REVIEW: Nor the Moon By Night / Elephant Gun (1958)

NOR THE MOON BY NIGHT (1958)

Aka: ELEPHANT GUN (USA)

This film is set in Africa, with Patrick McGoohan playing park ranger Andrew Miller, who has been writing to a woman named Alice (Belinda Lee) for years.  After her mother dies, Alice finally heads to Africa to meet and marry Andrew.  His brother Rusty (Michael Craig) isn’t fond of the idea, and thinks the arraignment will fail miserably.

Andrew becomes involved with problems involving local tribes, poachers, and stampeding elephants while Rusty is assigned to meet and watch over Alice until he can meet up with them.  Putting his job ahead of his woman results in his brother Rusty and Alice falling in love (lust?).  Andrew doesn’t know it yet, but Alice isn’t exactly the nice girl he thought she was.

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.

Alice finally gets to meet Andrew when he is rescued after spending time up a tree, bleeding from an arm wound, trying to stay out of the mouths of local lions while a brush fire rages.  Laying on the ground in a daze, he looks at Alice as she hovers over him, giving her a gentlemanly “pleased to meet you”. 

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 Alice about the fact she isn’t in love with him, but his brother, and should let Andrew know. 

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.  

Alice thinks she has to leave Africa to face charges of killing her mother, who she was caring for before leaving to meet Andrew.  The charges are dropped, and she drives away with Rusty.

-------------------------------

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.   

---------------------------

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 will finally be with him, but doesn’t quite know how to show it.

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. 

One subtle stunt that looked particularly impressive for a non-stuntman was when McGoohan, as an injured Andrew, climbs a tree with only one hand.  I couldn't climb a tree with THREE hands, yet alone one.  

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)