Before the title card appears, a map of Norway is seen with a fist pounding on it, and a voice shouts in German that Norway must be conquered. The voice continues as the onscreen credits are shown. Nunnally Johnson's onscreen credit is "Produced and Written for the Screen by." Steinbeck's novel, which was his first since the 1939 publication of The Grapes of Wrath, and play were the targets of much criticism. Numerous reviewers considered the German characters too sympathetic, and complained that Steinbeck had oversimplified the complex issues involved in a resistance movement. Steinbeck maintained that his characters were more realistic due to their intelligence and humanity, and a number of modern sources report that The Moon Is Down was a highly esteemed piece of propaganda for many European resistance groups during the war.
       A April 22, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that in addition to Twentieth Century-Fox, M-G-M, Paramount, Warner Bros., Samuel Goldwyn and Hunt Stromberg were "in the market" for the rights to Steinbeck's book and play, and the April 29, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item disclosing the sale to Twentieth Century-Fox noted that "the play went to 20th at Steinbeck's request because of his satisfaction with Darryl Zanuck's film version of his Grapes of Wrath." The news item also noted that the $300,000 paid to Steinbeck was "a record for outright purchase" of a novel, and that Zanuck intended to produce the film personally. When Zanuck entered the military shortly afterward, however, screenwriter Nunnally Johnson was designated the film's producer. One of the changes made by Johnson in dramatizing Steinbeck's book and play was naming the invaded country as Norway and the invaders as Germans. In Steinbeck's works, the nationalities of the characters are not specified.
       Contemporary sources reveal that a number of actors were tested for the role of "Col. Lanser." A July 31, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that George Sanders was "scheduled" to play the part, although he had just been placed on suspension by the studio for refusing a role in another film. According to a August 20, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, Twentieth Century-Fox had entered negotiations with Orson Welles to direct the picture and play Lanser, but a September 29, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that the "deal eventually fell through because Welles's numerous commitments and activities complicated the arrangements to the point where the picture might have been delayed." A October 1, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item asserted, however, that Welles turned down the role "because the part...in the play is not to his liking," and noted that Welles May have been influenced by the "caustic criticism by both drama and literary critics" of "Steinbeck's portrayal of Colonel Lanser as a reasonable, understanding and sympathetic figure." A September 17, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item stated that Otto Preminger had been signed for the part, while studio publicity and Hollywood Reporter news items noted that the following actors had been tested: Charles Laughton, Conrad Veidt, Alfred Lunt, Paul Lukas and Fritz Kortner.
       According to a October 15, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, Dudley Digges was originally signed to play "Dr. Albert Winter." A June 4, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that William Eythe, who had appeared as "Lt. Tonder" in Steinbeck's play, had been placed under contract by Twentieth Century-Fox and would "likely" be reprising his role. The only member of the New York cast who did reprise his role was E. J. Ballantine, whose portrayal of "George Corell" marked his screen acting debut. According to a September 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, Anna Sten was under consideration for "one of the leading feminine roles" in the production. A February 1943 press release includes Hans Wollenberger in the cast, but his appearance in the completed picture has not been confirmed.
       According to information in the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the PCA objected that the sequence between "Molly" and "Lt. Tonder," during which she stabs him to death in her bedroom, was "sex suggestive." The PCA was also worried that the killing seemed "to be a murder, and not in any sense a killing in the line of military necessity." After voicing numerous concerns about the killing, the PCA finally granted the picture a certificate number, "issued on the understanding that you have deleted the scenes of the woman hiding the scissors under the pillow of the bed."
       According to the film's pressbook, ice skating star Sonja Henie acted as a technical advisor on the language and costumes of her native Norway. An October 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item noted that fellow Norgwegian and technical advisor H. M. Waller was present in Norway at the time of its invasion by Germany. The pressbook also reported that director Irving Pichel viewed newsreel-type footage of the invasion of Norway to "get authentic data on how the German soldiers and Norwegian people conducted themselves during the conquest." Contemporary sources reported that most of the production was filmed on location at Brent's Crags, CA, in the same mining village set used for How Green Was My Valley. According to a September 1942 press release, Lake Arrowhead, CA, was the site of a sequence shot before the beginning of principal photography.
       The picture marked the screen acting debut of Peter Van Eyck and the return to the screen of actress Dorris Bowdon, who was married to Nunnally Johnson. Bowdon's previous screen appearance was in the 1940 Twentieth Century-Fox film Jennie. Director Irving Pichel, who also appears in The Moon Is Down as the innkeeper "Peder," was married to Violette Wilson, who plays "Peder's wife." According to an February 11, 1943 studio publicity release, Sir Cedric Hardwicke directed the scenes featuring Pichel as Peder. According to a March 15, 1943 New York Times news item, the picture received its world premiere in the "Little Norway" section of Toronto, Canada, in a screening for three hundred members of the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
       The film received good reviews upon its release, with many concurring that it was not likely to be subject to the same criticism as Steinbeck's book and play. Bosley Crowther, the New York Times reviewer, commented: "The noisy and passionate controversy aroused by The Moon Is Down when the John Steinbeck play and novel were presented something over a year ago, is not likely to be rekindled to any appreciable degree by the clear and incisive screen version." In a subsequent New York Times article, in which Crowther protested the "occasional expressions of misgiving [that] have been voiced by respectable folk," he stated, "The Moon Is Down is far and away the best conception of the human and moral issues involved when the Nazis took over a free country that the screen has yet manifested." The picture was named one of the ten best films of the year by the National Board of Review, and Hardwicke was listed as the third best actor of the year by the board.
       According to a July 22, 1943 Hollywood Reporter news item, Nazi censors forced the Swedish government to ban the film. The news item also reported that the picture had recently been exhibited in London, where the exiled King of Norway was "most enthusiastic about it." The news item noted that the king believed that American criticism of "the portrayal of a sympathetic Nazi was unjust," and quoted his reaction as: "'Show a sympathetic Nazi, as this picture does, and it teaches people that the Nazis are not supermen-they are just ordinary people, cruel, but with the same weaknesses, the same thoughts. As a result, the cruelties they practice are doubly bad." In 1946, Steinbeck was awarded the Haakon VII Cross by the King of Norway in recognition of the contributions made by his novel to the Norwegian war effort.