Once in a Blue Moon (1935)

Directed by

Ben Hecht

Genre

comedy, drama

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 07m

Rated

NR

Rating

9.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

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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