clanciai What is wrong about this film? The story couldn't be better, and it is underscored by one of the best film scores ever made. Still, the film is far from a successful film.Whose fault is it? The director Brian Desmond Hurst made many films on the best of stories, but none of them really come alive, as if he was rather formally transferring a piece of literature to pictures without the capacity to make the actors transcend the story, as if their main task was not to act but only to sustain the story.Anton Walbrook makes the best of it, and he is reliable as in every film he ever made, but possibly sensitive to the director's limitations, he stays within himself throughout the film.Sally Grey just isn't enough. She is not well chosen for this role of a cool journalist of a millionaire's only daughter, rather spoiled and childish, and she is not psychologically convincing, just not living up to the profound and passionate romance that is presented in the first scenes in the ruins of Warsaw. After this film, she would make no other until five years later, but then she would be so much better in "Carnival".The main acting asset of the film is instead Derrick de Marney as Walbrook's colleague and best friend, who actually saves the film, although he is the only truly tragic figure.And how come that this outstanding music, by many deemed as the best film music ever made, doesn't succeed in saving the film? The guilty one here is actually Anton Walbrook - he is as far from convincing as a pianist as an actor could get. It's over-obvious that every single sequence with him playing the piano, and they are many, is faked. He is never seen to touch the keys, he is completely dispassionate sitting by the piano although the music couldn't be more passionate, and this is the main want of the film - the music is there, but it would have been better if we never had to see the pianist at work. It is recommended to close your eyes every time you see Anton Walbrook by the piano and listen to the real pianist instead of watching a painful fake.The story also saves the film. It is much deeper and more complicated than what it first appears like, and you need to see the film a couple of times before you understand it. The first time must be a disappointment. The second time you will understand everything you didn't understand the first time, and then you know how to deal with this - in spite of all - super-unique gem of a romantic war crisis film of patriotic passion and responsibility at stake on the altar of love.

writers_reign I am, of course, judging a film that was released in 1941 and involves a Polish airman seconded to the RAF in 2010 after just watching it for the first time virtually seventy years later when flaws that were either unnoticed or overlooked in the middle of a global war loom as large as the icebergs waiting to scuttle the Titanic. Though most of the other reviews I've read here are, on the whole, unsympathetic, no one appears to have noticed the almost total lack of chemistry between Anton 'Tilly' Walbrook and Sally Gray. Offscreen, of course, Walbrook was a well-known homosexual but in those days the general public would have been totally unaware of his sexual preference and attributed the lack of chemistry to unfortunate casting. As everyone seems to note the background music was excellent and Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto does a lot to distract from the clichéd plot and wooden acting. This is one of s series of 'forgotten' British films dating largely from the 40s and 50s; it's the first one I've seen and by and large it deserves to be forgotten, let's hope that not all the titles do.

blanche-2 Anton Walbrook and Sally Gray fall in love in "Dangerous Moonlight," a 1941 British film also starring Derrick Marney. The story is told in flashback. When we first meet the famous Polish pianist-composer Stefan Radetzky (Walbrook), he is an amnesia victim to whom the doctors have given a piano in the hopes that he will remember something. We then see what brought him to this point. He is a fighter pilot who first meets Carol (Sally Gray), a beautiful American reporter, in Warsaw while he is grounded. There is an instant attraction; six months later, when the Germans have invaded Poland, Radetzky comes to America to give concerts in order to raise money for Polish refugees. He and Carol meet again and decide to get married. He finally decides to go back and fight, but Carol doesn't want him to leave.Sally Gray had a nervous breakdown after this movie that kept her off the screen for five years, but I doubt it had anything to do with "Dangerous Moonlight." Later on, she became a Baroness and retired, even turning down an offer from Hollywood. She's lovely in the film, though doesn't make much of a stab at an American accent. Given that the character comes from money, though, her accent is probably fine, as young women in the better schools were taught that British-type accent anyway. Anton Walbrook is very suave and attractive.This is a propaganda film that seems to have dashed out without much of an eye to detail - it has German planes flying upside down, and I doubt very much if "Radetzky" spelled that way is Polish. The goal of the film was to keep up morale and also to encourage the U.S. to stop its policy of isolationism. Since it wasn't released in the U.S. until April of 1942, England had already gotten its wish.What makes "Dangerous Moonlight" memorable is the music, notably the Warsaw Concerto, purportedly written by Radetzky, in reality written by Richard Addinsell. Pianist Louis Kentner dubbed the piano for Walbrook and plays the Chopin Polonaise as well. The Warsaw Concerto is very haunting music, just beautiful.If you're not familiar with Sally Gray, and you like beautiful music, you might want to check out this film. As a bit of trivia, the Beatles song "A Day in the Life" was actually written about Sally Gray's stepson, who apparently crashed John Lennon's car.

tom.mack "Dangerous Moonlight" is one of those movies that catches one by surprise. I was working in my home office one night when I started hearing this piano music coming from the living room television. Enjoying it so much, I quit working and went in to listen and then to watch. Then after checking the television schedule, I set the VCR and taped the movie. I have since watched the movie several times and continue to enjoy it.Anton Wallenbrook plays his part quite well and gives one a very interesting story of talent and guilt. Sally Gray makes an equally good performance as a normal insensitive American lady reporter who does not understand the implications of war. Derrick DeMarney is also good as the best friend of Stefan Radetsky, by being his conscience and confidant.You can enjoy this movie watching it once, but don't cheat yourself, watch it a few times.