Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
MissSimonetta While it is a shame Douglas Fairbanks' career fizzled out with the advent of sound, when you watch something like Reaching for the Moon (1930) it isn't hard to see why that was the case. It has nothing to do with Fairbanks' voice or line delivery or any lack of charm on his part-- it's the material that frankly bites. Reaching for the Moon began life as a musical, but the waning popularity of the musical at the ox office made the suits panic and scrap all but one of the numbers before release. The meddling shows in the choppy rhythm of the picture. This single number retained, "When the Folks High Up Do the Big Low-Down," is the highlight of the movie, the one scene with great energy and fun. Everything else lacks pacing, the characters are one-note and boring. Fairbanks and Bebe Daniels are good performers, but they have no chemistry and have to deal with a dog of a script. It's a real shame.
Rich Drezen (Drezzilla) I've seen two of Doug's five talkies, this and "The Private Life of Don Juan" (1934). This one was the better of the two, at least in my opinion. I bought it in one of those 50-musicals pack by Mill Creek Entertainment which transfered it from a very high quality VHS master (thinking of it as a 16 mm transfer would be going a little too low because the quality of the picture was great but the sound was very brushy but audible) from a 66 minute cut (the most common version) and while I was watching it, I listened closely in on Doug's rather high-pitched voice, which sounded much better in this picture than in "PLODJ" and at times his performance was gut-bustingly hilarious. I'm referring to a scene where he gets drunk, and starts leaping around the room, climbing up walls, and tackling other hotel guests when they break in to see what all the commotion's about. Had Doug stuck around a little while longer, made more pictures like this one, and not have been so resilient to the constraint of sound (which was slightly improving) he would have been a much better known celebrity even today. I mean, yeah, he was better known for his athletics in the Zorro films, "The Black Pirate", and "Robin Hood" (among others), but even after the days of silent pictures were over, I still think he gave it his best effort when he moved to talkies, as little as he did.
bkoganbing Reaching for the Moon will never make anyone's list of top ten films, but it is valuable piece of Hollywood History because it contains one of Douglas Fairbanks's few sound films and it is the solo debut of Bing Crosby.Joe Schenck who was a partner of Fairbanks in United Artists got Irving Berlin to write an original score for this film and to do the screenplay. Fairbanks is a wizard of Wall Street who falls head over heels for aviatrix Bebe Daniels and chases after her on an ocean liner to England. Along for the ride is Edward Everett Horton who plays his butler/sidekick.During production it was decided to scrap Berlin's score with only one song remaining, When the Folks High Up Do a Mean Low Down. Bing Crosby sang a chorus of it and then passed it over to Bebe Daniels and bit player June McCloy. At the time of the filming Crosby was appearing at the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with his Rhythm Boy trio. Fairbanks was 48 when this was made and the athleticism that characterized his best silent films was a bit annoying here. But that's what his public expected of him. His role is the kind of part that Cary Grant could later play in his sleep.Bebe Daniels is pretty much forgotten today. But she was a beautiful woman and had a great singing voice. If people remember her at all it was as Dorothy Brock who breaks her ankle in 42 Street and allows Ruby Keeler to walk on stage a youngster and come back a star. Soon after 42nd Street, Daniels left the U.S. with her husband Ben Lyon for Great Britain where as expatriates they became very big stars there.Nothing fabulous about Reaching for the Moon, but it's a curiosity and a bit of history rolled in one.
Robert D. Ruplenas I usually find frothy comedies this old to be a bore, but was somehow captivated by this one, probably initially because of the really startling beauty of Bebe Daniels (no I never had heard of her either). After she hooked me into the film, the wonderful chemistry between her, Horton and Fairbanks kept me on board. Really an entertaining hour and a half, and the period flavor is enthralling. Worth a see.
