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Moonrise (1948)
In Frank Borzage's film-noirish crime melodrama set
in the small Virginia town of Woodville:
- the film's brilliant opening montage of wordless
visual story-telling - the expressionistic march to the gallows
and the public hanging of the accused Virginia killer, Jeb Hawkins
- convicted of murder (for shooting and killing an incompetent
doctor who had indirectly caused his wife to die by not making
a house call but offering only a bottle of pills); the image was
paired with the view of their crying baby in a crib - the man's
child had the shadow of a dangling playdoll cast onto its blanket
(a transposed duplicate of the hanging man); the montage conveyed
the belief that "bad blood"
was transmitted from one generation to the next
- the montage continued with the sad and mistreated
childhood of outcast Danny Hawkins (Johnny Calkins as 13 year old),
who often fought on the school playground against his teasing, taunting
and tormenting schoolmate Jerry Sykes (Michael Dill as 13 year old),
who chanted with others their prejudiced view of Danny because of
his father: "Danny Hawkins' dad was hanged!"
- the sequence of an altercation outside a dance hall,
where adult Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark as adult) argued with rich
banker's son Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges as adult), his lifelong tormentor,
over their mutual love of warm-hearted schoolteacher Gilly Johnson
(Gail Russell); unbeknownst to Danny, she was the fiancee of the
teasing, arrogant, and bullying Sykes
- near a swamp called Brother's Pond during their vicious
fist-fight, Hawkins grabbed a rock that Sykes picked up and repeatedly
smashed his skull with it - murdering him in self-defense; he would
soon suffer the same fate as his father - pursued for a crime; he
left an important clue behind - his pocket-knife dangling in a tree;
an investigation followed with a frenzied manhunt for the killer
- after the murder, Danny danced with Gilly (she asked:
"What's come over you?...I'm a schoolteacher, I can't afford to
fight with you in front of other people"), and then during a night
drive with her from the dance, Danny experienced a near-fatal car crash
when he had a vision of Sykes fighting with him
- the scene within a ruined Southern mansion (Blackwater
Mansion) where Hawkins surreptitiously met Gilly, and in the midst
of a burgeoning love affair, Gilly imagined that they were attending
a Civil War era ball in the house when she adopted an exaggerated
Southern accent as the plantation's owner Mrs. Blackwater - they
waltzed together and spoke of their mutual love before they kissed
(Danny: "I've never seen you like this before, Gilly" Gilly: "I've
never been like this before") - the film faded to black
- the ferris wheel scene at the county fair when panicking
Danny, fearing being caught while sharing the ride with the town's
Sheriff Clem Otis (Allyn Joslyn), caused him to jump
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Ferris Wheel Scene - Danny Jumped
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Billy Unable to Fit Footprint into Cement
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Danny's Near Strangulation of Billy
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- the scene of harmless, mentally-handicapped mute
Billy Scripture (Harry Morgan) attempting to fit his feet into
footprints made years earlier in wet cement on a sidewalk - and
his profound realization that he could never return to what he
once was; and Danny's near strangulation of Billy who had found
his pocket-knife
- Danny Hawkins' pivotal scene composed of reflections
at the backwoods home of his wise grandmother (Ethel Barrymore) when
she told him that his father's act of murder was uncharacteristic
of him; Danny realized that he should control his fate and turn himself
in for manslaughter - to free himself from guilt and his past and
his feelings about having "bad blood"; he stood at his
father's grave, reflected about his past, and spoke to him:
"I ain't proud of what ya done, Pa. All the same, I didn't mean
what I said last night. You did the best you could to even things up.
That's what I'm doin' now. Maybe we'll both have some peace"
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Danny's Realization of Manslaughter Guilt
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Danny Visiting His Father's Grave
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- the final scenes of his peaceful surrender to the
Sheriff, Gilly's reunion with him: ("It’s wonderful
to see your face, Daniel. To really see it"); and the Sheriff's
refusal to have Danny handcuffed: "Let him walk back like
a man"
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Silhouetted March to Gallows Hanging
Shadow of Playdoll Cast Onto Blanket
Danny's Accidental Murder of Sykes in Woods
Gilly With Danny Hawkins at Dance Hall
Vision of Sykes Through Danny's Windshield - Causing Car
Crash
Danny Waltzing with Gilly in Mansion
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