Mon 22 Mar 2010
Movie Review: THE MOONRAKER (1958).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[8] Comments
THE MOONRAKER. Associated British Picture Corporation, 1958. George Baker, Sylvia Syms, Marius Goring, Peter Arne, Clive Morton, Gary Raymond, Paul Whitsun-Jones, John Le Mesurier (Oliver Cromwell). Based on a play by Arthur Watkyn. Director: David MacDonald.
A “moonraker” is a smuggler who drops his contraband goods into coastal waters then rakes them up again in the moonlight.
I hope I have that right. If not, those of you who live in England, please do correct me on this — or anything else in this review I might happen to get wrong in the rest of what follows. British history is not necessarily my strongest suit.
The movie begins with the Moonraker (Anthony Earl of Dawlish, played quite handsomely by actor George Baker) riding by horseback in a purple tunic though open meadow land, green wooded areas, down the cobbled streets of a small town at night, then into open land again till we see in the near distance the outline of the circle of standing stones that make up the national monument called Stonehenge.
The next scene purports to take place within those same stones, but I’m not so sure. I suppose the film crew may have been allowed to do so? In any case, it is there that Dawlish meets Charles Stuart, whose father Charles I had recently been overthrown (and executed) by Oliver Cromwell.
It is the Moonraker’s task to ensure the safe passage of the would-be king to France, an event which of course actually happened, though the Moonraker’s role is, as I understand it, quite fictitious.
However, this dates the time that this movie takes place exactly: 03 September 1651. Robin Hood, another British folk hero that even those here in the US have heard of, came along much earlier, the 12th century A. D. and the time of Richard the Lionheart. Just to put events in perspective.
Here in the US as kids (probably not so much any more) we played a lot of Cowboys and Indians, and Good Guys and Bad Guys. Did boys in the UK play Robin Hood and His Merry Men very often? I’m guessing, but probably more than they did Cavaliers (Royalists) and Roundheads (Cromwell’s men).
In any case, it is the strife between the latter that this movie is about. Being based on a play, much of it takes place not in the open (other than the aforementioned opening credits) but in the confines of a small inn along the coast, where Charles Stuart is to begin his voyage by sea to France and his temporary exile.
Complicating matters, for the sake of a story, a girl (Sylvia Syms) who is betrothed to one of Cromwell’s high ranking officers is forced to confront both Dawlish and her own beliefs face-to-face. Romance wins out, but will there be the time and the place for it to bloom further?
There is, of course, much swordplay and other acts of derring-do that also take place, all very well done, in beautiful Technicolor. But while the movie is entertaining from beginning to end, the story itself just isn’t solid or meaty enough to stay in one’s memory for very long. Perhaps it’s more significant and means more in England than it does here?
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I saw this one on television a good thirty years ago, and it did linger fairly long since I still remember it. There is a broader definition of ‘moonraker’ as I recall it, as someone who rides by night like a highwayman, which is the one intended here, though the Cornish origin is likely true.
Most of my British friends tell me they played cowboys and, as they called them, Red Indians more than Robin Hood. I think Robin and King Arthur likely got more kid action prior to American movies and television. By the fifties when this was made British kids were wearing Hopalong Cassidy and Davy Crockett regalia just like us. Robin Hood may have played a little larger role in childhood in England during this period, but not much more. Richard Greene’s TV series was popular on both sides of the Atlantic. That said British television returns to Robin still and with more regularity than we do westerns, and Russell Crowe even now has a new Robin Hood film due.
A little irony in George Baker being in this one as he was also in two James Bond films and of course MOONRAKER is a notable Bond novel (and film, though Baker isn’t in that one). Actor Ian Hunter tried to acquire the rights to Fleming’s MOONRAKER shortly after its publication and wanted Baker to play Bond opposite his M. It’s hard to think of the beefy Baker of the Inspector Wexford series as either Bond or a swashbuckler.
For a really great film version of Charles Stuart’s (Charles II) famous escape from Cromwell try to find Max Ophul’s THE EXILE with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Maria Montez, Henry Daniell, and Nigel Bruce.
