ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

clanciai This must be both one of Jean Gabin's and Ida Lupino's best films, although Thomas Mitchell's acting also is better than ever, for once not entirely sympathetic but rather tragically pathetic, and even Claude Rains plays a very unusual part for his qualifications - he stands out as the most mysterious character in this off hand fishing village drama of California, where there is nothing else to do but to work and drink, and you are usually out of work. It's a very Frank Borzage kind of setting and intrigue, which makes it only the more precious for its marvellous direction - Fritz Lang was part of it, and not only Archie Mayo. Ida Lupino enters as a suicide and goes through a marvellous transformation during the course of worrying events, ending up in almost an accidental murder case. You never get to know how Pop Kelly really was murdered or by whom, since everybody involved in the probably accidental murder must have been more than just drunk, and nothing is ever proved, although Ida could be right in her final conclusions. The one who should know everything and probably does is Nutsy (Claude Rains), who keeps sympathetically quiet about it. But it is Jean Gabin's film above all, superbly seconded by Ida Lupino at her very best. The whole film is worth watching just for his entrance.

kristin E. 10 Stars- I found no errors in this film. Memorable, plot is typical noir: mystery, a little suspense (not enough to raise your blood pressure) and of course a romantic interest.Women will love Bobo, the mysterious manly man with an accent, who can punch down bullying malefactors with no effort to save the dignity of any woman. Bobo is ever accompanied with his trusty and also-brave bulldog, who fights with him- the dog's doing so plays an important part in the mystery, which I will not divulge here so as not to spoil the ending. "Bobo" is a Gypsy, at least he calls himself one, with a tag-along leech by the name of Tiny. Tiny and Bobo are a couple of laborer types that take jobs here and there, Bobo is a strong and honest good natured fellow, both he and Tiny drink to excess and sometimes fight (with Bobo it's usually to defend a woman or a beaten man) Bobo is ever the quiet do-gooder, always happy to lend a hand or help the helpless. Tiny has a hold on Bobo, a scheme which unfortunately is a hold that Tiny uses to blackmail and control, up to demanding Bobo keep on moving along from town to town, never attaching to anyone or thing. But- Bobo falls in love with Anna, the gorgeous and smart Lupino (who wouldn't? She is as tiny as a wasp and so pretty) whom he rescues from a possible suicide by drowning (reason for this attempt is not really given in the film) Bobo and Anna become fast friends. Anna is a wayward girl with a history of taking low jobs like slinging hash, which Tiny warns Bobo that "she is a no-good hash-slinger!". I think there are aspects of the characters that are in the book "Moon Tide" that are not addressed in the film, but that's OK because the film stands on its own. I thoroughly enjoyed Moontide and I know that viewers won't turn away when watching it because it is one of those movies that come on late late at night but you dare not sleep because you don't want to miss ONE second out of it. Just a fun, memorable and romantic feel-good kind of thing, not schmaltzy- that embraces real noir and real romance in a fine way.A film that uses every bit of it's scenery even though it isn't much (you won't notice the spartan sets, only if you take the film apart, because the film 'takes you there')every craft in the film making was used to great advantage. In lesser hands this would not have been so good. The direction is expert: Fritz Lang uncredited, not sure why. Jean Gabin as Bobo was well cast, I'd never heard of him myself before, he is believable as Bobo the gypsy very well. He met Anna mere days ago but is well in love with her enough to marry her and she him and there is a degree of believe-ability here Both of them- Anna and Bobo I cheered for, wished well, and was in love with both of their characters so much, I wanted all of it to be true, in fact so much that it is as if one is watching a slice of life in a 1940s-era San Pedro dock, with the salty but good as gold characters who keep their mouths shut for the right reasons to protect their life long friends.

RanchoTuVu The opening of the film has Jean Gabin drinking, and heavily would be an understatement. The cinematographer and editor shine in a brilliant P.O.V. montage of bizarre 40's era special effects of hallucinogenic drunkenness. In addition Thomas Mitchell's role as Gabin's so-called buddy, but in reality his blackmailer, is very well done. He's not a nice guy in this role. Great acting by Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino and Claude Rains, who is hard to recognize in the first scene in the bar. Maybe the fault of the film lies at the hands of the writers or director or the studio or some reason yet unknown to man to tag on the happy ending.

sol ***SPOILER*** You've got to hand it to BoBo the Sailorman , Jean Gabin, he knows what he wants and goes all out to get it no matter what the dangers and consequence's are. BoBo's heavy drinking and non-stop womanizing would have lead to a situation that would have gotten him locked up behind bars or in an early grave. That is until that fateful evening when BoBo ran into Anna, Ida Lupino, on he beach outside of San Pablo. Young and pretty Anna tired to pull of a "Star is Born" like suicide walk into the Pacific Ocean where a gallant and, for once, sober BoBo saved her life. Taking Anna into his docked fishing boat, as well as home, Bobo soon falls for the sweet and confused woman after she cooked him up eggs easy side up, just the way he likes them.More or less a rootless and solitary traveling man BoBo gets hooked on Anna and decides to settle down and marry her. It's then when things get a bit strained with BoBo's friend Tiny, Thomas Mitchell, feeling that Anna is breaking up a beautiful friendship, him & BoBo, and decides to put the screws on both BoBo and his future bride.Tiny had planned to travel with BoBo upstate from the little dinky sea-town of San Pablo to bigger and better things in beautiful and scenic San Francisco. With Anna coming on the scene Tiny is now forced to travel, with no money for transportation, upstate alone and in his mind this just is not to happen as long as he can help it. It turns out that during his last drunken episode BoBo lost his memory in what he did the last 12 or so hours. It was during that lost time in BoBo's life a friend of his Old Pop Kelly, Arthur Aylesworth, was found strangled to death. It also turned out that Pop's sailor cap was found by BoBo's and Tiny's friend Nutsy, Clude Rains, in BoBo's boat!Tiny knowing how both crazy and powerful BoBo is when he's on the sauce, he once killed a man in self-defense while being dead drunk, is sure that BoBo did Old Pop Kelly in. With that knowledge at his disposal Tiny plans to blackmail BoBo into dropping his future bride Anna and go off to the city by the bay with him as his life-long gofer and parasite; Tiny has been living off BoBo's earning as a sailor and longshoreman for some ten years.One thing that soon comes out about this strange relationship, Tiny & BoBo, is that Bobo isn't the only one of the hard-drinking pair who has a habit of drinking himself into never-never land. Tiny also can put it away by the bottle, not just the shot-glass, an is a bit less restrained then BoBo is when he's out cold from an all night drinking session.**SPOILER ALERT***In fact where exactly was Tiny when Pop Kelly was strangled to death? That's the question that Anna asked a barley on his feet, from drinking, Tiny as he crashed into her and BoBo's boat on their wedding night! Bobo, an excellent mechanic, being away at the time fixing his friend Dr. Brothers',Jerome Cowan, boat came too late to save Anna, who was left beaten and unconscious, from Tiny's drunken actions. But an angry and uncontrollable BoBo wasn't too late to track Tiny down, on the sea rocks, and have him pay for everything he did with the raging waters of the Pacific Ocean doing the job for himThe relationship between BoBo and Tiny was far more interesting then that of BoBo's and Anna. I got the impression that Tiny was really interested in BoBo as a, without going any deeper into the subject, partner in life more then anything else. Being with BoBo for years Tiny got very attached to the hard drinking sailor and his sudden, after being a free man all these years, wanting to get married and settle down may have well been too much for poor confused, as well as feeling rejected, Tiny to take.