Normally, I would think when you pitched a film idea to Republic their first question would be "OK, what does this have to do with Westerns or John Wayne?" And here is a film from that studio that involves neither.

In a small Virginia town, Danny Hawkins' father is hanged for murder when Danny (Dane Clark) is just an infant. The result is that, for his entire life, other kids have tormented him for being the son of a man who was executed. Like he had any control over that anymore than he had any control over how tall he was. Thus is the nature of bullying. But I digress.

One night at a dance, out in the woods, Danny and his tormenter since childhood are having a fight. Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges) is the tormenter, and when the fight turns against him, he picks up a rock. Bad idea. Danny gets the rock away from him and does to Sykes what Sykes was going to do to him - bashes his skull in repeatedly, with a lifetime of anger over this guy's bullying swirling in his head. Realizing what he has done, he throws Sykes' body into the swamp and goes back to the dance like nothing has happened.

The rest of the town is about as likeable as Sykes was - judgmental, snobby, a hive mentality. But those characters are largely kept at a distance as part of the crowd. The ones you get to know are likeable and sympathetic people - a retired brakeman living in the woods (Rex Ingram),Sykes' girl whom Danny unfortunately loves (Gail Russell),and believe it or not the sheriff, playing against stereotype for the lawman of a southern town of the era. Oh, and it turns out that Sykes was not that great a guy - he owed lots of money and he stole lots of money from dad's bank to pay his debts.

Given Sykes' bad character there might be any number of suspects, and given the decomposition of the body by the time it is found and the primitive nature of forensics as it was in 1948, Danny might not even be a suspect if he played it cool. But he does just the opposite of that, drawing the attention of the whole town by his suddenly bizarre behavior.

This is practically a one man show and probably the best performance Dane Clark ever gave as his character wrestles with bitterness, anger, guilt, and fear of the town that hanged his father and thus would probably never believe his own story of partial self defense. The costar of the film is the fantastic cinematography by John L. Russell, with beautiful black and white shading, with many important scenes being shot in the moonlight.

"Moonrise" begins with the execution of a man. Then, in the next scene, you see kids taunting the executed man's son, Danny. And, as the years pass, the tormenting continues. Now, in the present day, the young man (Dane Clark) has grown--and he is still plagued with tormentors. One of them (Lloyd Bridges) picks a fight with Danny but for once Danny appears to be coming out on top. Then, the bully grabs a large rock and tries to brain Danny--but Danny takes away the rock and smacks the bully on the head with it and kills him. Instead of telling the police, Danny hides the body and pretends nothing happened.

Through much of the film, Danny spends his time either snapping at everyone or sexually assaulting the local girl he fancies (Gail Russell). Now back in the 1940s, it wouldn't have seemed like sexual assault, perhaps, but she did say no repeatedly and he forced himself on her--after which she responded that she LIKED it--thus promoting a dangerous rape myth (that when a woman says NO she really means YES). Because of this, a lot of the empathy I might have had for Danny vanished. Plus, he was often just grouchy and nasty. I really think they should have not made him a sex offender nor behaved in such an obvious way--it really detracted from the film. Clark was a very good actor--but here he was not on his game.

On the plus side, there was a reasonably good treatment of the deaf guy (Harry Morgan) in the film when Danny comes to the poor guy's defense. Of course, a moment later he refers to him as 'dummy'--a common term of the time but one that makes parents of deaf kids (like me) cringe. And, late in the film Danny does try to strangle him!! The main idea of the film was great. I just think that Clark's character was badly written and should have been a lot more sympathetic and less of a butt-head. It still is a decent film but could have been a great film with a bit of a re-write--especially in how you handle women!

Frank Borzage was winding down his career when he made this item for Herbert J. Yates's Republic Picture. For Borzage this film is probably an afterthought, after all he made some great classic films like Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm for major studios like MGM and others. But what might be an afterthought for him, would be an acclaimed classic for most other directors.

Moonrise is the story of a troubled young man played by Dane Clark who has been teased and bullied all his life because his father was hung for murder. A particular bully has been Lloyd Bridges who is the son of the town banker Harry Cheshire. What little we see of Bridges is that he's a real lout.

At a social event Bridges starts again when they're outside and alone and in a fight where Bridges who is losing for the first time picks up a rock and goes after Clark who takes it away from him and kills Bridges with it.

At first it's a missing person case and then its homicide when the body turns up. What to do for Clark who is not a criminal by nature. The rest of the film is a study of Clark and the troubled conscience he has.

Moonrise has a frightening relevancy today when we are finally focusing on the issue of bullying. This film should be seen and seen again for the message it contains. Today the character played by Dane Clark as a teen might just be the perpetrator of a school massacre today.

Gail Russell as the woman both Clark and Bridges were interested in and Ethel Barrymore as his grandmother are the ones who most influence Clark in the decision he must make. Such fine character players as Harry Morgan, Selena Royle, Clem Bevans, Rex Ingram are all in this film giving it a nice rural touch as it does take place in the rural South. Best of all is Allyn Joslin who plays a philosophical sheriff very much along the lines of Theodore Bikel in The Defiant Ones.

This film could very well be Dane Clark's signature role in a career that never quite brought him superstardom. You'll not forget his performance and how so many emotions register on screen with a troubled soul.