The Moon is Blue (1953)

Intro.

As much as I am a fan of movies, I am also a bit of a television nut.  It helped that I lived with two friends during college who also watched a lot of television, and our inevitable "television nights" became a great refuge.  One of my favorites was (and still is) M*A*S*H, which I watched every day in reruns as a kid.   One episode I remembered involved some of the M*A*S*H surgeons, Hawkeye and BJ, trying to get a copy of a film called The Moon is Blue, which had recently been banned in Boston.  It's a pretty funny story of trying to wheel and deal in order to get that film, which turns out to be very inoffensive after all. I thought of that when I saw the listing on television and my curiosity got the best of me.

Overview

Donald Gresham is an easygoing architect, full of charm and swagger.  When he exchanges smiles with a pretty stranger, Patty O'Neill (Maggie McNamara), he has no idea what he is in for.  He follows her to the top of the Empire State Building, where they meet and begin talking.  He tries to pick her up and succeeds when one of his coat buttons comes off.  She offers to sew it back on, but he conveniently "loses" the needle.  So they head over to his office, where there are no needles.  Donald starts to realize that Patty is an odd mix of naivety and cynicism when it comes to men, and he becomes determined to pursue her.  They decide to go to dinner, but first Donald must change his coat (it's still missing a button, and that isn't fit for a restaurant), so he gets her to go to his apartment.  It begins to pour, so instead of a rain-drenched date, Patty offers to cook for them.  Donald leaves for the corner store to get some groceries.  While he's gone, his upstairs neighbor David Slater (David Niven) comes down and finds Patty.  They start to talk about love, marriage, children and he finds her to be very inquisitive and opinionated.  She only wants to marry an older man.  "I want to be appreciated, not drooled over," she says.  Oh and she adds, "romance is for bobbysoxers."  What she learns though, is that David's daughter, Cynthia (Dawn Addams), just broke up with Donald and is still very angry.  Donald returns, then Cynthia shows up and things go from funny to crazy.  One angry father, a black eye, lots of misunderstanding and two marriage proposals later, Donald and Patty end up where they started on top of the Empire State Building, but a lot happier.   

Highlights

I couldn't help but wonder how on earth such an innocent romantic comedy as The Moon is Blue could wind up breaking censorship codes so much it would be banned.  Turns out the director, Otto Preminger, set out to do just that - to test the limits of the Breen code.  The Moon is Blue was the very first film to use the word "virgin" as well as other banned words like "seduce" and "mistress".  And I think all of these words are used by Patty, who is a girl determined not to give in to playboys and keep her virtue until marriage.  There's no nudity, no blood and gore, no depictions of sex, just a few words.  However, all of the conversations center on sex, love, marriage and the like.  It isn't so much suggestive or erotic as it is a hard look at what relationships in the 20th century really were.  It's so different from films today, where there are no holds barred.  The more sex, violence and foul language, the bigger the hit seems to be.  Hollywood and American culture have both come a long way.  I'm just not so sure I like where we're headed.

Although it's a bit of a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, The Moon is Blue does feature some good acting.  William Holden is charming as ever as Donald, but David Niven gives a great performance as an equally charming (though a bit more lecherous) playboy.  I think what surprised me the most was how good Maggie McNamara was.  A newcomer to the film business, she gives life to such a complicated role.  Patty is both a modern woman and an old-fashioned one.  You're torn the whole movie between thinking she's really smart and really naive.  The key moment in the film comes near the end of the film, where Patty hesitates outside of Donald's bedroom door, wondering if her morals are really what she wants them to be.  As David puts it, "understanding is almost as precious as virtue."  We don't know what she's really going to do and her hesitation speaks volumes.

Review and Recommendation
The Moon is Blue is a fun piece of Hollywood history.  Preminger eventually got those bans dropped, but the entire incident was the first blow to eventually bring down the staunch Breen code.  I recommend it as a light, entertaining romantic comedy not to be taken too seriously.  The ending is a bit too cute, but sometimes that's what we really want to see, right?  Good old fashioned comedy.

P.S. Want to read more about the Breen code?  Check it out here.