NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT (1958)
Aka: ELEPHANT GUN (USA
This film is set in
Andrew becomes involved with problems involving local
tribes, poachers, and stampeding elephants while Rusty is assigned to meet and
watch over Alice Alice
A native park staffer is killed, and scenes of tribal
members, other staffers, and poachers clashing follow. Accusations as to who is responsible for the
death fly. Was it an evil ghost? Was it the local white poacher and his
men? Was it a spurned lover? The dead man’s widow seeks revenge. Meanwhile Alice and Rusty cavort with each
other.
The whole group finally end up together, relaxing in a camp house, where things seem rather frosty between Alice, Rusty, and a
local white poacher’s young daughter named Thea, who has run away from
home. Andrew seems out of the loop. Eventually, Thea, who has a crush on Andrew,
confronts
Torrential rains begin to fall. One thing leads to another, Alice and Rusty
get passionate, Thea decides to go home, gather her things, and run away from
her abusive father for good. Andrew
follows, thwarts Thea’s father who tries to bull-whip him, and takes her to
safety. He stops his Land Rover and,
soaking wet, basically tells her she can live with him (and no doubt become his
wife), giving her a kiss before the scene fades out.
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Before watching this film, you must put yourself in the mind
of an English audience-member in 1958. Britain still has a large colonial presence all around
the globe, including Africa . Racism is still rampant as well, and censors
still have much influence over film content.
Having said that, the handling of scenes with local Africans
is surprisingly realistic, dare I say even slightly respectful for the era, though modern audiences may take issue
with the whole “voodoo curse” plotline and “rain dance” at the end. But in all there is a rather authentic feel
to most of their scenes (no blackface and seemingly no fake languages).
The overall look of the film is not as impressive as an MGM
Cinerama masterpiece, but for it’s time and budget it does make an
impression, with it's wide-screen aspect and landscape shots
As for the animal scenes, they range from adorable to
disturbing. Were any animals “harmed
during the making of this motion picture”?
I don’t know, but it sure looks like an elephant was shot somewhere at
some time, and either the male lion who ends up draped over McGoohan was
asleep from drugs, or downright dead.
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I'll be completely honest... the only reason I watched this movie was because of Patrick
McGoohan. I think the only reason men
watched it when it first came out was because of Belinda Lee! For a 1950s British film, she sure showed off
her figure and near the end had some rather steamy scenes with Michael Craig. If any kids were in the audience, it was
because of the wild African animals, most of which seemed to be real.
Supposedly the on-location production was plagued by
“issues” with the cast and accidents like the one that put McGoohan in the
hospital after crashing a vehicle. In a
magazine article he later stated that during filming pretty much every actor’s
marriage ended but his. Belinda Lee
actually left the production to be with her lover and had to be persuaded to
return.
As for the main plot and cast, Lee’s character (Alice)
starts out seemingly innocent and moral, dressing conservatively as she cares
for her dying mother. Craig’s (Rusty) seems
dubious of brother Andrew’s (McGoohan) by-mail courtship of Lee. He almost seems to be telling him he’s not
man enough to have a relationship of any kind with a woman. He no doubt doesn’t understand a man like Andrew,
who is a thoughtful, quiet sort of guy, who seems genuinely happy Alice
Everything starts to change once Alice arrives in Africa , and by the time the movie hits the half-way mark,
you wonder if you are looking at the same characters as in the beginning! Lee’s wardrobe style changes, and she basically
turns into a tramp. Rusty becomes a
wolf, while Andrew is more interested in the animals in his care than the
woman he is supposed to marry.
It struck me that perhaps there was a casting change before
shooting began. Craig’s character is
named Rusty, but he is a dark-haired man, while McGoohan has the reddish-brown
“rusty” color hair (though sometimes it seems almost gray). Craig is also handsome and muscular, and lets
the audience know it. But it is
McGoohan’s character that gets all of the dangerous action scenes, though he is
tall and lean (and keeps his clothes on).
In order, Andrew almost gets bitten by what looks like a cobra
(according to McGoohan, it was a real snake that had been milked of its venom), crashes his truck (like he did in real life off-camera),
gets attacked by a lion, treed by more lions while bleeding profusely, almost
burned by a brush fire while in said tree (the cast & crew helped fight a real fire according to a newspaper
article), and almost bull-whipped at the end of the film while soaking wet. All the while buff Rusty gets closer and
closer (literally) with a ready and willing Alice.
Craig would have looked more “Hollywood” playing Andrew, but
McGoohan could never have pulled off the sexiness of the scenes with Lee. Instead, he gets all the danger and ends up
with the young good-girl Thea played by Anna Gaylor, which may seem fitting to
his fans. One of his most natural scenes
is the one where we first meet Thea, the poacher’s young blonde daughter. She gives him a small monkey to hold while
she questions him about his by-mail girlfriend.
She obviously has a crush on him, but he treats her like a
little sister since she's not yet 18, calling her “Pigtails”. Thea
(Anna Gaylor) receives one of the very few McGoohan on-screen kisses, and if
you really watch it, you can almost hear his brain say “I’ll just say what I
mean with this little shoulder-bump and a smile” before planting that kiss. 
If you'd prefer not to watch this film as a lowish quality online copy, it is available as a Region 2 (non-US) DVD from Network in the UK (worth it, ladies, just to more clearly see Patrick's blue eyes)
