Once in a Blue Moon is a 1935 American drama film directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and starring Jimmy Savo, Nikita Balieff and Cecilia Loftus.Barton p.118 It was one of four films the writing-directing team produced at the Astoria Studios in New York.Gorbach p.102 It was, along with Soak the Rich, a critical and commercial disaster.Koszarski p.284 Hecht and MacArthur also attempted, unsuccessfully, to avoided certification problems with the film by ignoring the Production Code Administration and sending it straight to Joseph Breen.Sligar p.15
The film score was composed by George Antheil.Barton p.118 who later The film was Howard da Silva's Hollywood debut.Manchel p.1095 It was one of several films, along with others such as Red Salute and Tovarich, released by studios to counter the alleged red menace and according to critic John Gladchuck, Once in a Blue Moon "amplified anticommunist fear".Gladchuck p.115 It was one of "a dozen relatively minor anti-Russian films" released by several Hollywood studios in the years preceding World War II.Fyne p.195
It was condemned by contemporary film critics—and has since been described as "an unmitigated disaster" and "virtually unreleasable"—and Paramount Pictures, in expectation of such a reaction, came close to not releasing it at all. In the event its release was delayed by almost two years.Gorbach p.102Fine p.153Monaco p.822 Hecht himself later commented that "our script for Once in a Blue Moon was a dud".Fine p.153 When it did eventually screen, the poor exhibition previews made it difficult to find cinemas willing to show it. One Boston theatre that was forced to screen it due to its commitment to block booking did not advertise the film under its title, but listed it as "The Worst Picture Ever Made", which may in fact have improved its eventual box office.Magliozzi & Turner p.79–80
Plot A clown is kidnapped by Bolsheviks.Gladchuck p.115
Cast Jimmy Savo as Gabbo the Great Nikita Balieff as Gen. Onyegin Cecilia Loftus as Duchess Whitney Bourne as Nina Edwina Armstrong as Princess Hena Sándor Szabó as Ivan J. Charles Gilbert as Captain Hans Steinke as Count Bulba George Mitchell as Kolla Jackie Boren as The General Michael Dalmatoff as Nikita George Beranger as Kolia
References
Bibliography Barton, Ruth. Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film. University Press of Kentucky, 2010. Fine, R., Hollywood and the Profession of Authorship, 1928-1940. UMI Research Press, 1985. Fyne, R. (1985). "From Hollywood to Moscow". Literature/Film Quarterly, 13(3), 194–199. Gladchuck, J. D., Hollywood and Anticommunism: HUAC and the Evolution of the Red Menace, 1935-1950. Gorbach, Julien. The Notorious Ben Hecht: Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist. Purdue University Press, 2019. Koszarski, Richard. Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff. Rutgers University Press, 2008. Magliozzi, R. S., & Turner, C. L. (2000). "Witnessing the Development of Independent Film Culture in New York: An Interview with Charles L. Turner". Film History, 12(1), 72–96. Manchel, F., Film Study: An Analytical Bibliography II. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990. Monaco, J., The Movie Guide. Putnam, 1992. Sligar, S. (2019). "Reserving the Kill: The Suicide Ban and Criminal Punishment in Code-Era Hollywood Film". Film History, 31(4), 1–29.
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