Set in the eighteenth century, Moonfleet is about John Mohune, a young orphan who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with an old friend of his mother's, Jeremy Fox. Fox is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman involved with smugglers and pirates.
Direction
Lang's final Hollywood film—control freak precision meets swashbuckling chaos.
Cinematography
Cavernous smuggler dens lit like German expressionism survived the Atlantic.
Acting
Granger's Fox—charming enough to make you root for the wrong man.
Director
Fritz Lang
Stewart Granger
Jeremy Fox
George Sanders
Lord James Ashwood
Joan Greenwood
Lady Clarista Ashwood
Viveca Lindfors
Mrs. Minton
Jon Whiteley
John Mohune
Liliane Montevecchi
Gypsy
Melville Cooper
Felix Ratsey
Sean McClory
Elzevir Block
Alan Napier
Parson Glennie
John Hoyt
Magistrate Maskew
Donna Corcoran
Grace
Jack Elam
Damen
Ian Wolfe
Tewkesbury
Lester Matthews
Major Hennishaw
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
MGM forced Lang to shoot in CinemaScope against his wishes; he preferred the claustrophobia of academy ratio. He later disowned the film entirely.
This was child actor Jon Whiteley's only major Hollywood role—he quit acting at 14, became an Oxford historian, and now curates paintings at the Ashmolean. Truly the most successful 'where are they now' in cinema.
US
