Moonstruck
Over at The Daily Notebook, I’ve contributed a few mini-blurbs to a series on pre-code movies, which you might enjoy — if not, there are plenty of contributions from other writers that are well worth checking out.
And, it being Thursday, there’s also a new edition of The Forgotten, this week returning to recent subject of inquiry, the European silents of Michael Curtiz — under the eyepiece in this instance, MOON OF ISRAEL, Curtiz’s equivalent of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, made at the same time as DeMille’s first Hollywood take on the decalogue.
July 21, 2011 at 1:57 pm
Can’t help wondering if MOON OF ISRAEL was made as a conscious attempt by the Germans to emulate the success of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS – or did the two films just happen to evolve at roughly the same time? Any ideas?
July 21, 2011 at 2:42 pm
“Fresh fish!” LTTA is full of smutty puns.
July 21, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Well before either them there was the Italian epic Cabiria
July 21, 2011 at 5:03 pm
Given the attitudes towards Israel that were to take hold in Germany a decade or so later, it’s a minor miracle that this film survives!
July 21, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Somehow Nazism and Christianity were able to forget their differences, at least as far as the Pope was concerned. So I guess the logic was that pre-Christ Jews were OK, they only became genetically inferior after they nailed up the Messiah. Doesn’t make a lick of sense, but why should we expect it to?
It seems that 10 Commandments and Monn of Israel were a case of parallel development, but Curtiz’s earlier Sodom und Gomorrah, which enfolds its bible tale within a contemporary narrative, DOES seem like a clear influence on DeMille — as well as on Curtiz’s own Noah’s Ark.
Interesting that Curtiz returned to this mode somewhat in later years with The Egyptian and, to a lesser extent, Francis of Assissi.
Cabiria lurks at the back of so much cinema, from Griffith’s epic sensibility to the cry of “Moloch” in Metropolis! And Curtiz’s movies look like a big influence on German Lang, too.
July 21, 2011 at 8:39 pm
So I says to ‘im, “Say, ya big egg! Haul yer ashes outta here”, and I wannad tuh smack ‘im rightinna schnozz!
And he says, “Lissen sistuh, no four-flushin’ dame like youse ain gonna get between me an’ my pal here, see?”
Well, was my face red!
July 21, 2011 at 9:49 pm
“I don’t know how a pharaoh talks,” lamented Howard Hawks. Just once, I’d love to see a movie where he talks like a pre-code yegg.
“Go ‘way, Nefretiri, ya bother me!”
July 21, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Moon of Israel is a cooler title than a brow beater like The 10 Commandments..call it Moon Over Israel and make it a musical.