Once in a Blue Moon (1935)
- Directed by
- Ben Hecht
- Country
- United States
- Rated
- NR
- Rating
- 9.0 of 10 from 1 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A group of performers get mixed up in political intrigue and anti-Russian sentiment. It is a drama about characters caught in misunderstandings and fears of the time.
whimsicalunevendatedchaoticbafflingdisjointedanticlimacticcampy
What happens
Once in a Blue Moon is a 1935 American drama film directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and starring Jimmy Savo, Nikita Balieff and Cecilia Loftus. It was one of four films the writing-directing team produced at the Astoria Studios in New York. It was, along with Soak the Rich, a critical and commercial disaster. Hecht and MacArthur also attempted, unsuccessfully, to avoided certification problems with the film by ignoring the Production Code Administration and sending it straight to Joseph Breen. The film score was composed by George Antheil. who later The film was Howard da Silva's Hollywood debut. It was one of several films, along with others such as Red Salute and Tovarich, released by studios to counter the alleged red menace and according to critic John Gladchuck, Once in a Blue Moon "amplified anticommunist fear". It was one of "a dozen relatively minor anti-Russian films" released by several Hollywood studios in the years preceding World War II. It was condemned by contemporary film critics—and has since been described as "an unmitigated disaster" and "virtually unreleasable"—and Paramount Pictures, in expectation of such a reaction, came close to not releasing it at all. In the event its release was delayed by almost two years. Hecht himself later commented that "our script for Once in a Blue Moon was a dud". When it did eventually screen, the poor exhibition previews made it difficult to find cinemas willing to show it. One Boston theatre that was forced to screen it due to its commitment to block booking did not advertise the film under its title, but listed it as "The Worst Picture Ever Made", which may in fact have improved its eventual box office. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
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Please Get Married (1919)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.