Someone once described the average American’s version of British history as Bodaecia drives the Romans out, King Arthur fights the Saxons and looks for the Holy Grail, William invades in 1066, Richard fights the crusades and Robin Hood harasses his brother Prince John, Henry executes his wives, Elizabeth defeats the Spanish Armada and Shakespeare writes some plays, Cromwell overthrows the monarchy, Charles II creates the Restoration, James writes the Bible, George loses the American Revolution, Wellington beats Napoleon, Victoria rules, then World War I and II come along. Meanwhile some Englishmen have adventures in India.
Sadly to say most Americans’ idea of American history isn’t much better.
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
David
Your definition of “moonraker” works better than mine, certainly so in the context of the movie. But I’m somewhat under the impression that I gained mine from the film itself, though I could easily be wrong about that. (If not from the movie, then from elsewhere on the Internet.)
As for George Baker, he was also in the Diana Dors movie I reviewed a short while ago, TREAD SOFTLY STRANGER. See https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1879 . Both movies came out in 1958, but the roles Baker played were 180 degrees opposed to each other.
And by coincidence I’ve just purchased the complete Inspector Wexford TV series. I’ve not watched any of them yet, but I note you describe George Baker as “beefy” in them, which matches the photos on the outside cover of the box set.
I imagine that happens to a lot of people.
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Steve
I think you are right about the origin of ‘moonraker’. I think the first time I encountered the word may have been in one of the Dr. Syn Scarecrow stories by Russell Thorndyke and perhaps in either Daphne DuMaurier’s JAMAICA INN or J. Meade Faulkner’s MOONFLEET. I’m not sure if the term is used in Graham Greene’s MAN WITHIN or Winston Graham’s POLDARK saga, but then it has been a long time since I read any of those.
Your definition refers to the one in the film which is a reference to the people of Wiltshire in the West country who supposedly hid contraband barrels of brandy in a local pond and raked them out by moonlight. However ‘moonraker’ is also a sailing term referring to the top rigging of the mast which ‘rakes the moon.’
In either case it is a romantic term for smugglers and night riders in general. English in the general period tended to be poetic and a bit romantic.
I don’t recall if Fleming ever explains the term in his book. It may have just been a romantic sounding name in his case.
And as you said, I don’t think anyone much played Roundheads and Cavaliers even in England. Prior to films the impression I get from my reading of books dealing with childhood in this period is mostly King Arthur, Robin Hood, and pirates though in BEAU GESTE the children are playing Viking funeral. And to be fair, King Arthur and Robin Hood pretty much are cowboys and indians with better costumes and props.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:19 am
Any idea who did the swordfights in this one? I luv a good swordfight movie.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:43 am
Well there certainly are plenty of swordfights in this movie, from beginning to end. I have no doubt you’d love this one.
To me it looked as though they were conducted by the actors themselves (see the photo above), but maybe that’s only in the close-ups.
Or should that be “probably”?
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:43 pm
There were a few stuntmen in Hollywood who specialized in swordfights, and their work is easy to spot. The duels in MARK OF ZORRO and PRISONER OF ZENDA have a style all their own. However Fencing Masters rarely got credit on the screen.
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Since many British actors were classically trained they often fenced well enough to do their own stunts unless something really dangerous was called for.
Most of Basil Rathbone’s sword work is his own save in THE COURT JESTER when his age and the comedic nature of the work called for a stunt man. Rathbone once said Danny Kaye was the best natural fencer he ever fought on screen.
He liked Flynn and Power but resented always having to be bested by them when he was in private an Olympic level fencer.
Rathbone was generally considered to be the finest swordsman in Hollywood. John Barrymore was another noted bladesman.
I cannot think of the fellows name, but the sword master for CAPTAIN BLOOD also did THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE MARK OF ZORRO. I think he also choreographed the fight in SCARAMOUCHE (the longest sword fight on screen), and if I remember right was still around to supervise the sword fight in the James Bond film DIE ANOTHER DAY.
Next time you watch OUR MAN FLINT look to James Coburn and Edward Mulhare’s sword fight. If you slow it down you’ll notice most of the stunt work is done by the two actors.
December 9th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
moonraker is a good movie. who played that jolly fat man in red clothes? he had a sense of humour. the way he spoke to the roundheads chief was amusing.