During World War II, German soldiers occupy a small Norwegian town. The citizens are forced to work the mines for the German War effort. The Allies attempt to aid the growing resistance movement by dropping canisters filled with explosives, weapons, ammo, and even chocolate. German soldiers are confounded by the fact that the locals resent them. Several German soldiers are killed or wounded and the townspeople pay a great price for their resistance.
The set was a place called Brent's Crags, California and was the same set of How Green Was My Valley filmed one year earlier.[4] Filming began on November 18, 1942 and ended January 14, 1943. Editing of the 16mm Film was done at a breakneck pace for the World Premiere in Toronto, Canada on March 13, 1943. The American Premier was March 26th and the official American release date was April 9, 1943. Twentieth Century Fox paid $300,000, a record at the time, for the movie rights.[3]
Reception
Bosley Crowther, the film reviewer for The New York Times, gave The Moon Is Down a mixed verdict. He lauded screenwriter Nunnally Johnson for creating a "clear and incisive screen version" of the book, resulting in "a picture which is the finest on captured Norway yet and a powerful expression of faith in the enduring qualities of a people whose hearts are strong." He also praised "Irving Pichel's superlative direction and a generally excellent cast". However, Crowther also observed that "the intellectual nature of this picture—its very clear and dispassionate reasoning—drain it of much of the emotion that one expects in such a story at this time."[4]
Named one of the 10 best films of the year by the National Board of Review.[3]
^ abcAmelio, Anthony (2020). Bibliographia Dystopia: Volume 1, John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down (2nd revised ed.). Atlanta: Primedia. pp. 162–163. ISBN9781636491110.