The Moon Is Down

Compared with Lewis Milestone's "The Edge of Darkness" from the same year and on basically the same kind of story, Steinbeck's and Nunnally Johnson's film falls flat on its overdone bathos - this isn't credible, as if Steinbeck had exclusively written this book for propaganda. The Germans are all ruthless villains (with two exceptions), and the poor Norwegians are all victims. It's all black and white and nothing between. The only interesting nuance is Peter van Eyck as the young German lieutenant who falls in love with a local girl, which incident is the most interesting one in the film, as the Germans previously have killed her husband. Cedric Hardwicke also adds some character to the film by his rather moderate appearance with some bitter experience from the previous world war - he knows what it is all about, which the local idiot Quisling does not. Lee J. Cobb as the old doctor also makes the film worth seeing, and the final scene gives this rather sordid and superficial war occupation account like also the book its validity, which is lacking up till then. It's not one of Steinbeck's best novels, and it's not one of Irving Pichel's best films. It's too much allied war propaganda preaching hatred of the Germans to the audiences and too little of the true human drama, which "The Edge of Darkness" succeeds in emphasizing.