Film

The Moonlighter (1953)

Director: Roy Rowland

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

This early 20th century Western (the bank robbers make their getaway by jalopy) is a love-hate melodrama characteristic of writer Niven Busch. Wes (MacMurray) and Rela (Stanwyck) are lovers from way back, but after outlaw Wes goes a stick-up too far and gets his younger, gentler brother killed, Rela reaches for her Winchester and sets out to kill him. Busch (Duel in the Sun, Pursued, The Furies) was usually lucky with his directors, but this one finds Rowland on indifferent form. A shoot-out on a desolate hillside isn't bad, but everything goes for far less than it should, and the ending is soppily un-Busch-like. Still, a not uninteresting obscurity. The opening credits appearing over a mountain range and soaring off into the sky, must have looked great in the original 3-D.

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