MartinHafer The best reason to watch "Sky Full of Moon" is so you can see old Las Vegas....and it's completely unrecognizable today. Throughout this film, Vegas looks like a western town...with a strong cowboy touch and with tiny casinos...and almost all of this was bulldozed decades ago.The story is very slight. Harley (Carleton Carpenter) has come to Vegas to enter the rodeo. Unfortunately, he's a bit of a rube and doesn't even have the money to enter the competition! So, after meeting up with a nice young lady (Jan Sterling), he goes about trying to gamble to increase his savings....but eventually the pair end up on an adventure.This movie is pleasant, undemanding and enjoyable as a time-passer.

Charles Reichenthal Carleton Carpenter had a wonderful charming personality that warmed up every film he made, beginning with the serious and underrated LOST BOUNDARIES. He did some fine work at MGM (delicious number with Debbie Reynolds in the Aba Daba Honeymoon scene and subsequent best-selling recording). But, here,in SKY FULL OF MOON, he turns in a superb, easygoing, depiction of a cowboy in the Las Vegas of the period. A natural ease and a clear nice performance make this film a winner. Of course, Jan Sterling, herself one of the unheralded 'greats' of the screen...and stage... brings her abilities to the pleasant story. The ending of the film is both proper, satisfying, and even tenderly sad. This film was made on a low budget at MGM just prior to Carpenter leaving the studio. But it is worth the search. You will find yourself smiling at the proceedings. You will admire the work of Carpenter and Sterling... and you will get a brief glimpse of Elaine Stewart, one of the screen's great beauties, with talent, who had a short film career. But you won't take your eyes off her during her brief scene. See this film, and relax at the work of pros with a simple, nice script and film.

whpratt1 Enjoyed this great film from 1952 which features Harley Tumbleweed William, (Carleton Carpenter) who plays the role as a Rodeo Cowboy who has reached the age of 21 years and decides to head to Las Vegas, Nevada and make it rich. Harley visits a small gambling parlor owned by Al, (Keenan Wynn) and starts playing the coin machines and gets very lucky and draws the attention from Dixie Delmar, (Jan Sterling) who is a very attractive slim and trim blonde who makes some suggestions to him about how to gamble on the coin machines. Dixie and Harley decide to try their luck elsewhere and wind up having a very profitable night of gambling. Harley gets to like Dixie very much and offers her a ticket to Los Angeles and a fur coat with his winnings at the Rodeo and the two of them start off with plenty of action in the gambling casino's and then some trouble starts to happen. If you like to see old films of what Las Vegas looked like in the 1950's, this is the film for you. Enjoy.

theowinthrop This odd film was shown at the dinner hour tonight. Odd because it works but it is quite disparate in it's plot lines.Carleton Carpenter (who normally appeared in MGM musicals) is Harlan, a would - be rodeo cowboy, attending a rodeo in Las Vegas. He has been brought up in Kansas, and one of the girls he grew up with is Dixie (Jan Sterling). She is working in a gambling parlor run by Al (Keenan Wynn) but pretends that she is a potential dancer. When Harlan shows up for his rodeo he and Dixie reunite. Harlan leaves his gear at the gambling parlor (Al gives Harlan permission to do so). But what Harlan does not know is that Dixie has gotten involved with a fellow who is planning to rob the one armed bandits in the parlor. When this happens, Dixie is immediately suspected...and by extension Harlan. Instead of doing the sensible thing of confronting Al and the police and proving his innocence, Harlan decides to assist a panicking Dixie in fleeing Las Vegas and heading for the Utah border.Sounds serious, doesn't it? But much of the film's charm works on the interaction of Harlan and Dixie on the road, and how they have conflicting viewpoints but find they have strong feelings for each other. At one point Dixie drives off in her jalopy leaving Harlan behind in a ghost town. She did not like his idea of returning to confront the police. But she returns to pick him up and get him to Utah. She finds him on the side of the road nursing his aching toes. Hardly romantic, but cute as she convinces him to trust her again.It has nice desert scenery of some of the most isolated landscapes in America. And one of the worst to be stuck in. On the road to Utah the jalopy (with leaking radiator and threadbare spare tire put on the car) has to cross a rickety, condemned wooden bridge over a chasm. Later it has to be driven (with no break linings or working gears on the road) driving down a curving narrow mountain. In the end he offers himself to her for a life of ranching. But is ranching what Dixie would be happy with, including feeding chickens and possibly slaughtering an occasional hog (and living in near isolation for most of the year)? We are aware that they really like each other, but can Dixie make the leap that Harlan wants her to make?Wynn plays his role with more heart than one usually sees in his characters. So does someone else in the film, who really only has a small role here - Douglas Dumbrille as a rodeo official (with nothing up his sleeve like a secret agenda). On the whole the film is a sweet one, and if not an earth shaking piece of cinema worth a 90 minute viewing.