Thomas Mitchell has the best role among the supporting players. Claude Rains as Nutsy, Bobo's friend, is good but wasted. Lupino is very young, frail and pretty here and does a good job. He only stayed in Hollywood until 1943 and worked in France as a national institution until his death in 1976. It's not for nothing that Marlene Dietrich chased him all across Europe during World War II. Few actors possessed his raw sexuality and charisma, seen much more clearly in Pepe LeMoko and as his signature role, Maigret. With his thick build, weathered face, unruly hair and large nose, he wasn't the leading man material Hollywood was used to, and he was too much a star to be a character actor. It's a shame that Hollywood had no clue what to do with Jean Gabin, but seeing "Moontide," it's easy to figure out why.
It has a certain atmosphere, but it grows tired.
The movie drags along, and it's easy to see the cheapness of the production throughout. This doesn't fit in with the threatening Tiny's plans, as he wants Bobo to seek work elsewhere. When a waitress (Ida Lupiho) is rescued from the ocean after trying to commit suicide, Bobo covers for her so she won't be arrested.
He suffers from blackouts when he's drunk, which is used to advantage by a so-called friend of his, Tiny (Thomas Mitchell), who gets money out of Bobo by hinting that he strangled a man in another town. The great French film star, perhaps the greatest, Jean Gabin, plays Bobo, a dockworker who enjoys being a free spirit. With a script by John O'Hara, it's all dry ice, cheap sets, night shots and little action. Director Fritz Lang was replaced by Archie Mayo as director of the 1942 "Moontide," and one wonders if the film would have been any better with Lang at the helm.